Peter McKenzie

To be clear, He is willing that none perish. So in an absolute sense, of course he doesn’t want anyone to reject him. But given the fact that He knew that many did not believe Him – it is within that context that He was not interested in unbelievers following Him around the country. He wanted those ones to go away. In actual fact, he was making a judgement against them – but it was not the final judgement. I am sure that there was a scenario where it is possible that some of these ones could have had a change of heart after that encounter and chose to believe in Him. It would be inconsistent for Jesus to purposely drive away people from Himself when He came to do the Father’s will and the Father’s will was that Jesus had been given out of heaven for those unbelievers. Actually, I disagree with you here. The text says that the Father’s will (the specific will as it pertained to this setting. I am not saying it is the entirety of the whole will for him) was that He lose none that had been given to him. Those that were given to him were the pre-existing believers who were looking forward to his coming and they knew He was the Messiah when they saw him. Remember this is a Jewish-specific passage that is not speaking about the general will of saving sinners. These Jews were regenerate – they did not need saving as they already believed.