A little while (). The brief period now till Christ’s death as in John 7:33; John 13:33; John 14:19.

Again a little while ( ). The period between the death and the resurrection of Jesus (from Friday afternoon till Sunday morning).

Ye shall see me ( ). Future middle of , the verb used in John 1:51; John 16:22 as here of spiritual realities (Bernard), though is so used in 20:14.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Ye shall not see [ ] . The present tense : “ye behold me no more.” So Rev.

Ye shall see [] . A different verb for seeing is used here. For the distinction, see on 1 18. Qewrew emphasizes the act of vision, oJraw, the result. Qewrew denotes deliberate contemplation conjoined with mental or spiritual interest. “The vision of wondering contemplation, in which they observed little by little the outward manifestation of the Lord, was changed and transfigured into sight, in which they seized at once, intuitively, all that Christ was. As long as His earthly presence was the object on which their eyes were fixed, their view was necessarily imperfect. His glorified presence showed Him in His true nature” (Westcott).

Because I go unto the Father. The best texts omit.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

JESUS TELLS OF HIS DEATH, RESURRECTION, AND SECOND COMING V. 16-33

1) “A little while, and ye shall not see me:” (mikron kai ouketi theoreite me) “A little while and you all will no longer observe or behold me,” meaning after the next day, in a physical way, as they had through all His earthly ministry to this time, beginning from Galilee, Joh 15:16; Joh 15:27; Act 10:37; Act 10:39 He spoke of His imminent death.

2) “And again, a little while,” (kai palin mikron) “And a little while again,” a little (Gk. mikron) or short period of time, three days after His death, which He Himself foretold, Joh 2:19-20; Mat 26:61; Mat 27:40. They were assured that they would see Him, after His resurrection, which they did, some ten times, before He went back to His Father’s estate, Mat 26:31-32; Mat 28:7; Mat 28:10; Mat 28:16-17; 1Co 15:5-8.

3) “And ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.” (kai opsesthe me) “And you will see me,” or look upon me, before I go to my Father, and because I am going back to my Father, where I will be preparing a place for you, Joh 14:1-3; Act 1:3; Joh 14:14; Act 1:8-11; Heb 1:3.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

16. A little while, and you do not see me. Christ had often forewarned the apostles of his departure, partly that they might bear it with greater courage, partly that they might desire more ardently the grace of the Spirit, of which they had no great desire, so long as they had Christ present with them in body. We must, therefore, guard against becoming weary of reading what Christ, not without cause, repeats so frequently. First, he says that he will very soon be taken from them, that, when they are deprived of his presence, on which alone they relied, they may continue to be firm. Next, he promises what will, compensate them for his absence, and he even testifies that he will quickly be restored to them, after he has been removed, but in another manner, that is, by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

And again a little while, and you will see me. Yet some explain this second clause differently: You will see, me when I shall have risen from the dead, but only for a short time; for I shall very soon be received into heaven.” But I do not think that the words will bear that meaning. On the contrary, he mitigates and soothes their sorrow for his absence, by this consolation, that it will not last long; and thus he magnifies the grace of the Spirit, by which he will be continually present with them; as if he had promised that, after a short interval, he would return, and that they would not be long deprived of his presence.

Nor ought we to think it strange when he says that he is seen, when he dwells in the disciples by the Spirit; for, though he is not seen with the bodily eyes, (99) yet his presence is known by the undoubted experience of faith. What we are taught by Paul is indeed true, that believers,

so long as they remain on earth, are absent from the Lord, because they walk, by faith, and not by sight, (2Co 5:6.)

But it is equally true that they may justly, in the meantime, glory in having Christ dwelling in them by faith, in being united to him as members to the Head, in possessing heaven along with him by hope. Thus the grace of the Spirit is a mirror, in which Christ wishes to be seen by us, according to the words of Paul,

Though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet we know him no more; if any man be in Christ, let him be a new creature, (2Co 5:16)

Because I go to the Father. Some explain these words as meaning that Christ will no longer be seen by the disciples, because he will be in heaven, and they on earth. For my part, I would rather refer it to the second clause, You will soon see me; for my death is not a destruction to separate me from you, but a passage into the heavenly glory, from which my divine power will diffuse itself even to you.” He intended, therefore, in my opinion, to teach what would be his condition after his death, that they might rest satisfied with his spiritual presence, and might not think that it would be any loss to them that he no longer dwelt with them as a mortal man.

(99) “ Combien qu’il ne soit point veu des yeux corporels.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES

Joh. 16:16. See Joh. 14:19. A little while.The last clause omitted by, B, D, L, etc.

Joh. 16:17. Then said His disciples, etc.They did not, could not, comprehend yet what He meant. No doubt the words, Again a little while, and ye shall see Me, may refer to His post-resurrection appearances here, and to the descent of the Spirit. But it has a wider reference to all Gods people. As one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, it will be but a little while in the measure of eternity until He comes again: He is coming quickly (Rev. 22:20). He was going to the Fathernot to death then, but to the heavenly life.

Joh. 16:20. Verily, verily, etc.A most cheering promise. First, to the disciples. How soon would their despair and sorrow be turned into the joyful acclaim, The Lord is risen indeed! And how should they then, filled with the Spirit, rejoice even to suffer with Christ (Col. 1:24)! Second, to the Church. Persecutions have fallen on the Church in all ages; and in this promise the people of God have joyfully endured. In the last ages it would seem there will be a recrudescence of persecution (2 Timothy 3; Revelation 12), and then this promise will bring joy in the midst of trouble; for those days of darkness will show that the Son of man is at hand (Mat. 24:29-51). See Wordsworths Greek Testament, in loc.

Joh. 16:23. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father, He will give it you in My name.See also Joh. 14:13; Joh. 15:16. The name of Jesus is not only the medium through which we are to come, so that coming thus we ask in accordance with His will, but the answer to our prayers is also in virtue of His name (see Watkins, in loc.).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPHJoh. 16:16-23

Wherefore can and ought Christians to be confident and even joyful in trouble?I. Because it is for their good.That this is so is evident when it is considered

1. From whom trouble comes.All the sorrow which was to overtake the disciples in the near future came upon them in accordance with the Lords knowledge and His will. It is not otherwise with us.

2. Who knows all about it.The Lord told the disciples that they would not see Himthat they would weep and lament.

3. Whereunto it serves.The Lord said to the disciples that their sorrow would be turned into joy. From the pain of the cross springs the joy of the Resurrection; from the pains of travail, the joy of welcoming a newborn life.

II. Because it passeth away so speedily.

1. Consider the greatness of the consolation.Seven times the phrase a little while is repeated in the passage.

2. Lay hold of this comfort in your hearts.Guard yourselves against murmuring and despondency; shelter yourselves against all disturbing conceptions and phantoms of fear behind the word, yet a little while. Give heed to the smallest beginnings of consolation and indications of help at hand. The first tears on account of sin prelude the first ray of the rising Sun of grace.

3. Do not embitter and cloud this joy.This men do when, after being delivered from pain and sorrow, they begin to hanker after the pleasures and joys of the world.

III. Because its end is so blessed.The sorrows of believers end

1. In an assured joy.I will see you again.

2. In a blessed rejoicing.Your heart shall rejoice.

3. In an eternal joy.Your joy shall no man take from you.Appuhn in J. L. Sommer.

Joh. 16:16-23. The Lord is the helper of His people in sorrow.This passage directs our thoughts to the departure of Jesus from the world and the sorrow of the disciples, the seeing of the Lord again by the disciples and their joy in consequence, the tribulation and sorrow of the disciples as a source of joy which cannot be taken away, and generally the prospects of true disciples of Jesus. The Lord declared that the disciples would have sorrow, when He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and the mortal stroke was inflicted on Him. But it must needs be so; sorrow was necessary if they were to remain and grow up in Him. The noble scion by which the wild plant is to be ennobled must be wounded; for it must be cut off from the noble tree. But the sharp knife must also wound the wild plant and make an incision in it, if the noble scion is to be grafted into it, so that they may grow together. Thus, too, must the subjects of Gods kingdom have sorrow if they are to ripen and bring forth good fruit. They need not, however, be afraid that sorrow will destroy them; for they have the Lord for their comfort and strength. We learn that Jesus helps His disciples in sorrow when we see:

I. How the Lord prepares them for sorrow.

1. Jesus told His disciples beforehand that in a little while they would not see Him, that through the malignity of the world they would have increased sorrow, so that they might not be surprised at this malignity, but might arm, prepare, themselves in view of it.
2. He explained the meaning of His words in such fashion that He brought their hearts into the true condition in which they would remain ready to meet affliction.

II. How the Lord strengthens them in sorrow.

1. In the figure of the woman with child (Joh. 16:21) Jesus showed the disciples how sorrow may be the source of true joy, how His cross is the condition of their salvation, and their sorrow in fellowship with Him the basis of their joy together with Him.

2. Jesus instructed the disciples as to how their prospect of true joy would be fulfilled, not alone in some far future time, but speedily; how their hope is not placed on what is unattainable, but will experience full and near fulfilment.

III. How the Lord rejoices their hearts after sorrow.

1. Jesus sees His disciples again, and shows Himself alive to them. He dedicates to them the fruits of His victory, and thereby makes them partakers of a joy which remains firm amid all conflicts within or without.
2. In the light of the Resurrection Jesus disciples clearly discerned their way, and also clearly saw how their way, as pointed out by Him, led to their salvation and eternal joy.J. L. Sommer.

Joh. 16:16. A little while.In our Lords last conversation with His disciples before His betrayal and crucifixion, He said to them, A little while, and ye shall not see Me; and again a little while, and ye shall see Me, because I go unto the Father. Before them was the bloody tragedy on Calvary, and forty days after that His ascension through the vernal air to heaven. They should see Him no more in earthly form. But in another little whilein fifty days thereafterHe should come again by His Holy Spirit in the wondrous baptism of power at Pentecost. He was then to be glorified by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of His disciples. Jesus Christ is with His people now; for did He not promise, Lo, I am with you always? Those sweet, tender words, a little while, have deep thoughts in them, like the still ocean at the twilightthoughts too deep for our fathoming. They breathe some precious consolations to those whose burdens are heavy, either of care or poverty or sickness. If the prosperous can enjoy their prosperity only for a little while, neither shall the mourner weep much longer, nor Gods poor children carry much longer the pains or privations of poverty. The daily toil to earn the daily bread, the carking care to keep the barrel from running low and the scanty cruse from wasting, will soon be over. Cheer up, my brother! In a little while, and ye shall see Me, says your blessed Master; for I go to prepare a place for you. Oh the infinite sweep of the glorious transition! A few years here in a lowly dwelling, whose rent it was hard to pay, and then infinite ages in the palace of the King of kings. Here a scanty table and coarse raiment soon outworn, yonder a robe of resplendent light at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Let this blissful thought put new courage into thy soul and fresh sunshine into thy countenance. I sometimes go into a sick-chamber where the prisoners of Jesus Christ are suffering with no prospect of recovery. Perhaps the eyes of some of those chronic invalids may fall upon [these words]. My dear friends, put under your pillows these sweet words of Jesus, A little while. It is only for a little while that you are to serve your Master by patient submission to His holy will. That chronic suffering will soon be over. That disease which no earthly physician can cure will soon be cured by your divine Physician, who by the touch of His Messenger will cure you in an instant into the perfect health of heaven! You will exchange this weary bed of pain for that crystal air in which none shall say, I am sick, neither shall there be any more pain. Not only to the sick and to the poverty-stricken child of God do these tender words of our Redeemer bring solace. Let these words, A little while, bring a healing balm to hearts that are smarting under unkindness, or wounded by neglect, or pining under privations, or bleeding under sharp bereavements. I offer them as a sedative to sorrows and a solace under sharp afflictions. A little while, and ye shall see Me, and the sight of Him shall in an instant wipe out all the memories of the darkest hours through which you made your way into the everlasting rest.

A few more struggles here,
A few more conflicts oer;

A little while of toils and tears,

And we shall weep no more.

These words of the Master are also a trumpet-call to duty. In a little while my post in the pulpit shall be empty: what manner of minister ought I to be in fidelity to dying souls? Sabbath-school teacher, in a little while you shall meet the young immortals in your class for the last time! Are you winning them to Christ? The time is short. Whatever your hands find to do for the Master, do it. Do it, Aquila and Priscilla, in the Sunday school! Do it, Lydia, in the home! Do it, Dorcas, with thy needle, and Mary in the room of sickness and sorrow! Do it, Tertius, with thy pen, and Apollos with thy tongue! Do it, praying Hannab, with thy children, and make for them the little coat of Christian character, which they shall wear when you have gone home to a mothers heavenly reward. Only think, too, how much may be achieved in a little while. The atonement for a world of perishing sinners was accomplished between the sixth hour and the ninth hour on darkened Calvary. That flash of divine electricity from the Holy Spirit which struck Saul of Tarsus to the ground was the work of an instant; but the great electric burner of the converted Paul has blazed over all the world for centuries. A half-hours faithful preaching of Jesus by a poor itinerant Methodist exhorter at Colchester brought the boy Spurgeon to a decision, and launched the mightiest ministry of modern times. Lady Henry Somerset tells us that a few minutes of solemn reflection in her garden decided her to exchange a life of fashionable frivolity for a life of consecrated philanthropy. Why cite any more cases when every Christian can testify that the best decisions and deeds of his or her life turned on the pivot of a few minutes? In the United States Mint they coin eagles out of the sweepings of gold dust from the floor. Brethren, we ought to be misers of our minutes! If on a dying-bed they are so precious, why not in the fuller days of our healthful energies? Said General Mitchell, the great astronomer, to an officer who apologised for being only a few minutes behind time, Sir, I have been in the habit of calculating the tenth part of a second! Our whole eternity will hinge on the little while of probation here. Only an inch of time to choose between an eternity of glory or the endless woes of hell! And as a convert exclaimed in a prayer meeting, It was only a moments work with me when I was in earnest! May God help us all to be faithful only for a little while; and then comes the unfading crown.

A little while for patient vigil keeping

To face the stern, to wrestle with the strong,

A little while to sow the seed with weeping,

Then bind the sheaves and sing the harvest song.

A little while to keep the oil from failing,

A little while faiths flickering lamp to trim,

And then the Bridegrooms coming footsteps hailing,

Well haste to meet Him with the bridal hymn.

Dr. Theo. L. Cuyler, in The Christian.

HOMILETIC NOTES

Joh. 16:16. Would Christians know how it will go with them in the world?Here it tells them. Joy and sorrow will alternate. For a little time they shall have sorrow, and again for a little time they shall have joy.From J. J. Weigel.

Joh. 16:16-17. Ends served by Christs departure from the world.Let it not seem extraordinary that the heavenly Bridegroom should hide Himself for a little from His bride. He does so in order

1. To chasten her.
2. To humble her.
3. So that she may learn truly to prize His comforting presence.
4. In order that she may seek Him more earnestly.Idem.

Joh. 16:18. It is well to realise our ignorance of spiritual things.

1. He who is aware of this, and purposes to learn, is on the way to Wisdom
2. He who knows not what he ought to know, let him ask of the Lord. But the Lord, through the Spirit, has given His servants who minister in holy things a mouth and wisdom.Idem.

Joh. 16:20. Weeping universal.It is related of Crassus that he was never known to have laughed; but it could not be said of any man who has seen the light of the sun that he never wept. If the suns light should be withdrawn but a single day, how miserable would all living creatures be! Thus the hearts of disciples are sad when Jesus does not let the light of His countenance shine on them. In trial the best medicine is the herb patientia (patience).Idem.

Joh. 16:20. The prospect of Jesus, disciples.I. Sorrow stood before them.

1. Those they loved would separate themselves from them.
2. The Lord would not be seen by them.

II. They would have comfort in their sorrow.

1. They knew that the Lord had sent it.
2. After a little while the trouble would cease.

III. Joy would come to them out of their sorrow.

1. It would come more fully than before.
2. Body and soul would rejoice.
3. This coming joy no man could take from them.J. L. Sommer.

Joh. 16:21. The preciousness of the cross.Without the cross (tribulation, etc., etc.) the old man cannot be crucified nor the new man quickened. The cross is the seed of all virtues. It is the seed of devotion, of supplication, of humility, and of repentance.

Joh. 16:21. A woman, etc. , the woman in her womanhood and in its peculiar sorrow (Gen. 3:16). This verse, like the two preceding ones, has a double sense.

1. As applicable to Christ. His resurrection was a birth from death to life everlastinga birth which is the source of all other births, from the death of sin to newness of life, from the death of the grave to immortality (through resurrection) for body and soul in the life beyond. The Apostolic Church (i.e. the Church of the apostles personally) went through the throes of parturition until the day of the Resurrection, when the Second Adam came forth from the womb of the grave; and then they no longer remembered their sorrow for joy that a man, the man Christ Jesus, the first begotten from the dead (Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:18), was born. And all humanity was born into the world with Him: for as in Adam all die, so in Christ all are made alive (1Co. 15:22).

2. In a wider sense the Church in the world is the woman in travail (Rev. 12:2; Gal. 4:19). She is in travail with souls for the new birth to grace and glory. She groans in the pangs of parturition even till the great day of regeneration, the day of the glorious reappearing of Christ, and the general resurrection and new birth to immortality (Rom. 8:22). Then, indeed, a Man will be born into this world. Humanity will cast off its grave-clothes, and be glorified for ever in Christ. As Augustine says, The Church may be compared to this woman, because she brings forth children to God. Now is her time of travail; but when that time is over and her hour is come, then she will rejoice in the birth of a faithful progeny to life eternal. She is now in travail in looking for Christ. She will then be delivered when she sees Him.Wordsworths Greek Testament.

Joh. 16:21-22. The joy of Gods children.

I. Its origin.It springs from holy sorrow.

II. Its foundation.It rests itself on the living Saviour alone.

III. Its nature.It consists in fellowship of life and love with the Lord.

IV. Its extent.It is perfect and complete.

V. Its duration.It is everlasting.Dr. v. Biarowsky.

Joh. 16:22. The demeanour of believers in sorrow which fills their hearts.We ask:

I. What causes them sorrow?Their not seeing Jesus, and the want of His gracious presence.

II. How do they look on this sorrow?As necessary for their sanctification and confirmation as the spring of, and passage to, true joy.

III. How do they bear their sorrow?With resignation and in hope, unmoved by the world.

IV. What gain do they derive from their sorrow?Imperishable joy, knowledge of Gods ways, praise of God (1Co. 4:5).J. L. Sommer.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(16) A little while, and ye shall not see me.The better reading is, A little while, and ye no longer behold Me. For the sense, comp. Notes on Joh. 14:18-19. The time here referred to is that between the moment of His speaking to them and His death.

And again, a little while, and ye shall see me.The time here referred to is the interval between His death and the Day of Pentecost. That the vision is to be understood of our Lords presence in the person of the Paraclete (Joh. 14:18-19), is confirmed by Joh. 16:23. Note that in this clause the verb (see) is different from that in the preceding clause (behold). The latter refers rather to the physical, and the former to the spiritual, vision. (Comp. Joh. 20:6-8.)

Because I go to the Father.The majority of the better MSS. omit these words at this place. They have probably been inserted here from the end of the next verse. (Comp. Note there.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

16-29. From this high strain the Master now touches a humbler and gentler chord the immediate present. He recurs again to the little while of his absence; and, being drawn out by the queries of his disciples, he contrasts the grief of that little while of absence with the joy of his return at his resurrection, and the high apostolic privileges which that resurrection should inaugurate.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

16. Not see me see me Two different Greek words are here used, both translated by the word see. The former, , signifies the seeing either by the bodily or the mental eye. The latter, , signifies more properly bodily sight alone. Hence Jesus here declares that during the little while of his departure he would be lost to both their bodily and their spiritual view, while his return would be to their physical sight. This fact alone, in our opinion, decides that it is his corporeal return at the resurrection, and not merely a spiritual presence, that the Lord here intends.

Because I go to the Father He here gives a reason why they shall see him again. He is not going into nothingness; but he is going to the Father who once sent him, and will send him again.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

“A little while and you see me no more, and again a little while and you will see me.”

The meaning of this verse is amplified in the following verses. He is departing from them and in human terms they will not see Him again after the following day. But shortly afterwards they will see Him for He will rise again and they will see Him face to face as the glorified Christ, and from then on the Spirit will reveal Him continually to them as such. That ‘you will see me’ does not refer to the second coming is apparent in Joh 16:20-24.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Warning and Assurance for the Future ( Joh 16:16-33 ).

As the time for them to go to Gethsemane approaches Jesus now begins to prepare them for what is to happen there. They are to recognise that what is to happen there will in fact be truly of God, and that through what will happen in that Garden will be carried out the grandest and most supreme of the purposes of God. The Son will accomplish His work of redemption and will return to the Father.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Comfort of Christ’s Second Advent.

The comfort of the short separation:

v. 16. A little while, and ye shall not see Me; and again a little while, and ye shall see Me, because I go to the Father.

v. 17. Then said some of His disciples among themselves, What is this that He saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see Me; and again a little while, and ye shall see Me; and, Because I go to the Father?

v. 18. They said therefore, What is this that He saith, A little while? We cannot tell what He saith.

Only a little while it was, only a few short hours, and the Savior would be hidden from the eyes of His disciples in the darkness of the tomb, and they would not be able to behold Him. But then it would again be only a short while, a matter of a few days, when their eyes would be gladdened by His reappearance as their living Savior. But the intention of the Lord seems to be to convey also another great truth to their hearts, since He says that He is going to the Father, making this statement the basis for the others. His ascension was but a few days away, after which they would no longer enjoy the comfort of His personal, physical presence; but His return to glory would follow very shortly after that. In either case, and with either intended meaning, the words were full of comfort and cheer for the disciples. But the latter understood nothing of the joyful message. They were aroused from their apathetic dullness only to the extent that they discussed the probable meaning of Christ among themselves. The result of their discussion was that they frankly stated their inability to understand, to know the meaning of, the Master. They were utterly bewildered and alarmed; a dread sense of impending disaster took hold of their hearts.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Joh 16:16. A little while, and ye shall not see me: Our Lord hinted to them, that it was their interest, as well as their duty, to rivet all these things in their memory, because they were his dying words. A few hours would put an end to his life; and though he was to rise again from the dead, he was to remain but a very little while with them upon the earth; for he was soon to ascend into heaven, and be seated at the right hand of God.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Joh 16:16 . Soon , after a short separation, will this arrival of the Paraclete, and in it our spiritual reunion, take place. Comp. Joh 14:19 .

. ] As in Joh 14:18-19 , not to be referred to the resurrection (as Lange, Ebrard, Hengstenberg, Ewald, Weiss still maintain, in spite of Joh 16:23 , comp. with Act 1:5-6 ), nor to the Parousia , [180] but to the spiritual vision of Christ in the ministry of the Paraclete, which they experience, and that without any double meaning. See on Joh 14:18 .

Were . . genuine (but see the critical notes), it would assign the reason for the promise , since the seeing again here intended is conditioned by the departure to the Father (Joh 16:7 ).

[180] The , which decidedly opposes this interpretation, because it is entirely unrelated to the first , leads Luthardt to the supposition that the return of Christ is here promised to the disciples in such a way, that they were to see in the transitory return of the risen one a pledge of the future Parousia . But of this Jesus certainly says nothing, either here or in what follows.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

IV

Higher Union Of The Farther And The Hither World At The New Testament Easter And Pentecost. Glorification Of Christ Through The Holy Ghost And Of The Father Through Christ. The Going And Coming Again Of The Lord. The Churchs Watchword: A Little While. Symbolism Of Sorrow, Of Natal Pangs And Joys. Good-Friday Grief And Easter Joy In The Life Of The Lord And The Life Of The Church

Joh 16:16-27

(Pericope for Jubilate Sunday, Joh 16:16-23; Rogate, Joh 16:23-30)

16A little while, and ye shall not see me [and ye no longer11 behold me, ]: and again, a little while, and ye shall [will] see me [ ], because 17I go to the Father.12 Then [Therefore] said some of his disciples among themselves [to one another, ], What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me [behold me not]: and again, a little while, and ye shall 18[will] see me: and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith [we know not what 19he is speaking of, ].13 Now14 Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves of [Do ye inquire of this among yourselves, ] that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me [and ye behold me not], and again, a little while, and ye shall [will] see me? 20Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall [will] weep and lament, but the world shall [will] rejoice; and [omit and]15 ye shall [will] be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall [will] be turned into joy. 21A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born intothe world. 22And ye now therefore [So ye also now] have16 sorrow: but I will [shall] see you again, and your heart shall [will] rejoice, and your joy no man [no one] taketh [will take, ,17] from you. 23And in that day ye shall [will] ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name [If ye will ask the Father anything],18 he will give it you [in my name]. 24Hitherto have ye [ye have] asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall [will] receive, that your joy may be [made] full.

25These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs [parables, ; but19 the time cometh [the hour is coming] when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs [parables], but I shall show [tell] you plainly of [concerning, about] the Father. 26At [In] that day ye shall [will] ask in my name: and I say not unto you [I do not tell you] that I will [shall] pray the Father for you: 27For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out [forth] from God [from the Father].20

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

[Olshausen states the connection thus: Before the Spirit can fulfil His blessed work, a painful separation is necessary. But the suggests a more natural connection: The promised coming of the Comforter with His disclosures of the whole truth, spoken of Joh 16:13-15, is near at hand. The Lord now speaks of His speedy withdrawal with its joyful effect after a brief season of mourning. The mode of expression is purposely enigmatical, to stimulate the disciples. and are not co-ordinate; the former refers to the bodily, the latter chiefly, though not exclusively, to the spiritual vision on the day of Pentecost, which, however, goes on to its final completion at the parousia. Comp. Joh 14:19.P. S.]

Joh 16:16. A little while.The determination of time is not the same as Joh 14:19. In the latter passage the term is one reaching from the night of Maundy Thursday to Easter Day; in the present chapter the one little period is resolved into two small or lesser ones (after a sacred divide et impera, we might say). The first little while reaches to the death upon the cross; it amounts, therefore, to about one day; the second extends from that death to the resurrection, and, hence, amounts again to one day.And ye will no more behold Me [ ].According to Meyer, reference is not had to the resurrection in this place either, but to the spiritual viewing of Christ in the activity of the Paraclete. To accord with this view, the not seeing for a little while must likewise be merely spiritual. Better Tholuck: With still more directness than in Joh 14:19, our thoughts are led to Christs resurrection, on the occasion of which His disciples did see Him again. [Ebrard, Hengstenberg, Ewald, Weiss likewise refer to the resurrection, but this seems inconsistent with Joh 16:23 : In that day ye shall ask Me nothing, comp. with Act 1:6-7, where the disciples did ask the Lord concerning the time of the establishment of His kingdom. Alford assumes in all these prophecies a perspective of continually unfolding fulfilments; the began to be fulfilled at the resurrection of Christ, then received its main fulfilment at the day of Pentecost, and shall have its final completion at the great return of the Lord hereafter.P. S.]For I go away to the Father.I go away, not to abide in Sheol. Because I go to the realm of life, I can also soon manifest Myself again; manifest Myself here and thence,there and in the future. After a little while, ye shall continually be seeing Me again and seeing Me more thoroughly than ye have ever yet seen Me; ye shall view Me with the eyes of the spirit and of living knowledge, because I am with the Father in the kingdom of life, as He that liveth.And thus, together with the resurrection, there is embraced the entire manifestation of Christ through future ages until His coming;a manifestation whose principle is contained in His resurrection. Luthardt: In the transient return of the Risen One they are to see a pledge of the Parousia an opinion which Meyer groundlessly combats). On the genuineness of the words: for I go, etc., see the Textual Notes.

Joh 16:17. What is this whereof He saith: a little while ( )?The excitement and mutual questionings of the disciples in regard to the mysterious saying of the Master, are themselves of a somewhat mysterious nature. They passed by the first , Joh 14:19, without stumbling. In the first place, the double seems to stagger them. Formerly He said: A little while, and the world will behold Me no more; ye, however, will behold Me;now He says: A little while, and ye will not behold Me. But He goes on to declare further: and again a little while, and ye will see Me, i.e. view Me in a more glorious way. And as a reason for all this is assigned His going to the Father.Now behold Me no more.This seemed to denote His death; now view Me again;and this to be indicative of His glorious appearing to judgment. Should the first ensue, in what respect could the second be? or the second, then wherefore the first? And, assuming the second, I how was it possible for them to view Him better than they had done before, if He went to the Father? Thus, they have a foreboding of the greatest, the most mysterious changes, but the greatest mystery of all to them is still that all these things are to happen in a short space; here, we must observe, they make their final stand, viz., at the stress borne by . And it is upon this, in accordance with the purpose of the Lord, that the accent should now fall; it is here that they should stand still. The pain of parting, just pressed upon them by Him in its full greatness and startling, trying power, must now be viewed by them from the other side, as a suffering, sharp but short, no longer analogous to the agony of death, in the natural world, but, rather, to the anguish of travail, as a swift transition from the depths of woe to the heights of joy. As to how the apostles, and with them all Christians, have learned this saying, see the Doctrinal and Ethical Notes.

Joh 16:19. Now Jesus was aware.See Joh 6:61. It was His desire to lead them to this point; He now offers them an explanation, the magnitude and certainty of which are introduced by a: verily, verily.

Joh 16:20. Weep and lament [ ].The intensity of the anguish imminent upon them, vividly portrayed. The ye will is placed, in indication of their great contrast to the world, immediately before the words: The world will rejoice [ ].The weeping and lamenting has for its subject, together with the death of the Lord, the apparent downfall of the hopes they had built upon the imminent kingdom of God and redemption of Israel.ye will be sorrowful [ ], emphatically: plunged in sorrow.21 The expression is partly characteristic of the depth of their desolation, partly introductory to the second antithesis and, hence, descriptive of the measure of their joy. Not alone shall, for them, joy follow upon sadness; their joy shall grow out of their sadness, sadness shall be changed into joy; consequently, the bottomless depth of their sorrow shall be the heavenly measure of their joy. Their dying with Christ was the condition of new life with Him. [Alford: , not merely changed for joy, but changed into, so as itself to becomeso that the very matter of grief shall become matter of joy; as Christs cross of shame has become the glory of the Christian, Gal 6:14.P. S.]

Joh 16:21. The [A] woman, when she is in travail [ , . Mark this touching proof of the Saviours sympathy with suffering humanity and womans deepest trial (Gen 3:16).P. S.] The woman []. This is the universal rule; hence the definite article.22 When she is about to be delivered or to give birth, she hath sorrow. Not alone physical pangs or throes, but likewise mental pressure, solicitude and anguish.Her hour [ , her (appointed) time]. For woman the fateful hour of tribulation.But when she is delivered of the child [ not necessarily masculine (puer), but indefinite]. The anguish is forgottenmerged in the joy that a human being is born into the world. This is the rapturous thought of maternity. The child is a human being (), a mystery of personal, infinite life. See Gen 4:1Into the world [ ]. Not into the natural life only: into the Cosmos and for it; in order to the full development and moulding of it.In the Old Testament also, the pangs of a travailing woman are used as a symbol of that grief which is turned into joy,. Isa 21:3; Isa 26:17; Isa 37:3; Isa 66:7; Hos 13:13.

Joh 16:22. And ye now therefore have sorrow.Explanation of the symbol, for the immediate comprehension and need of the disciples. Ye are like a travailing woman, in your sorrow; soon ye will also rejoice exceedingly. At this Meyer stops, in antithesis to older and more extended interpretations. Even Tholuck observes: in the case of the disciples, the subject of their sorrow did indeed turn into a subject for their joy; their joywe may saywas the recompense of their anguish; it was not, however, born of their anguish. Against this view we will cite the remark of Lcke: The death-hour of Jesus was for the disciples the natal hour of new life. Thus, not in the change of the subject alone did the joy lie, but in the change of their condition, as well; only by the death of their old view of the world and by their fundamental renunciation of it, their dying with Christ, did they become capable of understanding the import of His resurrection and of rejoicing over that resurrection as they should. Prominence is given to this thought by Tholuck also. And exegesis is justified, on this point, in passing beyond the proximate application of the figure in accordance with the practical needs of the disciples at that time. Most undoubtedly, the death of Christ is, according to Apollinaris, Chrysostom, Olshausen and others, the agonizing travail of humanity, from which labor the God-Man issues, glorified, to the eternal joy of the whole body of mankind.23 De Wettes remark: the living Christ is subjectively the offspring of the mental productivity of the disciples, is open to misapprehension, for this reason, if for none other, viz. that mental productivity is an attribute of man, and not of woman. According to Luthardt, the subject treated of is the new birth of the Church, her transition to a state of glorification, an occurrence simultaneous with Christs coming to the Church.24 This view would completely obliterate the words: a little while, as well as the reference to Christ. Upon this fact, however, we must insist: namely, that man is perfectly born to the world only in his second, heavenly state of existence, in the resurrection, and that, inasmuch as this is conceded, before the resurrection of Christ no human being had been fully born into the world, whilst with Christs resurrection, the birth of One Man into the world did at once make manifest this new world, and involve the co-geniture of the new humanity for this new world (with Christ dead, risen, transplanted into the heavenly existence). And thus, again, He was born of the travail-pangs of the Theocracy, the whole of the old humanity in its higher tendency, its longing for salvation; these pangs truly centered in His heart; at the same time, however, they thrilled through the members of believers and became the mortal agony of their old view of the world. (See Isa 26:17; Isa 66:9; 1Co 15:47; Rev 12:1.)

Your heart will rejoice.Meyer considers this as relative to the communication of the Paraclete, in opposition to the just view of most commentators, who assume it to have reference to the resurrection.And this your joyno man will take from you. It is the beginning of the eternal life in the heavenly existence, in which heaven and earth are intrinsically united.

Joh 16:23. And in that day ye will ask nothing of Me.This is the great, endless day, beginning in their souls with the beaming of the Easter Day. The day when they shall see Christ personally again and gaze upon Him spiritually. This seeing again includes the fact that the living Christ is then born in the disciples (De Wette); but this, the subjective festalness of the day is conditioned upon the objective dawn of the day of Christ. The glory of this festal day is depicted: 1. in the assurance that the disciples will ask the Lord nothingan intimation of the enlightenment of the Spirit; 2. that, in the Spirit of sonship, they shall acceptably pray in Jesus name, with perfect certainty of a hearing and of the reception of miraculous power; 3. that, thus praying, they shall have an entrance into the spiritual life of consummate joy. The Lord explains the first promise by the announcement that they shall at that time enjoy unbounded spiritual intercourse with Him which condition of affairs existing, He will unreservedly reveal divine things to them. The second and third promises He explains by telling them that they shall experience the Fathers love in direct communion with Him. Hence it is the day of full, heavenly communion with the triune God, the Holy Ghost, the Son and the Father.

Askinquire ofMe nothing.Chrysostom and others interpret as expressive of requesting. According to Johannean usage it might bear this meaning. And we should be forced thus to interpret it, if, from Joh 16:23-27, there were presented but a succession of fresh items in the promise. In that case, this first proposition would contain the general promise: on that day ye shall have nothing more to desire, to request, but shall experience the fullest content, for, first, ye shall have the hearing of your prayers granted you in My name, etc. But in Joh 16:25 the promise of Joh 16:23 , is, from the stand-point of the future, further explained; similarly, Joh 16:26-27 are explanatory of the promise of Joh 16:23 : Whatsoever ye shall askpetitionthe Father for, etc.Accordingly, the meaning is: Ye shall in that day askinquire ofMe nothing. That is, their immature disciplehood and pupilagethat condition in which they were continually becoming astonished or startled at something, and were consequently led into many questionings (for instance chap. 14 and Joh 16:17), failing, however, to put the true and decisive question (Joh 16:5)shall come to an end and be replaced by the higher condition of enlightenment. The condition of enlightenment is a condition of ever-living revelationrevelation suited to all the true needs of the intellectual spirit, 1Jn 2:20.

Joh 16:23. If ye will entreat the Father for anything.Introduced by a verily, verily. Hence, it is upon the following promise that the principal weight lies. Christ divides their wants into intellectual and practical ones, the need of complete revelation and that of finished redemption; in laying particular stress upon the latter, He brings out the fact that the new life of knowledge is conditioned by the new life of prayer in the practical appropriation of salvation. We consider the reading to be established not only by the Codd. (see the Note), but also by the consideration that the principal emphasis should here rest upon the filial invocation of the Father, a circumstance unconsidered in Meyers decision for after Cod. A.

He will give it you in My name.[Notice here the right reading.P. S.] See Joh 14:26. Just as the name of Christ, as the living view of His personal manifestation, and the experience of His salvation, is the medium of their prayer (a fact presupposed in the invocation of God as the Father, namely, the Father of Christ in the first instance), so a hearing on the part of the Father is allotted them through the name of the Son, i.e. the unfolding of the fulness of blessing, the divine power in His manifestation, His salvation and purpose. The name of Jesus, therefore, is not merely the motive, but also the medium. The clearer, objective radiance of Christs manifestation is the means by which God endows believers with more abundant power of prayer and more bountiful answers to it.

Joh 16:24. Hitherto ye have asked for nothing.Not simply for the reason that they lacked divine illumination (Meyer), or because Christ Himself was not yet perfected (Hofmann), but because they prayed, as yet, with the reservations of their old view of the world, their old Messianic hope, not in that submission to the Messianic name of Christ and to His work, to which they should attain by means of the cross.

That your joy may be made full.See Joh 16:22 and Joh 15:11. Glorious condition of the blessed spirit-life. Also an ultimate end of the life of prayer (). Christs exhortation to prayer manifestly has for its aim Pentecostal prayer for the Holy Spirit as the Mediator of that joy which should be their portion in the unanimity of love. Unanimity of prayer (Acts 2) is the yearning of love. Unanimity in the Holy Ghost is the fulfilling of love, and that is the experience of heaven upon earth.

Joh 16:25. These things have I spoken unto you in parabolic discourses [],The course through which the disciples, as unripe scholars, have hitherto been passing, with Christ for their Teacher, is here brought to a conclusion; hence it is that He contrasts the accommodative method which He has hitherto employed, with the system of instruction that He intends pursuing in future. The proximate reference of is, we admit, to the last discourse upon the saying, a little while (Joh 16:17), and, in particular, to the parabolic word concerning the travailing woman. But we must not (as does Meyer) limit its application to the above; the incorrectness of such limitation is proved by the plural itself (Tholuck). Even the reference of the word to all those matters of which Christ has hitherto been speaking, inclusive of His discourse concerning the Vine (Luthardt), fails to do full justice to this summary. The moment of the close of the Teachership till now exercised by Christ in the circle of disciples, could not remain without a designation of deep significance. Jesus characterizes the entire method which He has hitherto pursued amongst the disciples, as a speaking . If it was necessary that He should speak much to the people in parables or complete similitudes, whilst to the disciples His deliverances were direct (Matthew 13), He still had been compelled until now to speak to the latter also in figurative expressions [see Notes on Joh 10:6; Joh 15:1, pp. 317 and 461]. Be it observed in this connection that even the figure-less saying remains a dark and simile-like conception to the unenlightened, while to the enlightened man the very concretest figure is illuminated by the idea of the Spirit (see the Revelation).25

But the hour cometh.There shall be a great hour in that great Easter-Sunday of renewed meeting and of the Spirit,an hour when the boundaries and wrappings of Christs teachership, His revelation, shall fall. The Lord illustrates this new stand-point in a concrete manner, by repeating the two promises Joh 16:23-24.

But plainlyopenlywithout concealmentwith freedom of speechfree-spokenly (). As a substantive, is sometimes subjective (perfect frankness), sometimes objective (perfect openness and freedom from concealment); and, the one signification being inconceivable without the other, it is, as a general thing, susceptible of both interpretations at once. These remarks are likewise applicable to the adverb in question, formed by the Dative of the substantive. It meansthe objective sense predominating: without reserve, with plainness, directness. According as Christ institutes a contrast between His whole future speaking in the Spirit and His speaking hitherto, it is assumable that He has in mind, in the first instance, the last parabolic saying concerning the travailing woman, at the same time intending, however, to characterize His whole style of speech hitherto, and, in antithesis to that, the new style in future employed by Him.

Joh 16:26. In that day ye will ask.Present petitions. From the complete manifestation of Christ through the Spirit, a manifestation realized, for them, in their enlightenment, there shall issue, as the product of the full knowledge-life, the true prayer-life in the name of Jesus. Worthy of note is the distinction: , . [Bengel: Cognitio parit orationem. Lcke: The more knowledge, the more prayer in the name of Jesus. Alford: The approaching the Father through Him shall be a characteristic of their higher state under the dispensation of the Spirit.P. S.]And I do not say unto you. According to Aretius, Grotius and others, this is an intimation to the effect that Jesus will also pray for them: I will not so much as mention that, etc. According to Lcke and others, on the other hand, it is declarative of the directness of prayer to the Father,a directness removing the necessity for intercession.26 According to Meyer, this offers no contradiction to Joh 14:16; Joh 17:19, for the reason that those passages treat of the intercessions of Christ previous to the time of the Paraclete. But yet John had received the Paraclete when he wrote 1Jn 2:1 (comp. Heb 7:25; Rom 8:34), a fact to which Meyer himself recurs later. The intercession of Christ for believers anointed with the Spirit, has, however, a different character. It is no longer a mediation whereby immediateness must be effected, but one by which it is carried to perfection; consequently, a mediation continually merged more and more in immediateness. His intercession has reference then to the development of reconciliation into sanctification. Also, this is the sense of our passage: even though I shall pray the Father for you, it will not be as though the necessity were upon Me of procuring you the favor of the Father, or the Spirit of son ship; on the contrary, ye shall learn that the ye Father Himself doth love you and communicate Himself unto you.

Joh 16:27. For He Himself, the Father loveth you.i.e. not: without My intercessory mediation (Meyer), but with the Holy Ghost the love of the Father doth also directly manifest itself unto you. The Christian life alternates between moods when, on the one hand, lifes immediateness in God, on the other hand, its mediation through Christ, is felt; this immediateness being, however, modified by the fact of its existence in the name of Christ, and this mediation also appearing in the glorification effected by the Spirit. The Present denotes the proximity of the communication of the Spirit, or, rather, the already beginning ante-celebration of this communication as that of the Spirit of sonship, Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6.Because ye have loved Me. Because ye are they ( emphasized) who have loved Me. Meyer. Love to Christ in faith in His name is the medium through which believers experience the Fathers love or the consolation of their sonship.And have believed that I came forth from the Father (see Joh 8:42). This decided belief in the divine personality of Christ is the foundation and the proof of their love for Christ, For in the disciples, faith was not developed as another and secondary thing, from love to Jesus, but germinant faith, in the form of loving devotion, unfolded into this, faiths knowledge, The Perfects denote the festalness of the moment, which was anticipative of the Pentecostal time. That Christ regards the belief in His wondrous outgoing from the Father as the basis for the consummation of faith in Him, is evidenced by the following.

Footnotes:

[11]Joh 16:16.[The text. rec. reads , not; but , no longer, is supported by . B. D. L., Orig., Vulg., Syr., etc., and adopted by Lachmann, Tischend. (ed. viii., against of his former edd.), Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort. Lange follows it, and says, in opposition to Meyer, who considers an interpretation from Joh 16:10; Joh 14:19, that it agrees better with the contrast between and .P. S.]

[12]Joh 16:16.[The words () in the received text are supported by A. and retained by Lachmann and Lange (who accounts for their omission on the ground of their seeming inconsistency with ), but they are wanting in . B. D. L., Orig., etc., and dropped by Tischend., Alford, Treg., Westc. and H. It looks as if they were inserted to suit Joh 16:17.P. S.]

[13]Joh 16:18.[On minor differences of reading in Joh 16:17-18 see Alf. and Tischend. ed. viii.P. S.]

[14]Joh 16:19.[Lange with Lachm. retains (after ) which is backed by A. and suits the Johannean style, but Tregelles, Alf., Tischend., W. and H. omit it in accordance with . B. D. L.P. S.]

[15]Joh 16:20.[, but, before is omitted by Lange in accordance with . 1 B. D. L., Tischend. (ed. viii., against his former edd.), Alf., etc. It marks a contrast which has already been presented.P. S.]

[16]Joh 16:22.[ is supported by .* B. C., etc., and adopted by Lange, Tregelles, Alf., Tischend., Westcott and H.; the future , which Lachmann prefers with A. D. L. and .c, seems conformed to the fut. in Joh 16:20. Meyer, on the contrary, thinks that is conformed to in Joh 16:21 and to .P. S.]

[17]Joh 16:22.[The rec. , taketh, is supported by . A. C. D.2, L., approved by Lange, Tischend. (viii.); the future , will take, is adopted by Lachm., Alford, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, in accordance with B. D., Vulg., Orig.P. S.]

[18]Joh 16:23.[ , si quid, if anything, is the correct reading, adopted by Tischend., Alf., etc., in accordance with B. C. D. L., etc., instead of the rec. . The best authorities put after , not before (as the text. rec. does). Christ is the medium of all communication between the Father and the believer.P. S.]

[19]Joh 16:25.[, but, is omitted by Tischend. and Alford, but retained by Lange with Lachmann on the authority of A. C.3 D. He claims also B., but B. as well as ., according to Tischend. ed. viii., sustain the omission.P. S.]

[20]Joh 16:27.[The text. rec. and Tischend ed. viii. read (from Joh 13:3) with .* A. C.3, etc., but .ca B. C.* D. L. X., Syr., etc., Lachm., Lange, Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort give the preference to .P. S.]

[21][Alford: goes deeper than the wailing and weeping before: and plainly shows that the whole does not only refer to the grief while the Lord was in the tomb, but to the grief continually manifesting itself in the course and conflict of the Christian, which is turned into joy by the advancing work of the Spirit of Christ:and, in the completion of the sense, to the grief and widowhood of the Church during her present state, which will be turned into joy at the coming of her Lord. David Brown: At the same time the sorrow of the widowed Church in the absence of her Lord in the heavens, and her transport at His personal return are certainly here expressed.P. S.]

[22][In the German, as in the Greek lang., the definite article is generic; but the use of the article in Greek and in German corresponds, in this case, to its omission in English; comp. , Joh 15:15.P. S.]

[23][Olshausen: Hence the proper import of the figure seems to be, that the Death of Jesus Christ was as it were an anguish of birth belonging to all Humanity (ein schmerzvoller Geburlsact der ganzen Menschheit) in which the perfect man was born into the world; and in this very birth of the new man lies the spring of eternal joy, never to be lost, for all, inasmuch as through Him and His power the renovation of the whole is rendered possible. Alford adopts this view, and applies the same to every Christian who is planted in the likeness of Christ. His passing from sorrow to joytill Christ be formed in him, is this birth of pain. And the whole Church, the Spouse of Christnay, even the whole Creation, , till the number of the elect be accomplished, and the eternal joy brought in. And thus the meaning which Luthardt insists on as against the above remarks of Olshausen, viz. the new birth of the Church, is in inner truth the same as his.P. S.]

[24][Comp. Wordsworth in loc. (after Augustine): In a secondary and wider sense, the Church in this world is the woman in travail; she is in travail with souls for the new birth to grace and glory (Gal 4:19). She groans in the pangs of parturition even till the great day of Regeneration, the day of the glorious reappearing of Christ, and the general resurrection and new birth to immortality (Rom 8:22). Then humanity will cast off its grave-clothes, and be glorified for ever with Christ.P. S.]

[25][So also Alford: , properly, a proverb:but implying generally in Scriptural and oriental usage something dark and enigmatical; see especially Sir 6:35; Sir 8:8; Sir 39:3; Sir 47:17 : in dictis tectioribus, Bengel. This is true of the whole discourseand of the discourses of the Lord in general, as they must then have seemed to them, before the Holy Spirit furnished the key to their meaning. Olshausen remarks that all human speech is a , only able to hint at, not to express fully, the things of God; and that the Lord contrasts the use of this weak and insufficient medium with the inward teaching of the Holy Spirit which is a real imparting of the divine nature and life.P. S.]

[26][So also Alford: Christ is setting in the strongest light their reconciliation and access to the Father.P. S.]

V

GLORIFICATION OF CHRISTS HOME-GOING THROUGH HIS GLORIOUS COMING INTO THE WORLD FROM THE FATHER. (PRE-CELEBRATION OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST IN A PRECURSORY PENTECOSTAL MOMENT OF THE DISCIPLES. THE FIRST RAY OF THE COMING ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE DISCIPLES.)

Joh 16:28-33

28I came forth from27 the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave theworld, and go to the Father. 29His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thouplainly [ ], and speakest no proverb [parable]. 30Now are we sure [we know, ] that thou knowest [] all things, and needest not that any man31should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus32answered them, Do ye now believe? [Now ye do believe.]28 Behold, the [an] hour cometh, yea, is now [omit now]29 come, that ye shall [will] be scattered [Zec 13:7] every man [every one] to his own, and shall [will] leave me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

33These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might [may] have peace. In the world ye shall have [ye have, ]30 tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Joh 16:28. I came forth from the Father and am come into the world [ . Bengel: Re-capitulationem maximam habet hic versus. Meyer: A simple, grand summary of His whole personal life. Mark the symmetry of the four clauses: , , , humiliation and incarnation, death and exaltation.P. S.]Solemnly Christ throws the individual elements of His discourse into a concentric expression, one representative of the unity of the whole picture of His life and, hence, declarative to the disciples of the cause of His going back to the Father in an extraordinary manner. He was, namely, obliged so to return because He had come forth from the Father thus wonderfully. The one half of His life, the way from heaven to earth, in faith surveyed by the disciples, demands the other half. The words of Jesus thus give them, for the first time, a clear view of His entire life, and, together with this bestowment, convey to them a ray of the pentecostal Spirit. For enlightenment through the Holy Ghost is, concretely taken, one with the survey and unitous view of the life of Jesus in its totality.

Joh 16:29. Lo, now speakest Thou plainly [, , ]Behold, i.e. with astonishment do they perceive that He even now speaks to them in this new way. We cannot subscribe to Lckes and Tholucks unconditional approval of the words of Augustine: illi usque adeo non inlelligunt, ut nec saltem se non intelligere intelligant.31 Christ Himself recognizes that some great thing is now going on within them, Joh 16:31. They do but make the mistake of regarding this momentary view enjoyed by them in the radiance of one beam of the promised Spirit, as the beginning of an uninterrupted enlightenment and festival of the Spirit. Now, say they with emphasis, now Thou speakest plainly; even now do we perceive that Thou art able to anticipate by Thy disclosure every question that we might still have desired to ask Thee.

Joh 16:30. Now we know, etc.That they really understood Christs saying, in respect of its fundamental thought, is proved by the declaration: by reason of this we believe [)propter hoc . ]I.e. from the belief that Thou didst personally and miraculously come forth from God, faith draweth the deduction and reconcileth us to the fact that Thou wilt in like manner go to the Father. (propter hoc), therefore, does not mean: on account of this that Thou hast just imparted to us, we do now believe that Thou earnest forth from the Father,butin accordance with the words of Jesus: supported by this conviction that Thou didst come forth from the Father, we believe the rest also. The first half of Thy life doth explain to us the second. And thus is also Meyers interpretation set aside: they confess to have found a new and special reason for positiveness in their existent belief in the divine origin of Christ. [Meyer makes on dependent on and indicative of the object (not the ground) of faith.P. S.]

Joh 16:31. Ye do now believe [ Comp. Joh 16:27, , etc., and Joh 17:8, , etc.P. S.]In reading the sentence as a question, with Euthym. Zigab., Olshausen and others,32 we should overlook the fact that Christ actually acknowledges the upsoaring of their faith,a fact evidenced by the very restriction that follows. Lcke dubiously declares against the reading of the proposition as a question; Meyer is more decided in his recognition of the concession therein expressed;33 Bengel takes said concession in too unconditional a sense: nunc habeo, quod volui et volo; opposed to the latter view are the restrictive and the subsequent words of Christ. [Bengel takes the following words as intended to strengthen the faith of the disciples against the gathering storm.P. S.]

Joh 16:32. Behold, the hour cometh.Not the hour when your faith shall cease (see Luk 22:32), but the hour when it shall fail to stand the test,when, therefore, it shall be characterized as an enthusiasm or rapture. The impulse and inspiration of faith must mature into the settled mind of faith.It is already come [], saith the Lord, with a presentiment of the approaching crisis.That ye will be scattered [ ], with ; this is the destiny of the hour. See Mat 26:31; Zec 13:7. [The passage of the prophet Zechariah, from which the of our text is taken is more fully quoted by Matthew and reads thus: Awake, O sword against My Shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow (My associate, My equal, nearest kinsman=the Messiah), saith the Lord of hosts: smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered (the dispersion of the disciples at the crucifixion, and then of the Jewish nation), and I will turn My hand upon the little ones (the humble followers of Christ, the poor of the flock). Comp. the Notes in Com. on Matthew, p. 478.P. S.]To his own business or interests. We would not translate : to his own property or home.34 Comp. Isa 53:6. A mans peculiar possessions were no hindrance to the , but the latter was shaken by the circumstance of every mans seeking safety in his own way.And leave Me alone [ ]. To this degree shall their faith waver.Going ones own way, and leaving Christ alone, are reciprocal ideas. [This allusion implies a rebuke, most gently and lovingly expressed, but all the more deeply and humbly to be felt afterwards by the disciples. As a man, Christ was keenly alive to the law of sympathy, and their temporary desertion in the hour of need, when a friend proves to be a friend indeed, must have wounded Him to the quick; but the absence of human help was more than made up by the constant presence of His heavenly Father, and in the clear consciousness of this presence, He soared calmly and serenely over the clouds of loneliness caused by the unfaithfulness of men.P. S.]

And (yet) I am not alone. [adversative, and yet, an emphatic and pathetic use of , accompanied by a pause and unexpectedly introducing the opposite, as often in John (see Meyer and Alford) , P. S.] One of the sublimest and profoundest sayings. He will remain confident of the counsel, guidance, approval and presence of His Father and will preserve this confidence even throughout the darkest moment (Eli, Eli, etc.). [The exclamation on the cross, Mat 27:46, proceeded from a momentary feeling of desertion by the Father, with an underlying faith in His presence; hence He addressed Him still as His God, and His will continued subject to Him, as in the agony of Gethsemane. Comp. the Notes on Matthew, p. 526.P. S.]

Joh 16:33. These things have I spoken, etc.[The concluding farewell word of these farewell discourses, revealing the deepest tenderness and suavity of affection, and indicating the one object: to give them His peace in this evil world, with courage and strength to overcome the world on the ground of His own triumph which He sees already completed.P. S.] The reference of is not necessarily to the last alone; it refers to the whole of the farewell-discourses. We must recollect that the denial of Peter, and the disciples inability to follow the Lord, form the starting-point of these discourses. To this thought, the occasion of the farewell-discourses, He has now, at their conclusion, returned. In their despondency they shall be preserved from despair.That in Me ye may have peace [ ]. In antithesis to the tribulation prepared for them by the world. In Me: Luther: In My word; Tholuck: In vital communion with Me (after Gerhard, Lampe).35 We may not apprehend the antithesis in as purely objective a sense as attaches to it when applied to the ripened Christian; it has its subjective side as well. Through faith in His word and through the keeping of the same, they were in Christ to an extent that sufficed for the preservation of their peace; but also in the world still, to an extent that necessitated their endurance of a tribulation perilous to their souls. This was their final departure out of the world to Fu communion with Him. Hence there was need for the exhortation: be of good cheer, and for the subsequent high-priestly, intercessory prayer.

[On comp. notes on Joh 14:27; on , Joh 16:21; Joh 15:18 ff. Peace embraces all that constitutes rest, contentment and true happiness of heart on the basis of the Christian salvation and vital union with Christ. Tribulation is both persecution from without and distress from within. The happiness of Christians in this life is subject to frequent interruptions and disturbances from their own remaining infirmities and sins as well as from an ungodly world. Yet deep down at the bottom peace continues to reign, however much the surface of the ocean of life may be agitated by wind and storm.P. S.]

But be of good cheer [ ]The strengthening of their weakness in their impending tribulation. [A living commentary of this is especially the apostle Paul; comp. Rom 8:37; 2Co 2:14; 2Co 4:7 ff; 2Co 6:4 ff; 2Co 12:9; his speech before Felix and Festus, etc. (Meyer).P. S.]I have overcome the world. [ , not, only before you, but for you, that ye may be able to do the same; comp. 1Jn 5:4-5. I, not youis emphatic and gives prominence to that unique personality, whose victory secures all subsequent victories and makes His church indestructible.P. S.] In the spirit of the farewell-discourses, this is the anticipatory celebration of His victory, or the perfect assurance of victory, expressed in an anticipatory celebration. It was the more proper, however, for this future event to be expressed in the Perfect tense for the reason that His whole course hitherto had been a victory over the world. The threefold victory over its lust, in particular, was decided in the story of the temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4); the first of the three great victories over the anguish of the world was decided in the triumph over Judas (see Joh 13:31). These were the pledge of the full accomplishment of His victory. Be of good cheer, i.e. this victory shall also conduct them past the tribulation which is in the world. This joyfulness of believers, in reliance on the victory of Christ, first displays itself in the life of the apostles (see Romans 8; 1Jn 5:4, etc.)

[With a cheering shout of victory Christ closes His farewell-discourses to the disciples; but this was an anticipation of faith, which was to be realized by the omnipotent power of God; and hence, going forth to the last and decisive conflict with the prince of darkness, He pours out His heart in prayer to the Father for Himself, His disciples, and the whole future congregation of believers. See next chapter.P. S.]

Footnotes:

[27]Joh 16:28.Codd. B. C. L. X., Lachmann, Tischendorf read ; Cod. A. [C.2 text. rec.], etc. , which might be a dogmatical modification [or a repetition of the in Joh 16:27].

[28]Joh 16:32. [text. rec.] is wanting in . A. B. C.1

[29]Joh 16:31.[I read not as a question, but, with Luther, Lange, Meyer, Stier, Alford, Godet, as a concession (comp. Joh 16:27; Joh 17:8). Christ recognizes the present faith of the disciples, but shows how weak it was. Now ( is emphatic) ye believe, but how soon will your faith be shaken! So also Godet: Maintenant, vous croyez, il est vrai; mais bientt, que ferez-vous! P. S.]

[30]Joh 16:33.The [ye will have] which Lachmann gives in accordance with B.D., has not sufficient authority to sustain it against [ye have, which is supported by . A. B. C., etc.P. S.]

[31][They so little understand Him as not even to understand that they did not understand; for they were as babes (parvuli enim erant). Similarly Lampe: They are annoyed that they should be accounted by their Master as unskilful and in need of another Teacher And thus they go so far as to contradict Christ and dispute His plain words, and deny that He was speaking enigmatically to them. This is too strong. The disciples caught a glimpse at the truth and hastily inferred that the pentecostal time had already come for the . Calvin: Exultant ante tempus perinde acsi quis nummo uno aureo divitem se putaret. The stress lies on , as contrasted with the future and , Joh 16:25.P.S.]

[32][Also Calvin, E. V., De Wette, Tischendorf, Hengstenberg, Ewald; comp. Joh 1:51; Joh 13:38; Joh 20:29.P. S.]

[33][So also Bengel, Stier, Alford, Godet. See Textual Note3.P. S.]

[34][So Meyer: Scine eigene Aufenthaltsttte; Godet: dans leur domicile. The sense depends on the connection: in Joh 19:27 means Johns home; while in Joh 1:11 it means the Jewish people. Here we are to understand more generally their own ways and interests which the disciples had left before in order to follow Christ; comp. Luk 18:28, where Peter says: . So also Bengel and Alford.P. S.]

[35][So also Meyer: Living and moving in Me. Comp. Joh 15:7. This presupposes the return from the scattering in Joh 16:32,the branches again gathered in the Vine (Alford).P. S.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

(On Joh 16:16-33.)

1. In the preceding section Christ clearly distinguishes His presence with the disciples from the future presence of the Holy Ghost with them. But now He reveals to them the prospect of Himself speedily being with them again in a new form. By this can be meant, in the first instance, nothing else than the Resurrection, with its manifestations; that, however, is at the same time a symbol and pledge of the general fact of their future meeting;of their meeting by means of viewing Christ in spirit, of their meeting on the way to the Father and in the Fathers House, and of their meeting in the Parousia. With the Holy Ghost He Himself shall re-appear to them in His glory. The new day of Christ is but one day, and also the eternal seeing of Him again in faith is essentially one seeing.

2. A little while [Joh 16:16]. The one and the other are symbolical of the alternation of Good Friday and Easter periods in the Church; an alternation regularly continuing until the day of Christs appearing. The Apostles studied this their whole lives long; but when proclaiming, as they did, ever and anon, during the tribulations of the early Church: the Lord cometh quickly, it is the last time, the last hour, they announced a religious date, established through the fellowship of the Christian spirit with the Spirit of God and Christ, before whom a thousand years are as one day and one day as a thousand years (2Pe 3:8); and it is a decided mistake of modern exegetes to be continually regarding this religious date of a lofty, apostolic view of the world, as a chronological date of chiliastic error. The same Paul who, in a religious sense, proclaimed: The Lord cometh quickly (1 Thess.), in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians opposed the chronological misunderstanding by the declaration: The Lord cometh not so soon; and the same John who wrote the words: It is the last hour (1Jn 2:18), did in Revelation likewise depict the grand succession of the ages until the appearing of Christ.

3. Joh 16:20. The distress of the disciples, the joy of the world. And the joy of the disciples? Here the Lord has not carried out the parallel, for the joy of the disciples is to be the Evangel for the world, and only to the impenitent portion of the world shall it be an occasion of lamentation. Hence homilists, in completing the second antithesis also, are but conditionally correct. Only the impenitent world with its distressful lamentations, forms a contrast to the joy of the disciples.

4. [Joh 16:21] The sufferings of Christ were the birth-pangs of the Theocracy, which made themselves felt in the disciples, the true children of the Theocracy. Christs resurrection, however, was, in reality, the birth of the eternal man into the eternal world, simultaneously with which birth the new mankind, as a whole, was born into the world. When He died, the great work of God was finished; when He rose, the eternal God-Man was perfected. With Him the Church, the new mankind, was born. On this birth see Rev 12:1; on the First-born, Col 1:18; on the congenitive humanity, Col 3:1. Comp. the note on Cl. 1 of Joh 16:22, p. 497.

5. Joh 16:22. All Christianity is an alternation of mourning and joy, as the natural life is an alternation of joy and sorrow; parting grief and joy of meeting, in the highest sense. Joy not to be taken away. An alternation in spiritual, as in natural things, but in an inverse order.

6. Verily, verily, etc. (Joh 16:23): the solemnly asseverated, absolute hearableness of prayer in that degree in which it is prayer; and His Amen a prophecy of a hearing, spoken by the Spirit of prayer.

7. The Christian life is a spiritual life in which inquiries and researches are transformed into entreaties and experiences, Joh 16:24. That great day of New Testament spiritual life is a day when men shall live in the communion of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, a day when men shall walk in the manifestation of heaven upon earth. See notes to Joh 16:23.

8. Perfect joy, and life in the Spirit are one. An exhortation to Pentecostal prayer. See note to last clause of Joh 16:24.

9. [Joh 16:25.] To a man in an unenlightened state, every discourse, even one which in a direct manner presents ideas to the mind, becomes a parabolic speech; to a man in a condition of enlightenment, every discourse, even the figurative, parabolical one, becomes an undraped word of revelation; just as the unconverted man has, in addition to the [Mosaic] Law another Law in the Gospel, while the converted man finds, added to his Gospel, another Gospel in the Law. Law and symbol are the indivisible forms of revelation for the pious of tender age; the law for the heart and conscience, the symbol for the understanding; whereas, on the other hand, the Gospel and spiritual speech are the inseparable forms of revelation for the believer who has attained to maturity; see note to Joh 16:25. Life in the Spirit is a life in the ever new revelation, in the everlasting Gospel, Rev 14:6.

10. [Joh 16:26.] In the life of the faithful, Christs intercession coincides with the immediate prayer of the Holy Spirit within the heart (Rom 8:25), in which latter prayer the manifestations of the Fathers love are announced.

11. [Joh 16:28.] The one half of the life of Christ,namely, His personal coming, as the Son of God, from the Fatheris the key to the other halfHis going, in divine glory, to the Father.

12. [Joh 16:29-30.] The disciples, in obtaining from the Lord their first general view of His entire life and course, also experienced a foretaste of the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit is the divine life in its central unity. Hence the first illumination touching the life of Christ and of all the divine manifestations in general, completed in the ascension, is the instrumentality for the reception of the Holy Ghost; as the anointing of the Holy Ghost is the instrumentality for the full, undivided view of the life of Jesus in its unity. The unit is needful and unity indispensable. This is so much a law of life, that always with the dismemberment of the patchwork of knowledge, life takes its departure, but with its centralization, life is evolved. For this cause, poly-history is an inanimate, true science a living, thing. For this cause, legality through ordinances is lost in death, while from central saving faith it develops an abundant life in God-like virtues. Even the pantheistic feeling of all-oneness (Alleinsgefhl) displays a rich shimmering of spirit; but a shimmering as false as pantheism itself, in its antagonism to personality. We do not doubt that the disciples had, in that moment, a glimpse of Pentecost.

13. This glimpse was, however, the last moment of their pre-Pentecostal enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the blossom of the new lifea blossom, in prophetic times, so gloriously unfolding in the prophetic word. But enthusiasm must first pass through mortal suffering, to the end that it may set into fruit, into fire-proof disposition of mind. Such trial, therefore, was now imminent even upon the disciples, according to Joh 16:32.

14. Joh 16:33. Christs peace in the faithful on earth, is heaven upon earth. They have this peace in Him; in the world they have anguish. What is yet wanting to the fulness of peace, shall be supplied by the courage and confidence inspired by the thought that He has overcome the world. Peace is made entire by cheerful confidence, as salvation through patience, Rom 8:26; see 1Jn 5:4.

15. Christ alone, and yet not alone in His hour of suffering. See note to last clause of Joh 16:32.

16. The farewell-discourses of Jesus: discourses speaking peace, warning, consolation, victory. Joh 16:33.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

(On Joh 16:16-33.)

How heaven and earth are now through Christ already made one in reality, with a view to their one day becoming one in actual manifestation also.The great word of the Lord: a little while; 1. A little while and ye shall not see Me; 2. a little while and ye see Me again.How we, in company with the disciples, have to make a lifelong study of the words: a little while.Alternation betwixt Good Friday and Easter periods: 1. In the life of Christ, 2. in that of the Church, 3. in that of the individual Christian, 4. in that of the whole present age of the world.The history of the natural birth of man, a symbol of the history of the higher life.Christ, as the First-born from the dead, is the First-born for the kingdom of everlasting life.The blossom of the highest heavens in the low, earthly world.The brightest day (Joh 16:23), preceded by the darkest hour (Joh 16:32).The Christian life as the joy of fresh seeing: 1. The seeing of Christ again, perfect joy; 2. perfect joy a pledge of all Christian re-seeing, Joh 16:22.And on that day: 1. Easter-day as Sunday, 2. Sunday as Easter-day.The new and great Gods Day of the Resurrection: 1. One day as a thousand years; 2. a thousand years as one day.How all our questioning and searching should terminate in faithful prayer, Joh 16:23.Acceptable prayer, Joh 16:23-24.Prayer in the name of Jesus.The distinction of parabolic speech and spiritual speech: 1. In the word of Revelation 2. in the word of the Church; 3. in the ear of the Christian.Tokens of salvation in fidelity to Jesus: 1. Prayer urged in His name guarantees us His intercession; 2. love to Him is our guaranty that the Father loves us; 3. the belief that He has come unto us from the Father is our guaranty that He has gone for us to the Father; 4. the word that He has spoken unto us is our guaranty that He will tell us all things.The blissful moment of the disciples a foretoken of their darkest hour.Even though the congregation be scattered, Christ standeth firm on the battle-ground.Christ alone and not alone.How Christ hath armed His people for their warfare, Joh 16:33.

The Christians peace in the tribulation of the world: 1. How the peace of Christ and tribulation in the world demand one another; 2. the peace of Christ a source of tribulation in the world; 3. tribulation in the world a token of the peace of Christ.The peace of Christ as a victory over the tribulation in the world: 1. How, as peace in Christ, it calls forth tribulation in the world; 2. how, as peace through Christ, it inspires courage and cheerfulness, and exalts a man above the tribulation of the world.

On the Pericope Jubilate (Gospel for the Third Sunday after Easter), Joh 16:16-23. Christianity, as the highest vicissitude betwixt sorrow and joy, contrasted with the worldly life as the highest vicissitude of joy and sorrow.The word of the Lord, a little while: 1. An enigma to the disciples (Joh 16:16-19); 2. a prophetic type in the mouth of the Lord (Joh 16:19-22); 3. a blissful contemplation and experience in the new life of the children of His Spirit.The natal hour of the natural man a type of the natal hour of the kingdom of God: 1. Symbol of the woman; 2. symbol of the child.Every human being a token of the change between sadness and joy in the kingdom of God: 1. With anguish expected and born; 2. jubilantly received and welcomed into life.The winning of life from out the peril of death: 1. In the natural life; 2. in the spiritual life.Out of supreme renunciation the fulfilment of all desires, Joh 16:23.The weeping and lamenting of the godly,how it is changed into filial entreaties, proffered with heavenly confidence.In the way of Christ all lost, all gained.The heaviest hour (Joh 16:21), the womb of the most glorious day (Joh 16:23).The word of the Pericope: Be joyful!

On the Pericope Rogate (Gospel for the Fifth Sunday after Easter), Joh 16:23-30. The new life of the faithful in the day of salvation: 1. A new speaking of believers to the Lord (ask nothing, ask in the name of Jesus); 2. a new speaking of the Lord to believers (not through parables, but through the immediate word of the Spirit); 3. a new order of conversation (He anticipates all their questions with His answers).The day of salvation: 1. A day of blissful silence in view of the revelation of Christ (Joh 16:23); 2. a day of blissful prayer in view of the revelation of the Father (Joh 16:26).The new life a praying in the name of Jesus: 1. A new craving, in contemplating His heavenly personality, for the full manifestation of the personal kingdom; 2. a new praying, trusting in the victorious right of His personality; 3. a new striving in the strength emanating from His personality.The old and the new order of things in the Kingdom of God: 1. A communion of disciples, a communion of apostles (Joh 16:23); 2. a praying in general, an asking in His name; 3. an asking for the renunciation of all things; an asking for the granting of all things; 4. a parabolic word, a word of spirit and knowledge; 5. the consciousness of human love to the Lord, the consciousness of being divinely loved by the Father; 6. belief in the mission of Christ, belief in the life of Christ as perfected in the humiliation and exaltation.How Christs discourse concerning the Pentecostal time procured for the disciples the first blissful ante-celebration of that Pentecostal time.The word of the Pericope: Pray!

Starke: Of the disciples state of mourning and rejoicing.Hedinger: Our tribulation is temporal, 2Co 4:17; Isa 54:7; Psa 30:5.Men are always desiring to know how it shall fare with them in the world; here they are informed: They shall experience a constant alternation of joy and sorrow.Men often do not understand the best consolation, it being, for the most part, enveloped in what appears to them the greatest cross.Cramer: It is a vexatious order of things in this world, that the godly weep, and the wicked laugh, believers mourn, and sinners rejoice, Job 21:7; Jer 12:1; Psa 73:3. But there shall follow a different alternation in which all will be reversed.The best cometh last.Woman is saved through child-bearing, if she abide in the faith, 1Ti 2:15If the physical birth be so hard, what must the spiritual be!O blissful pains, blessed labor! 2Co 12:10.Worldly joy is unstable, and an evil hour sweepeth all away, but the joy of eternal life hath no end, 1Pe 1:4.On Joh 16:26. Teachers particularly, as also other Christians, must accommodate themselves to the weak as much as is possible, and deal with them according to their simplicity, if they desire that their labor should not be in vain among them.Hedinger: God leads from one glory to another, until the face of Christ is fully uncovered.There is still much of the knowledge of God, our heavenly Father, in arrears to us; but what we do not learn here, we shall certainly know in heaven.As wine issues from grapes when they are pressed, and as spices, when bruised, give forth a powerful odor, so the tribulation of believers beareth glorious fruits, Eph 6:13.Nowhere in the world is there rest for a child of God, but (everywhere) anguish only; in Christ, however, his Redeemer, he finds peace.

Lisco: The spiritual (and not simply spiritual) re-seeing, i.e. the new spiritual fellowship with Jesus, is for His people the ground of an indestructible joy.Gerlach: The death of Christ, with all its effects upon His people, was the birth-pain of the new man upon earth; from His death there issued forth a new mankind unto the resurrection.The joy which at that time sprang up, was an imperishable one, for the new man was, through Christs resurrection, born forever, i.e. the redemption, with its infinite, eternal results, might not cease, but must grow into infinitude. The last words (ye shall ask me nothing) are to be understood similarly to Jer 31:34. The condition upon which ye then, after the Holy Ghost has led you into the whole truth (Joh 16:13), shall enter, sustains the same relation to your present one that the condition of a mature and intelligent man bears to that of a child, who must frame a separate question with regard to each thing, because he is ignorant of the centre and connection of the whole.The whole, full meaning of the name of Jesus was first explained to them by His death and glorification.In the filial relationship itself, the free love of the Father is sovereign, so that in that relationship we have free access to Him.Braune: Jesus does not say: a child; He says,that a man is borna man, still undeveloped, yet present, with all his hopeful powers, dispositions and destinies, in the child. The very pangs pierced the spring of out-gushing joy.Tears are oft-times the dew-drops on the grass and the flower, by which names man is designated, Isa 40:7; Isa 26:17; Isa 66:7; Jer 4:31.Every affliction (religiously applied), is a birth, in which the new man, or some gracious addition to the new man, is born.Where religion is, there is prayer; but as the one varies, so also does the other. In Homer the Priest is called a Pray-er.

Heubner: The application of this saying to parting and meeting is very obvious and almost worn out. But the saying is deeper. It is the key to the knowledge of divine Providence.(In sooth, the highest meeting of blessed spirits in the kingdom of Christ has the most perfect depth and is a final aim of Providence.)The words: A little while, contain much consolation for those who are in bodily distress, poverty, sickness,for those who sorrow, etc.The impatient man, indeed, would fain object: that is no it is a Why does God part good men?Hear His word, 1. Thou mourner; 2. thou child of fortune; 3. thou presumptuous sinner, 4. thou faithful and godly Christian!We should regard the thought of the future meeting not simply as a joyous one, but also as a thought full of solemnity and warning. For many a one the re-seeing of others will be fearful.Our spiritual life, also, is subject to vicissitudes. At one time we see Christ; at another we see Him not. The Christians art is patiently to wait.

Joh 16:17-18. Gods ways are often dark sayings to us also. The joy of the world is a brief joy, the suffering of the just is a brief suffering.The recollection of sufferings endured out of love to, and for the sake of, God, is that which gives sanctity and dignity to joy.

Joh 16:21. This simile reveals the tender interest which Jesus felt in mother-woes and mother-joys. Hence it must be refreshing to sensitive and pious mothers. Jesus bestowed a glance upon them. (Veith.)Worldly joy and the dead Christ; spiritual joy and the living Christ.Vigorous pangs are an indication of vigorous births; it is so also in spiritual things.(Fenneberg): The children of God have three kinds of birthdays: 1. The natural one. Then they weep; their kinsmen rejoice, 2. The new birth. Then, also, do they often weep piteously; the angels in heaven rejoice. 3. The day of death (celebrated among the martyrs in the ancient Church as a birth-day). Their end is not without tears and woe, but after that an eternal rejoicing begins.

Jubilate-Pericope. [Joh 16:16-23.] Heubner: The grief of the Apostles at their separation from Jesus: 1. Description (source, effects). 2. Application.The tender love of Jesus for His weak, mourning disciples.Of prayer in Jesus name: No Christian prayer remains unheard.Kant would not pray; but in his last hours he folded his hands. Spinoza could not pray, and wept because he could not.Ability to pray is a sure indication of our own inner life, of our Christian condition. When we pray and learn to pray in Christs name, there begins a new period in our life.Prayer makes the spirit serene.

Joh 16:25. (Luther): His words were dark and recondite to the disciples; it was as if He spoke with them in an unknown tongue; for as yet they had no experience of what He told them and knew not what sort of a kingdom Christ would establish. Hence, in accordance with the judgment of Jesus, an entirely new life-period must set in at such time as we begin to pray in Jesus name, nay, to call upon Himself.In the same sense in which He now leaves the worldpersonally, thereforeHe had come forth from God.

Joh 16:30. Now we know, etc. Whence did they know this? Because Jesus could thus read their hearts.

Rogate-Pericope. [2330.] Heubner: Spirit of Christian prayer.Close connection of our praying with our whole Christian piety,Prayer the breath of spiritual life.Doubts as to the blessing of prayer.Causes of the non-hearing of prayer.Prayer as the highest honor.

Joh 16:32. When thou art deserted of all, fear not, so God but be with thee.Who stands with Christ, and cleaves to Him, takes part in His victory.

Gossner: The humble and ingenuous man, failing to understand some passage in Gods word, asks and learns; the proud and disingenuous man takes occasion thereat to despise or reject that word.

Joh 16:19. Jesus advances to meet those who honestly desire truth and helps them out of their doubts. He anticipates their questions.All is brought forth in anguish.He Was taken from them then (at His ascension); not so joy, Luk 24:52.Since that time they do ever see Him in spirit; He is at home with them; they are His house and His dwelling-place, Joh 14:23; Hebrews 3There is a saying that people who have seen spectres are never glad any more, so long as they live. One who has seen Him can never grow sad. It is a privilege of Gods children to pray to the Father in Jesus name.This promise: Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, etc., presupposes that our hearts and minds are in harmony with the Saviour.

Joh 16:27. Men, have such sorry thoughts about the Father, as if He were a hard man, with whom a legion of intercessors must speak for us and constrain and compel Him, as it were. But the Son of the Father tells a very different tale about Him.

Joh 16:28. Thus must we too leave the world, if we would approach the Father.His eternal outgoing, or birth from the Father, His coming and being born in the flesh as Man, His regeneration (birth of glorification)by means of His death, resurrection and ascensionunto an everlasting, divine-human life in glory, are three births worthy of our wonder and admiration and constraining our worship.

Schleiermacher: The glorifying of the Lord forms part of the essential and imperishable work of the Holy Ghost.The form of the Redeemer is set up for all ages in imperishable glory within the souls of the faithful, through the work of the Spirit whom He has poured out upon His Church.The Father loveth you because, etc. The Father loveth us in the Son and will also be loved only in the Son.I am not alone. He would comfort us with this truth,that though we, from weakness, should leave Him alone, He yet is not alone, but His Father is with Him.How could we derive comfort from the thought that the Lord has overcome the world, if we were not assured that He has overcome the world in our hearts.

Besser: The final aim of all Gods dealings with Christians, especially of all our experience in prayer, is this: that our joy may be perfected. Not seeing occasions sorrow, seeing occasions joy. It is a blessed thing that back of the little while of sorrowful not seeing, so soon over and gone, there lies a future of joyful seeing which shall never pass away.The seeing again: The Pentecostal coming and seeing forms the central point, that of Easter is preparatory thereto, that of the last day is its completion.And thus did the ancient Church understand the matter, for she has taken the Gospels for the four Sundays from Jubilate to Exaudi all out of the farewell-discourse in which Easter and Pentecost tones ring out together.His speech is triply incomprehensible to them: in the first place, they know not what sort of a seeing shall succeed the not seeing; in the second place, they meditate fruitlessly upon the marvellous because (because I go to the Father) and are unable to lay hold on the glorious fruit of His departure; lastly and thirdly (this they purposely thrust forward as particularly enigmatical), the hasty alternation between seeing and not seeing, the little while, they regard as wonderful exceedingly.The sigh of St. Bernard: O thou little, little while, how long thou art! And the still more ancient sigh of David: Lord, how long! (Psa 6:3; Psa 13:1-2; Psa 89:47).We must have patience if we would arrive at the true Jubilate.Psa 30:11.Isa 26:17-20.In those forty hours of travail the disciples wept and wailed as if there were on earth none but sinners godlessly laughing in their sin and sinners helplessly weeping over their sin (Stier).There is none whom the heavenly Father calleth Benjamin (son of my right hand), whom the Church, his mother, hath not first called Benoni (son of my sorrows) (J. Gerhard).Revelation 12Joh 20:20, comp. with Luk 24:52.A white sheet (carte blanche), says Spener, subscribed beneath with His holy name, to be filled in above by ourselves with our petitions.If I do not deserve that my prayer should be heard, nevertheless Christ, in whose name I offer the same, doth abundantly deserve a hearing. (Luther).If ever a request is denied us, it is because it is out of tune with the grand petition: Grant us but salvation.Whoso saith Our Father, doth embrace in this one prayer the forgiveness of sins, justification, sanctification, redemption, sonship and heirship to God, brotherhood with the Only-begotten One, and the whole plenitude of the gifts of the Holy Spirit (Chrysostom).

Joh 16:26-27. How should He not love those who become one with Him in the love of the Beloved?Threefold is the way which Christ trod for the salvation of the children of men: The way of love (from heaven to earth), the way of obedience (unto the death on the cross), the way of glory (return to the Father).J. Gerhard. (According to Joh 16:28, however, the way is a twofold one.)Ye shall be scattered, Zec 13:7; Mat 26:31.The Father is with me. John Huss comforted himself with this saying in his lonely dungeon.

Joh 16:33. It is the peace of Shiloh (Gen 49:9-10; Isa 9:6-7; Rev 5:6), of the celestial Solomon, Son 8:10.Peace in Christ is that on which all Christian essence reposes. This peace shall have no end in time, but is itself the end of all our holy endeavors (Augustine).In order that we might have peace in Him, did the Lord speak these things. His word brings us peace.Peace must triumph over anguish.Tis won! Tis won! He crieth; danger and trouble are over. We need not struggle and war. All is done already. The world, death and the devil lie vanquished and prostrate; heaven, righteousness and life are victorious (Luther).36

[Craven: From Augustine: Joh 16:16-22. The bringing forth is compared to sorrow, the birth to joy, which is especially true in the birth of a boy.And your joy no man taketh from you: their joy is Christ.Nor yet in this bringing forth of joy, are we entirely without joy to lighten our sorrow, but, as the Apostle saith, we rejoice in hope: for even the woman, to whom we are compared, rejoiceth more for her future offspring, than she sorrows for her present pain.

Joh 16:23. The word whatsoever, must not be understood to mean anything, but something which with reference to obtaining the life of blessedness is not nothing. That is not sought in the Saviours name, which is sought to the hindering of our salvation; for by, in My name, must be understood not the mere sound of the syllables, but that which is rightly signified by that sound. He who holds any notion concerning Christ, which should not be held, does not ask in His name. But he who thinks rightly of Him, asks in His name, and receives what he asks, if it be not against his eternal salvation: he receives when it is right he should receive; for some things are only denied at present in order to be granted at a more suitable time.

Joh 16:24. This full joy is not carnal, but spiritual, and it will be full when it is so great that nothing can be added to it.And this is that full joy, than which nothing can be greater, viz. to enjoy God, the Trinity, in the image of Whom we are made.

Joh 16:26. At that day ye shall ask in My name: What shall we have to ask for in a future life, when all our desires shall be satisfied? Asking implies the want of something.

Joh 16:30. He asked questions of men not in order to learn Himself, but to teach them.

Joh 16:31. He reminds them of their weak tender age in respect of the inner man.

[From Chrysostom: Joh 16:21. He shows that sorrow brings forth joy, short sorrow infinite joy, by an example from nature; A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, etc.By this example He also intimates that He loosens the chains of death, and creates men anew.

Joh 16:23. It was consolatory to them to hear of His resurrection, and how He came from God, and went to God: the one was a proof that their faith in Him was not vain; the other that they would still be under His protection.

[From Gregory: Joh 16:33. As if He said, Have Me within you to comfort you, because you will have the world without you.From Bede: Joh 16:21. As a man is said to be born when he comes out of his mothers womb into the light of day, so may he be said to be born who from out of the prison of the body, is raised to the light eternal.From Alcuin: Joh 16:20. This speech of our Lords is applicable to all believers who strive through present tears and afflictions to attain to the joys eternal. While the righteous weep, the world rejoiceth; for having no hope of the joys to come, all its delight is in the present.

Joh 16:21. The woman is the holy Church, who is fruitful in good works, and brings forth spiritual children unto God.As a woman rejoiceth when a man is born into the world, so the Church is filled with exultation when the faithful are born into life eternal.From Theophylact: Joh 16:24. For when your prayers shall be fully answered, then will your gladness be greatest.

Joh 16:27. The Father loves you, because ye have loved Me; when therefore ye fall from My love, ye will straightway fall from the Fathers love.

[From Burkitt: Joh 16:16-22. How unreasonable it is to arrogate to mans understanding a power to comprehend spiritual mysteries, yea, to understand the plainest truths, till Christ enlightens the understanding.

Joh 16:20. The different effects which Christs absence should have upon the world, and upon His disciples.

Joh 16:22. The joy of the saints may be interrupted, it shall never be totally extinguished.

Joh 16:28. To pray in the name of Christ, Isaiah , 1. To look up to Christ, as having purchased for us this privilege; 2. To pray in the strength of Christ, by the assistance of His grace, and the help of His Spirit; 3. To pray by faith in the virtue of Christs mediation and intercession.

Joh 16:25. The clearest truths will be but dark mysteries, even to disciples themselves, till the Holy Spirit enlightens their understandings.

Joh 16:30. The knowledge and experience of Christs omniscience, may and ought fully to confirm us in the belief of His Deity.

Joh 16:32. God was with Christ, and will be with Christians in a suffering hour, in His essential presence, in His gracious and supporting presence.

Joh 16:33. Hence learn, 1. That the disciples of Christ in this world must expect and look for trouble; 2. The remedy provided by Christ against this malady: In Me ye shall have peace. Christs blood has purchased peace for them, His word has promised it to them, and His Spirit seals it up to their souls.I have overcome the world, I have taken the sting out of every cross, the venom out of every arrow.

[From M. Henry: Joh 16:16. It is good to consider how near to a period our seasons of grace are, that we may be quickened to improve them while they are continued.The Spirits coming was Christs visit to His disciples, not a transient, but a permanent one, and such a visit as abundantly retrieved the sight of Him.Thus we may say of our ministers and Christian friends, Yet a little while, and we shall not see them. It is but a good night to them whom we hope to see with joy in the morning.

Joh 16:18. The darkness of ignorance and the darkness of melancholy commonly increase and thicken one another; mistakes cause griefs, and then griefs confirm mistakes.Though we cannot fully solve every difficulty we meet with in scripture, yet we must not therefore throw it by, but revolve what we cannot explain, and wait till God shall reveal even this unto us.

Joh 16:19. The knots we cannot untie, we must bring to Him who alone can give an understanding.Christ takes cognizance of pious desires, though they be not as yet offered up.This intimates to us who they are that Christ will teach: 1. The humble that confess their ignorance. 2. The diligent that use the means they have.

Joh 16:20. Believers have joy or sorrow, according as they have or have not a sight of Christ.The disciples were sorrowful and yet always rejoicing (2Co 6:10); had sorrowful lives, and yet joyful hearts.

Joh 16:21-22. Applicable to all the faithful followers of the Lamb, and describes the common case of Christians1. Their condition and disposition are both mournful; sorrows are their lot, and seriousness is their temper. 2. The world, at the same time, goes away with all the mirth. 3. Spiritual mourning will shortly be turned into eternal rejoicing.The sorrows of Christs disciples in this world are like travailing pains, sure and sharp, but not to last long, and in Order to a joyful product.Christs withdrawings are just cause of grief to His disciples. When the sun sets, the sunflower will hang the head.Three things recommend the joy: 1. The cause of it; I will see you again. 2. The cordialness of it; Your heart shall rejoice. 3. The continuance of it; Your joy no man taketh from you.Note1. Christ will graciously return to those that wait for Him, though for a small moment He has seemed to forsake them, Isa 54:7. 2. Christs returns are returns of joy to all His disciples.Joy in the heart is solid, secret, sweet, sure.

Joh 16:23-27. An answer to their askings is here promised, for their further comfort. Now there are two ways of asking, asking by way of inquiry, that is the asking of the ignorant; and asking by way of request, and that is the asking of the indigent. Christ here speaks of both1. By way of inquiry, they should not need to ask. 2. By way of request, they should ask nothing in vain.The promise itself is incomparably rich and sweet; the golden sceptre is here held out to us, with this word, What is thy petition, and it shall be granted?We are here taught how to seek; we must ask the Father in Christs name.Perfect fruition is reserved for the land of our rest; asking and receiving are the comfort of the land of our pilgrimage.

Joh 16:24. Here is an invitation to them to petition. It is thought sufficient if great men permit addresses, but Christ calls upon us to petition.

Joh 16:26-27. Here are the grounds upon which they might hope to speed, which are summed up in short by the Apostle (1Jn 2:1). We have an Advocate with the Father1. We have an Advocate; 2. We have to do with a Father.

Joh 16:27. The character of Christs disciples; they love Him, because they believe He came out from God.See what advantage Christs faithful disciples have,the Father loves them, and that because they love Christ.Believers, who love Christ, ought to know that God loves them, and therefore to come boldly to Him as children to a loving Father.

Joh 16:28-33. Two things Christ here comforts His disciples with: 1. An assurance that, though Ho was leaving the world, He was returning to His Father; 2. A promise of peace in Him, by virtue of His victory over the world.

Joh 16:29-30. Two things they improved in by this saying (Joh 16:28): 1. In knowledge, Lo, now Thou speakest plainly; 2. In faith, Now we are sure.When Christ is pleased to speak plainly to our souls, and to bring us with open face to behold His glory, we have reason to rejoice in it.Observe1. The matter of their faith; We believe that Thou camest forth from God; 2. The motive of their faithHis omniscience.Those know Christ best, that know Him by experience.These words, and needest not that any man should ask Thee, may speak either: 1. Christs aptness to teach; or, 2. His ability to teach.The best of teachers can only answer what is spoken, but Christ can answer what is thought.

Joh 16:31-32. As far as there is inconstancy in our faith, there is cause to question the sincerity of it, and to ask, Do we indeed believe?

Joh 16:32. Many a good cause, when it is distressed by its enemies, is deserted by its friends.If we at any time find our friends unkind to us, let us remember that Christs were so to Him.Those will not dare to suffer for their religion, that seek their own things more than the things of Christ.Even then, when we are taking the comfort of our graces, it is good to be reminded of our danger from our corruptions.A little time may produce great changes, both concerning us and in us.Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. A privilege common to all believers, by virtue of their union with Christ1. When solitude is their choice; 2. When solitude is their affliction.While we have Gods favorable presence with us, we are happy, and ought to be easy, though all the world forsake us.

Joh 16:33. It has been the lot of Christs disciples to have more or less tribulation in this world. Men persecute them because they are so good, and God corrects them because they are no better.In the midst of the tribulations of this world, it is the duty and interest of Christs disciples to be of good cheer.Never was there such a conqueror of the world as Christ was, and we ought to be encouraged by it; 1. Because Christ has overcome the world before us; 2. He has conquered it for us, as the Captain of our salvation.

[From A Plain Commentary (Oxford): Joh 16:16. He shows that on His departure depended His mysterious presence.

Joh 16:29-30. Faith admits of degrees; and one of the periods is here marked when the disciples made a clear advance in this heavenly grace.

Joh 16:33. It was not the object of the present Divine Discourse to gratify curiosity, or to solve doubts (for that was reserved for the Holy Ghost); but to administer heavenly consolation.

[From Stier: Joh 16:16-24. There is, as for Himself the breaking through death into life, so for the disciples a deeply penetrating, fundamental change from sorrow to joy.As this way of the disciples through sorrow to joy between the cross and the resurrection of our Lord was already for themselves something preparatory and typical, it becomes to us a type of the way which all His future disciples have also to pass through;a way through that godly sorrow which at first distinguishes them fully from the world, into the joy of faith, and life in the Holy Ghost.

Joh 16:20. This rejoicing of the world is the keenest sword to weakness and unbelief, as well as to the true dependence of the sorrowful disciples trusting in God (Psa 42:10).The sorrow is itself to become joy; it is not merely to be lost in, or exchanged for, joy, but the subject and ground of the sorrow becomes the subject and ground of the joy. The cross of our Lord is glorified into an eternal consolation; out of the sorrow at the cross and the sepulchre, because in it there was the believing and loving seeking of the Crucified, is born their joy in the Living, Risen One.Those who weep, bear already the precious seed which rises again into sheaves of joyon the flood of tears we float out of ruin.

Joh 16:21. Under the cross of their Lord the disciples learned to sorrow for sin, as they had never been taught before. They saw and they tasted with Christ, as far as in them lay, the sin of the world, and they saw, moreover, their own sin in it.The way from sorrow to joy was to the first disciples as the pangs of birth for the outburst of resurrection-gladness. None of us appropriates, in true personal experience, the joy of Easter and Pentecost until the passion-sorrow has first prepared the way.

Joh 16:22. One feast followed another after the passion, in which they had Sorrow: at the resurrection He saw them again, but (we would add) they saw not Him yet in full clearness, they had not their full joy through fear of the Jews; first at the ascension, when they saw Him go to the Father ( , Act 1:9), their hearts rejoiced; but this also would have vanished as a beautiful dream if the Comforter had not assured them at Pentecost that no man should take from them their joy. (Beck.)The last fulfilment of this promise reaches forward to the end of the churchs victory, and this joy of the heart is the contrast of the worlds joy turned into mourning (Isa 45:13-14).The world which, with or without Christ, would evade the thought of sin and death, the deepest ground of all sorrow, can secure its joy only by the dissipation of its inmost nature, and by becoming deaf to its voice. Therefore its joy is loud, while yet silent joy is alone genuine and profound.The world is satisfied without satisfaction.We lose not the hearts peace in the midst of all the tribulation which may befall.The root and principle and strength of their joy cannot be touched, however afflictions may come.The child bearing woman is (further) the Church through the Spirit within her.As the sum of all: Every disciple of Jesus through his entire life, the Church of Christ as a whole down to the end of the days, learns and experiences in the cross of Christ that true sorrow which genders joy, receives and enjoys this as the fruit of the resurrection and Pentecost in a progressive measure ever approaching perfectionuntil the great Day dawns, which will be followed by no night. Joh 16:23. In the eternal glory, which will be the final issue of all temporal adversity, all our past doubts will be solved, all our complaints silenced, and all our questioning answered for ever.

Joh 16:23-24. Now, in the bright hope of that great day, ask and pray as ye have never done before!As in the Old Testament way of holiness the problem had ever been to learn better how to pray, so also we have in the practice of prayer in the name of Jesus the only way of progress toward perfect holiness, knowledge and joy of heart. All the discourses, exhortations, encouragements of our Lord, find their ultimate aim in directing us to perfect prayer.Ask, so shall ye receive! Many, alas, who only half pray, and do not urge their knocking even to pressing in, cannot afterward receive even what they have prayed for! But persistent prayer obtains for me the blessing that I can receive, and appropriates that which the Father gives,actually obtains the hand which enables me to lay hold of and receive the heavenly gifts. (Rieger.)

Joh 16:26. The state of perfection which knows no need is not yet; there is still the asking, and yet it is the same day. We seal every prayer with a doxology reaching forth, in confident and tranquil trust, toward the future eternity; and thus it is already the same day in the light of which we ask and receive the answer.

Joh 16:27. This word most decisively overturns that false notion concerning the redemption which attributes to the Father a wrath which is to be extinguished, and not also that reconciling love which from eternity needed not first to be propitiated.Christians who believe, to whom Christ has revealed this in all its clearness, cannot too often be reminded of this; think not too little of the love wherewith ye are loved! Not merely has the Father Himself already loved them as He loves all the world and every creature, but He loves them with that especial love which He bears to those in whom He finds Christs word, and through faith in it Christ Himself, who stand before Him clothed in the garment of the righteousness of His Son.

Joh 16:28. To what end did He come into the world, but to become the Saviour of sinners? Again, to what end and in what way does He return to the Father, but that He may accomplish eternal redemption through death, and diffuse from on high the fruits of His redeeming work?

Joh 16:31-32. It is true that ye do believe, but how soon will my passion make manifest your real and great weakness!

Joh 16:32. Whosoever well ponders this, will hold firm his faith though the world shake, nor will the defection of all others overturn his confidence; we do not render God His full honor, unless He alone is felt to be sufficient to us. (Calvin.)

Joh 16:33. In these last words He condenses the sum of the instruction which He had ministered to the disciples at the last supper. (Nitzsch.)Tribulation is certainly not alone the violence and enmity of the world, which causes grief and anxiety to the disciples. For all this would not interrupt our peace, if the persecution did not meet with and excite weakness of faith, and the temptation sinful desire, in us. We must call to mind the of the woman in child-birth, a tribulation from within and of herself.Who is he, where is there one, that overcometh the world, except he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? In Him all overcome who rejoice to be the world overcome by Him. (Nitzsch).

[From Barnes: Joh 16:20. The apparent triumphs of the wicked, though they may produce grief at present in the minds of Christians, will be yet overruled for their good.

Joh 16:31. When we feel strong in the faith, we should examine ourselves. It may be that we are deceived; and it may be that God may even then be preparing trials for us that will shake our faith to its foundation.

Joh 16:32. Pain is alleviated, and suffering made more tolerable by the presence and sympathy of friends; He died forsaken.It matters little who else forsakes us, if God be with us in the hour of pain and of death.The Christian can die, saying, I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

Joh 16:33. The world is a vanquished enemy. Satan is an humbled foe. And all that believers have to do is to put their trust in the Captain of their salvation, putting on the whole armor of God.From Owen: Joh 16:30. There was doubtless much darkness and error in their mind, much unbelief and sin yet to be eradicated from their heart; but yet their words were sincere, their love deep and tender, and their faith, imperfect as it was compared with its power after their baptism of the Spirit, embraced all His declaration.

Joh 16:32. God the Father did not leave His beloved Son to enter alone upon His great redemptive work, but was with Him through all the scenes of His bitter agony. [The Father was ever with the Son; but was not His presence hidden from the consciousness of Jesus in the last hour, when He exclaimed, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?E. R. C.]. Joh 16:33. Here is the ground of all faith, confidence, and hope; only as the soul rests in Jesus, can it attain to that spiritual peace which is the foretaste of blessedness above.]

Footnotes:

[36][Here follow a number of themes for sermons, which are omitted.P. S.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

16 A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.

Ver. 16. A little while, and ye shall not see me ] This “little” seemed a long while to them, so that they began to doubt (though it were but the third day after his death) whether or not it were he that should redeem Israel,Luk 24:21Luk 24:21 . ( Dubito, a duo et ito, Becman. Sic .) God’s help seems long, because we are short. A short walk is a long journey to feeble knees. It is but for a moment in his anger that God hides his face from his, though it should be during life; he hath an eternity of time to reveal his kindness in. And to say that God hath cast you off, because he hath hid his face from you, Isa 54:7-8 , is (saith Mr T. Goodwin) a fallacy fetched out of the devil’s topics. When the sun is eclipsed, foolish people think it will never recover light, but wise men know it will; and at such a time, though the earth lack the light of the sun, yet not the influence thereof; so neither are the saints at any time without the power, heat, and vigorous influence of God’s grace, when the light and comfort of it is confined.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

16 24. ] The Lord speaks of His withdrawal, and its immediate mournful, but ultimate (and those soon to begin) joyful consequences for His disciples .

The connexion is: “Very soon will the Spirit, the Comforter, come to you: for I go to the Father, without any real cessation of the communion between you and Me.” Lcke.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

16. ] The mode of expression is (purposely) enigmatical; the and not being co-ordinate; the first referring merely to physical, the second also to spiritual sight. So before, ch. Joh 14:19 , where see note.

The began to be fulfilled at the Resurrection; then received its main fulfilment at the day of Pentecost; and shall have its final completion at the great return of the Lord hereafter. Remember again, that in all these prophecies we have a perspective of continually unfolding fulfilments presented to us: see note on ch. Joh 14:3 .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Joh 16:16-22 . The sorrow occasioned by Christ’s departure turned into joy at His return .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Joh 16:16 . . The first “little while” is the time till the following day; the second “little while,” the time till the resurrection, when they would see Him again. The similar expression of Joh 14:19 has induced several interpreters to understand our Lord as meaning, “Ye shall see me spiritually”; thus Bernard says: “The discrimination in the verbs employed affords sufficient guidance, and leads us to interpret as follows. A little while (it was but a few hours), and then ‘ye behold me no longer’ ( ); I shall have passed from the visible scene, and from the observation of spectators (that is the kind of seeing which the verb intends). ‘Again, a little while’ (of but little longer duration), and ‘ye shall see me’ ( ), with another kind of seeing, one in which the natural sight becomes spiritual vision.” This distinction, however, is not maintained in Joh 14:19 .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

John

CHRIST’S ‘LITTLE WHILES’

Joh 16:16 – Joh 16:19 .

A superficial glance at the former part of these verses may fail to detect their connection with the great preceding promise of the Spirit who is to guide the disciples ‘into all truth.’ They appear to stand quite isolated and apart from that. But a little thought will bring out an obvious connection. The first words of our text are really the climax and crown of the promise of the Spirit; for that Spirit is to ‘guide into all the truth’ by declaring to the disciples the things that are Christ’s, and in consequence of that ministration, they are to be able to see their unseen Lord. So this is the loftiest thought of what the divine Spirit does for the Christian heart, that it shows Him a visible though absent Christ.

Then we have in the subsequent part of our text the blundering of the bewildered disciples and the patient answer of the long-suffering Teacher. So that there are these three points to take up: the times of disappearance and of sight; the bewildered disciples; and the patient Teacher.

I. First of all, then, note the deep teaching of our Lord here, about the times of disappearance and of Sight.

The words are plain enough; the difficulty lies in the determination of the periods to which they refer. He tells us that, after a brief interval from the time at which He was speaking, there would come a short parenthesis during which He was not to be seen; and that upon that would follow a period of which no end is hinted at, during which He is to be seen. The two words employed in the two consecutive clauses, for ‘sight,’ are not the same, and so they naturally suggest some difference in the manner of vision.

But the question arises, Where are the limits of these times of which the Lord speaks? Now it is quite clear, I suppose, that the first of the ‘little whiles’ is the few hours that intervened between His speaking and the Cross. And it is equally clear that His death and burial began, at all events, the period during which they were not to see Him. But where does the second period begin, during which they are to see Him? Is it at His resurrection or at His ascension, when the process of ‘going to the Father’ was completed in all its stages; or at Pentecost, when the Spirit, by whose ministration He was to be made visible, was poured out? The answer is, perhaps, not to be restricted to any one of these periods; but I think if we consider that all disciples, in all ages, have a portion in all the rest of these great discourses, and if we note the absence of any hint that the promised seeing of Christ was ever to terminate, and if we mark the diversity of words under which the two manners of vision are described, and, above all, if we note the close connection of these words with those which precede, we shall come to the conclusion that the full realisation of this great promise of a visible Christ did not begin until that time when the Spirit, poured out, opened the eyes of His servants, and ‘they saw His glory.’ But however we settle the minor question of the chronology of these periods, the great truth shines out here that, through all the stretch of the ages, true hearts may truly see the true Christ.

If we might venture to suppose that in our text the second of the periods to which He refers, when they did not see Him, was not coterminous with, but preceded, the second ‘little while,’ all would be clear. Then the first ‘little while’ would be the few hours before the Cross. ‘Ye shall not see Me’ would refer to the days in which He lay in the tomb. ‘Again, a little while’ would point to that strange transitional period between His death and His ascension, in which the disciples had neither the close intercourse of earlier days nor the spiritual communion of later ones. And the final period, ‘Ye shall see Me,’ would cover the whole course of the centuries till He comes again.

However that may be, and I only offer it as a possible suggestion, the thing that we want to fasten upon for ourselves is this-we all, if we will, may have a vision of Christ as close, as real, as firmly certifying us of His reality, and making as vivid an impression upon us, as if He stood there, visible to our senses. And so, ‘by this vision splendid’ we may ‘be everywhere attended,’ and whithersoever we go, have burning before us the light of His countenance, in the sunshine of which we shall walk.

Brother! that is personal Christianity-to see Jesus Christ, and to live with the thrilling consciousness, printed deep and abiding upon our spirits, that, in very deed, He is by our sides. O how that conviction would make life strong and calm and noble and blessed! How it would lift us up above temptation! ‘He endured as seeing Him who is Invisible.’ What should terrify us if Christ stood before us? What should charm us if we saw Him? Competing glories and attractions would fade before His presence, as a dim candle dies at noon. It would make all life full of a blessed companionship. Who could be solitary if he saw Christ? or feel that life was dreary if that Friend was by his side? It would fill our hearts with joy and strength, and make us evermore blessed by the light of His countenance.

And how are we to get that vision? Remember the connection of my text. It is because there is a divine Spirit to show men the things that are Christ’s that therefore, unseen, He is visible to the eye of faith. And therefore the shortest and directest road to the vision of Jesus is the submitting of heart and mind and spirit to the teaching of that divine Spirit, who uses the record of the Scriptures as the means by which He makes Jesus Christ known to us.

But besides this waiting upon that divine Teacher, let me remind you that there are conditions of discipline which must be fulfilled upon our parts, if any clear vision of Jesus Christ is to bless us pilgrims in this lonely world. And the first of these conditions is-If you want to see Jesus Christ, think about Him. Occupy your minds with Him. If men in the city walk the pavements with their eyes fixed upon the gutters, what does it matter though all the glories of a sunset are dyeing the western sky? They will see none of them; and if Christ stood beside you, closer to you than any other, if your eyes were fixed upon the trivialities of this poor present, you would not see Him. If you honestly want to see Christ, meditate upon Him.

And if you want to see Him, shut out competing objects, and the dazzling cross-lights that come in and hide Him from us. There must be a ‘looking off unto Jesus.’ There must be a rigid limitation, if not excision, of other objects, if we are to grasp Him. If we would see, and have our hearts filled with, the calm sublimity of the solemn, white wedge that lifts itself into the far-off blue, we must not let our gaze stop on the busy life of the valleys or the green slopes of the lower Alps, but must lift it and keep it fixed aloft. Meditate upon Him, and shut out other things.

If you want to see Christ, do His will. One act of obedience has more power to clear a man’s eyes than hours of idle contemplation; and one act of disobedience has more power to dim his eyes than anything besides. It is in the dusty common road that He draws near to us, and the experience of those disciples that journeyed to Emmaus may be ours. He meets us in the way, and makes ‘our hearts burn within us.’ The experience of the dying martyr outside the city gate may be ours. Sorrows and trials will rend the heavens if they be rightly borne, and so we shall see Christ ‘standing at the right hand of God.’ Rebellious tears blind our eyes, as Mary’s did, so that she did not know the Master and took Him for ‘the gardener.’ Submissive tears purge the eyes and wash them clean to see His face. To do His will is the sovereign method for beholding His countenance.

Brethren, is this our experience? You professing Christians, do you see Christ? Are your eyes fixed upon Him? Do you go through life with Him consciously nearer to you than any beside? Is He closer than the intrusive insignificances of this fleeting present? Have you Him as your continual Companion? Oh! when we contrast the difference between the largeness of this promise-a promise of a thrilling consciousness of His presence, of a vivid perception of His character, of an unwavering certitude of His reality-and the fly-away glimpses and wandering sight, and faint, far-off views, as of a planet weltering amid clouds, which the most of Christian men have of Christ, what shame should cover our faces, and how we should feel that if we have not the fulfilment, it is our own fault! Blessed they of whom it is true that they see ‘no man any more save Jesus only’! and to whom all sorrow, joy, care, anxiety, work, and repose are but the means of revealing that sweet and all-sufficient Presence! ‘I have set the Lord always before me, therefore I shall not be moved.’

II. Now notice, secondly, these bewildered disciples.

We find, in the early portion of these discourses, that twice they ventured to interrupt our Lord with more or less relevant questions, but as the wonderful words flowed on, they seem to have been awed into silence; and our Lord Himself almost complains of them that ‘None of you asketh Me, Whither goest Thou?’ The inexhaustible truths that He had spoken seem to have gone clear over their heads, but the verbal repetition of the ‘little whiles,’ and the recurring ring of the sentences, seem to have struck upon their ears. So passing by all the great words, they fasten upon this minor thing, and whisper among themselves, perhaps lagging behind on the road, as to what He means by these ‘little whiles.’ The Revised Version is probably correct, or at least it has strong manuscript authority in its favour, in omitting the clause in our Lord’s words, ‘Because I go to the Father.’ The disciples seem to have quoted, not from the preceding verse, but from a verse a little before that in the context, where He said that ‘the Spirit will convince the world of righteousness because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more.’ The contradiction seems to strike them.

These disciples in their bewilderment seem to me to represent some very common faults which we all commit in our dealing with the Lord’s words, and to one or two of these I turn for a moment.

Note this to begin with, how they pass by the greater truths in order to fasten upon a smaller outstanding difficulty. They have no questions to ask about the gifts of the Spirit, nor about the unity of Christ and His disciples as represented in the vine and the branches, nor about what He tells them of the love that ‘lays down its life for its friends.’ But when He comes into the region of chronology, they are all agog to know the ‘when’ about which He is so enigmatically speaking.

Now is not that exactly like us, and does not the Christianity of this day very much want the hint to pay most attention to the greatest truths, and let the little difficulties fall into their subordinate place? The central truths of Christianity are the incarnation and atonement of Jesus Christ. And yet outside questions, altogether subordinate and, in comparison with this, unimportant, are filling the attention and the thoughts of people at present to such an extent that there is great danger of the central truth of all being either passed by, or the reception of it being suspended on the clearing up of smaller questions.

The truth that Christ is the Son of God, who has died for our salvation, is the heart of the Gospel. And why should we make our faith in that, and our living by it, contingent on the clearing up of certain external and secondary questions; chronological, historical, critical, philological, scientific, and the like? And why should men be so occupied in jangling about the latter as that the towering supremacy, the absolute independence, of the former should be lost sight of? What would you think of a man in a fire who, when they brought the fire-escape to him, said, ‘I decline to trust myself to it, until you first of all explain to me the principles of its construction; and, secondly, tell me all about who made it; and, thirdly, inform me where all the materials of which it is made came from?’ But that is very much what a number of people are doing to-day in reference to ‘the Gospel of our salvation,’ when they demand that the small questions-on which the central verity does not at all depend-shall be answered and settled before they cast themselves upon that.

Another of the blunders of these disciples, in which they show themselves as our brethren, is that they fling up the attempt to apprehend the obscurity in a very swift despair. ‘We cannot tell what He saith, and we are not going to try any more. It is all cloud-land and chaos together.’

Intellectual indolence, spiritual carelessness, deal thus with outstanding difficulties, abandoning precipitately the attempt to grasp them or that which lies behind them. And yet although there are no gratuitous obscurities in Christ’s teaching, He said a great many things which could not possibly be understood at the time, in order that the disciples might stretch up towards what was above them, and, by stretching up, might grow. I do not think that it is good to break down the children’s bread too small. A wise teacher will now and then blend with the utmost simplicity something that is just a little in advance of the capacity of the listener, and so encourage a little hand to stretch itself out, and the arm to grow because it is stretched. If there are no difficulties there is no effort, and if there is no effort there is no growth. Difficulties are there in order that we may grapple with them, and truth is sometimes hidden in a well in order that we may have the blessing of the search, and that the truth found after the search may be more precious. The tropics, with their easy, luxuriant growth, where the footfall turns up the warm soil, grow languid men, and our less smiling latitude grows strenuous ones. Thank God that everything is not easy, even in that which is meant for the revelation of all truth to all men! Instead of turning tail at the first fence, let us learn that it will do us good to climb, and that the fence is there in order to draw forth our effort.

There is another point in which these bewildered disciples are uncommonly like the rest of us; and that is that they have no patience to wait for time and growth to solve the difficulty. They want to know all about it now, or not at all. If they would wait for six weeks they would understand, as they did. Pentecost explained it all. We, too, are often in a hurry. There is nothing that the ordinary mind, and often the educated mind, detests so much as uncertainty, and being consciously baffled by some outstanding difficulty. And in order to escape that uneasiness, men are dogmatical when they should be doubtful, and positively asserting when it would be a great deal more for the health of their souls and of their listeners to say, ‘Well, really I do not know, and I am content to wait.’ So, on both sides of great controversies, you get men who will not be content to let things wait, for all must be made clear and plain to-day.

Ah, brethren! for ourselves, for our own intellectual difficulties, and for the difficulties of the world, there is nothing like time and patience. The mysteries that used to plague us when we were boys melted away when we grew up. And many questions which trouble me to-day, and through which I cannot find my way, if I lay them aside, and go about my ordinary duties, and come back to them to-morrow with a fresh eye and an unwearied brain, will have straightened themselves out and become clear. We grow into our best and deepest convictions, we are not dragged into them by any force of logic. So for our own sorrows, questions, pains, griefs, and for all the riddle of this painful world,

‘Take it on trust a little while,

Thou soon shalt read the mystery right,

In the full sunshine of His smile.’

III. Lastly, and very briefly, a word about the patient Teacher.

‘Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask Him.’ He knows all our difficulties and perplexities. Perhaps it is His supernatural knowledge that is indicated in the words before us, or perhaps it is merely that He saw them whispering amongst themselves and so inferred their wish. Be that as it may, we may take the comfort that we have to do with a Teacher who accurately understands how much we understand and where we grope, and will shape His teaching according to our necessities.

He had not a word of rebuke for the slowness of their apprehension. He might well have said to them, ‘O fools and slow of heart to believe!’ But that word was not addressed to them then, though two of them deserved it and got it, after events had thrown light on His teaching. He never rebukes us for either our stupidity or for our carelessness, but ‘has long patience’ with us.

He does give them a kind of rebuke. ‘Do ye inquire among yourselves ?’ That is a hopeful source to go to for knowledge. Why did they not ask Him, instead of whispering and muttering there behind Him, as if two people equally ignorant could help each other to knowledge? Inquiry ‘among yourselves’ is folly; to ask Him is wisdom. We can do much for one another, but the deepest riddles and mysteries can only be wisely dealt with in one way. Take them to Him, tell Him about them. Told to Him, they often dwindle. They become smaller when they are looked at beside Him, and He will help us to understand as much as may be understood, and patiently to wait and leave the residue unsolved, until the time shall come when ‘we shall know even as we are known.’

In the context here, Jesus Christ does not explain to the disciples the precise point that troubled them. Olivet and Pentecost were to do that; but He gives them what will tide them over the time until the explanation shall come, in triumphant hopes of a joy and peace that are drawing near.

And so there is a great deal in all our lives, in His dealings with us, in His revelation of Himself to us, that must remain mysterious and unintelligible. But if we will keep close to Him, and speak plainly to Him in prayer and communion about our difficulties, He will send us triumphant hope and large confidence of a coming joy, that will float us over the bar and make us feel that the burden is no longer painful to carry. Much that must remain dark through life will be lightened when we get yonder; for the vision here is not perfect, and the knowledge here is as imperfect as the vision.

Dear friends! the one question for us all is, Do our eyes fix and fasten on that dear Lord, and is it the description of our own whole lives, that we see Him and walk with Him? Oh! if so, then life will be blessed, and death itself will be but as ‘a little while’ when we ‘shall not see Him,’ and then we shall open our eyes and behold Him close at hand, whom we saw from afar, and with wandering eyes, amidst the mists and illusions of earth. To see Him as He became for our sakes is heaven on earth. To see Him as He is will be the heaven of heaven, and before that Face, ‘as the sun shining in His strength,’ all sorrows, difficulties, and mysteries will melt as morning mists.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Joh 16:16-24

16″A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.” 17Some of His disciples then said to one another, “What is this thing He is telling us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?” 18So they were saying, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is talking about.” 19Jesus knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to them, “Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me’? 20Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. 21Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. 22Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. 23In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. 24Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.”

Joh 16:16 “A little while” This phrase occurs often in John (cf. Joh 7:33; Joh 12:35; Joh 13:33; Joh 14:19). There have been several theories of what this idiomatic phrase means.

1. the post-resurrection appearances

2. the Second Coming

3. Jesus’ coming in and through the Holy Spirit

In the light of the context, number 1 is the only possibility (cf. Joh 16:22). The disciples were confused by this statement (cf. Joh 16:17-18).

Joh 16:17 “Some of His disciples then said to one another” This is another question like Joh 13:36; Joh 14:5; Joh 14:8; Joh 14:22. Jesus uses these questions to reassure them and reveal Himself. It is characteristic of John that he uses dialog to reveal truth. In John there are twenty-seven conversations with or about Jesus. It is also characteristic of John that Jesus’ hearers did not comprehend what He said (cf. Joh 16:18). He is from above; they are from below.

“and ‘because I go to the Father'” Jesus stated this in Joh 16:5 as He did in the phrase “in a little while” in Joh 16:16. In a sense this is a very specific Messianic reference (cf. Joh 13:1; Joh 13:3; Joh 16:28; Joh 17:24).

“will not see. . .see” There are two different words for “see” in Joh 16:16-17. They seem to be synonymous. If so there is only one period of time being referred to and that probably was the time between Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection morning.

Others suppose the two verbs and phrases refer to “physical” sight and “spiritual” sight and thereby refer to (1) the time between Calvary and Sunday morning or (2) the time between the Ascension and the Second Coming.

The fact that the first verb (there) is present tense in both Joh 16:16-17 and the second (hora) is future tense in both Joh 16:16-17 seem to support the synonymous theory.

Joh 16:18 “So they were saying” This is an imperfect tense which can mean (1) they were saying over and over or (2) they began to say.

“What is this that He says” Those who were with Him, who heard Him and saw His miracles, did not always understand (cf. Joh 8:27; Joh 8:43; Joh 10:6; Joh 12:16; Joh 18:4). This is what the ministry of the Spirit will alleviate.

Joh 16:19 “Jesus knew that they wished to question Him” Jesus often knew people’s thoughts (cf. Joh 2:25; Joh 6:61; Joh 6:64; Joh 13:11). It is difficult to know for sure if this was (1) His divine nature; (2) insight into people and situations; or (3) both.

Joh 16:20 “Truly, truly, I say to you” This is literally “Amen, Amen” (see Special Topic Joh 1:51). “Amen” was the OT term (aman, emeth, emunah) for “faith” (cf. Hab 2:4). Its primary etymology was “to be firm” or “to be sure.” It came to be used figuratively for the trustworthiness of God which is the background to the biblical concept of faith/faithfulness. Jesus is the only one who ever started a sentence with this term. It seems to have the connotation of “this is an important and trustworthy statement, listen closely.”

“you will weep and lament” This meant loud and expressive sorrow which was characteristic of Jewish grieving practices (cf. Joh 11:31; Joh 11:33; Joh 20:11). Three times Jesus used the emphatic plural “you” when speaking of the disciples’ sorrow (Joh 16:20 [twice] and Joh 16:22). Leadership means

1. servanthood

2. rejection by the world

3. persecution like the Master’s

“you will grieve, but your grief will be turned to joy” What a great promise to the disciples in the midst of their confusion and lack of understanding. Everything that Jesus promised this core group of disciples was fulfilled at Jesus’ first post-resurrection appearance the first Sunday night after the resurrection in the upper room.

1. He would not leave them (cf. Joh 14:18; Joh 16:16; Joh 16:19; Joh 20:19)

2. He would come to them (cf. Joh 14:18; Joh 16:16; Joh 16:19; Joh 20:19)

3. He would give them peace (cf. Joh 16:22; Joh 20:19)

4. He would give them the Spirit (cf. Joh 15:26; Joh 20:22)

Joh 16:21 “Whenever a woman is in labor” The metaphor of a woman in childbirth is common in the Old and New Testaments. Usually it is used to emphasize the suddenness or inevitability of the birth, but here the focus is on the attitude of the mother, before and after. This metaphor is often linked with the “birth-pains” of the New Age (cf. Isa 26:17-18; Isa 66:7-14; Mar 13:8). This was exactly what Jesus was referring to and this was exactly why the disciples, who were still on the other side of the cross, resurrection, and ascension, did not understand Jesus’ words!

Joh 16:23 “In that day” This is another Hebraic idiomatic phrase (like childbirth cf. Joh 16:21) which is commonly associated with the coming of the New Age (cf. Joh 14:20; Joh 16:25-26).

“you will not question Me about anything” There are two different words for “question” or “ask” in this verse (cf. Joh 16:26). The first implies “ask a question” (cf. Joh 16:5; Joh 16:19; Joh 16:30). If this is the proper translation, Jesus was referring to all their questions expressed in the context of chapters 13-17 (cf. Joh 13:36; Joh 14:5; Joh 14:8; Joh 14:22; Joh 16:17-18). The second term would then refer to the coming of the Holy Spirit (cf. Joh 14:16-31; Joh 15:26-27; Joh 16:1-15), who will answer all their questions.

In some ways this phrase reminds me of the promise of the “new covenant” of Jer 31:31-34, where the coming of the new age would bring a complete knowledge to all believers.

NASB”if you ask the Father for anything in My name”

NKJV”whatever you ask the Father in My name”

NRSV”if you ask anything of the Father in my name”

TEV”the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name”

NJB”anything you ask from the Father he will grant in my name”

This is an indefinite relative clause, not a conditional sentence. It must be understood that asking in Jesus’ name is not simply closing our prayers with a ritual formula, but praying in the will, mind, and character of Jesus Christ (cf. 1Jn 5:13). See note at Joh 15:16. See SPECIAL TOPIC: PRAYER, UNLIMITED YET LIMITED at 1Jn 3:22.

There is a manuscript variant related to the phrase “in My name.” Should it go with “ask” or “give” or both? The context is prayer, therefore, it should probably go with “ask,” although in reality, everything from the Father comes through Jesus (“My name” cf. Joh 14:13-14; Joh 16:15; Joh 16:24; Joh 16:26). See SPECIAL TOPIC: THE NAME OF THE LORD at Joh 14:13-14.

Joh 16:24 “ask and you will receive” “Ask” is a present active imperative. This focuses on believers’ prayers being persistent and ongoing. In one sense believers need only ask once, believing, but in another sense, prayer is an ongoing fellowship and trust in God, keep on asking (cf. Mat 7:7-8; Luk 11:5-13; Luk 18:1-8).

“so that your joy may be made full” This is a periphrastic perfect passive participle (cf. 1Jn 1:4). Answered prayer is a reason for our joy! Joy is a characteristic of Jesus’ followers (cf. Joh 15:11; Joh 16:20-21; Joh 16:24; Joh 17:13).

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

A little while. See on Joh 13:33.

shall not see Me. Most of the texts read, “see (App-133.) Me no more”.

see. App-133:. a. Not the same word as in first clause.

because, &c. T Tr. A WI R omit this clause.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

16-24.] The Lord speaks of His withdrawal, and its immediate mournful, but ultimate (and those soon to begin) joyful consequences for His disciples.

The connexion is: Very soon will the Spirit, the Comforter, come to you: for I go to the Father, without any real cessation of the communion between you and Me. Lcke.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Our Lord is speaking to his disciples before his departure from them to be crucified, and he says:

Joh 16:16. A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.

It is wonderful how he could talk thus calmly about his death, knowing that it would be a death of bitter shame and terrible agony. Yet he does, as it were, pass over that view of it as he says, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I die? No. Because I am crucified? No; but, because I go to the Father. Beloved, always think of your departure out of the world in the same light: I go to the Father. Do not say, I die; I languish upon the bed of pain; I expire. No; but, I go to the Father.

Joh 16:17-18. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith.

Then why not ask him? But are not you and I often very slow to ask the meaning of the Masters words? You read in Scripture something that you cannot understand, and you say to yourself, I cannot make out the meaning of that chapter; but do you always pray over it, and ask the Writer to tell you what he intended when he wrote it? It is a grand thing to have this Inspired Book, and it is a grander thing still to have the Spirit of God, who inspired it, abiding with his people for ever; but we fail to learn many a secret from the Word because we do not pray our way into it. He who does not know can scarcely have his ignorance pitied when it remains willful; if you can know for the asking, why not ask?

Joh 16:19. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me?

They might have inquired a long while among themselves, and all in vain; but to go to their Lord was the short way out of the difficulty, for he could explain it. See how ready he is to explain, for he expounds the truth even to those who had not asked for an exposition. In this matter, he was found of them that sought him not. Knowing that they were desirous to ask, he accepted the will for the deed, the wish for the prayer; and he answered the secret longing of their heart.

Joh 16:20. Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice:

I am going away from you, and while I am gone, it will be all weeping and lamenting with you; but while I am gone, the world shall have its hour of triumph, it shall think that I am slain, and that my cause is defeated.

Joh 16:20-21. And ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.

So, when Christ came back again, they would remember no more the sorrow of their travail hour in which they saw him bound, and spat upon, and taken off to execution, and mocked upon the tree. The joy that would come of it all would obliterate the remembrance of the sorrow.

Joh 16:22-23. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing.

Ye shall not need to make anymore inquiries of me, for everything shall then be explained to you by the Spirit.

Joh 16:23. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.

This shall be one fruit; of my passion, that, henceforth, whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father, in my name, shall be given to you; and though you may not, perhaps, address your prayers to me personally, yet addressed to the Father, in my name, they shall succeed.

Joh 16:24. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name:

Ye have not yet learnt how to use my name in prayer. Our Lord had not yet taught them so to pray; but now we know what it is to ask in the name of Christ, it is to pray with the authority of the risen and glorified Son of God.

Joh 16:24. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

See how our Lord continues to drive at that point, for he would have his people happy. He wants you, beloved, to be joy-full full of joy; not merely to have a little joy hidden away in a corner somewhere, but that your joy may be full.

Joh 16:25-26. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shalt ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you:

Though that is, indeed, what our Lord does.

Joh 16:27. For the Father himself loveth you,-

The Father, whom you are so apt to think of as sterner than myself, and farther off than I, the Son of man am, the Father himself loveth you,

Joh 16:27. Because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.

Have you, dear friends, love to Christ? Do you believe that Christ came forth from God? Then does the Father give his special love to you.

Joh 16:28. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.

Had he not clearly explained what he meant by being absent a little while, and then coming back again?

Joh 16:29-30. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure-

Now they can give reasons for the hope that is in them. Now are we sure

Joh 16:30.That thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.

They are very positive; but notice the check that our Lord put upon all this confident assurance.

Joh 16:31-32. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone.

Whenever there is any boasting upon your lips, even though you may think that you can rightly say, Now we are sure, stop a bit, dear friends, stop a bit. We have not any of us all the good we think we have; nay, they who think themselves perfect think the most amiss. They are altogether mistaken, and there is some latent unbelief even where faith is strongest. Christ still asks, Do ye now believe? You have only to be sufficiently tried, and to be tempted long enough, and in that very point where you think you are strongest you will fail. Now are we sure, say the confident disciples. Ah! says Christ, do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone.

Joh 16:32. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

How gloriously is that blessed truth put in just here! The awful solitude that Christ was about to pass through can hardly be understood by us. It was not only that every friend forsook him, but that there was not under heaven a single person who could sympathize with him. He was going through deeps that no other could ever fathom, he was to bear griefs which no other could ever bear. Ye may indeed sip of his cup, but ye can never drink it to its dregs as he did. Ye may be baptized with his baptism; but into the depths of the abyss of woe into which he was immersed, ye cannot come. Alone! Alone! Never was there a human being so much alone as was the man Christ Jesus in that dread hour; and yet he says, I am not alone, because the Father is with me. O brave Master, make us also brave! May we be willing to stand alone for thy sake, and to feel that we are never so little alone as when we are alone with thee!

Joh 16:33. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.

Your Lord wants you to have peace. Come, then, ye tried ones, ye who are tossed about with a thousand troublous thoughts, it is your Masters wish and will that ye should have peace.

Joh 16:33. In the world ye shall have tribulation:

You have found that true, have you not? Perhaps you are finding it true just now: In the world ye shall have tribulation.

Joh 16:33. But be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

And in that overcoming he has conquered for you also, and he guarantees to you the victory in his name.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Joh 16:16. – , a little while-and again a little while) viz. it is. In all, four days. Comp. the expression hour, Joh 16:21 : and now, Joh 16:22. He speaks most gently (mildly) of His Passion.- -, ye do not contemplate or behold-ye shall see [have Me before your eyes]) The Present and Future. , and differ. For the latter is more associated with feeling and affection: Joh 16:22, I will see () you again, and your heart shall rejoice, etc.[365]-, because) This is the cause both of their not beholding (), and after a little while again seeing (i.e. by faith and through the Spirit sent down on them: ; not literal seeing.) Comp. Joh 16:10.

[365] Tittman says that differs from and , which denote the action of seeing, and from , which refers only to the subject, and expresses the state or affection of the mind to which the object is presented. It refers at once to the object presented to the eye, and to the subject which perceives. Hence it is only used in the Passive or Middle, and in the past or future, not in the present tense. As it does not denote the act of seeing, but the state of him to whose eye or mind the object is presented, the active would not express this, but the Middle does. The thing is supposed to have been done, or to be about to be done by which we arrive at cognizance, therefore it is put, not in the present, but in the past or future. Mat 5:8, , they shall comprehend and know God: for actual seeing God is not possible (?). implies desire of seeing, the intention of mind with which one contemplates an object. Joh 14:17, -, the world does not attentively consider, or regard (not simply, seeth) Him, and therefore does not understand or know Him. is not the mere act of an instant, but to contemplate with desire and regard for a long time.-E. and T.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Joh 16:16

Joh 16:16

A little while, and ye behold me no more; and again a little while, and ye shall see me.-In a little while he would be taken from them and go into the grave where they could not see him and, in a little while he would appear again and they could see him. These things would be brought about as preparatory to his return to his Father.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

A: Joh 16:5, Joh 16:10, Joh 16:17-19, Joh 7:33, Joh 12:35, Joh 13:33, Joh 14:19

a little while: Joh 20:19-29, Joh 21:1-23, Act 1:3, Act 10:40, Act 10:41, 1Co 15:5-9

because: Joh 16:28, Joh 13:3, Joh 17:5, Joh 17:13, Mar 16:19, Heb 12:2

Reciprocal: Luk 5:35 – when Luk 17:22 – when Luk 24:44 – while Joh 14:28 – heard Joh 16:19 – A little Joh 16:25 – proverbs

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

ABSENT AND PRESENT

A little while, and ye shall not see Me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see Me.

Joh 16:16

In the first part of the sentence our Lord evidently referred to the time during which His bodily Presence would be hidden from them by reason of His death and burial.

So far all is clear. But what did the Lord mean when He said, I shall see you again? The time was at hand when a different kind of contact would be possible, and intercourse would begin. After His Ascension, the disciples would feel that He was near them always. They would make Him the partner of their lives as truly as they had done in the days of His earthly sojourn. They would come to feel that, though in one sense they had lost Christ, yet in another and a higher sense they had found Him; that though He was no longer visible to the bodily eye, yet with the spiritual eye they could see Him, and rejoice in the spiritual vision vouchsafed to them with a joy which no man could take from them.

There are certain truths which are plainly suggested by our subject, all of them essential to true Christian life.

I. We ought to depend less than we are accustomed to do on the supports of earthly and bodily companionship.These we know are very real, very blessed, and often very full of comfort and joy. But they are, in their nature, uncertain and transient. Their value changes in altered circumstances and in varying conditions of life.

II. However dark and apparently hopeless any period of life may seem, a Christian ought to cherish the confidence that God is in possession of the future.There is a work which God intends us to do, a place He intends us to fill. We are not really so dependent as we are tempted to think on the help or companionship of any one. Separation means grief and strain and the bitter sense of bereavement and loneliness. The disciples of Christ felt this keenly, and we must pass through a like experience. But it is very instructive to remember, on the one hand, the despondency, the sinking of heart, the perplexity, the misery of the friends of Christ on the night of the betrayal; and, on the other hand, to consider the great work in the future which God intended and enabled them to do. All life is individual life. God has His plan for each one of us, and He will strengthen us to carry it out. No earthly loss, however great, can, of itself, defeat Gods purpose, and no earthly sorrow, however crushing, can wrest our future from His Hand.

III. If in one sense it is true that Christ left this world at His Ascension, in another sense it is equally true that He did not leave the world at all.The spiritual sight which was promised to the disciples is promised also to us. The experience of Christians in all ages has proved how true it is that, though the earthly Presence is withdrawn, those who love Him are still able to see Him in another and better way.

Bishop J. Macarthur.

Illustration

There was one consequence of the Lords departure which the disciples had not conceived of at all. He was anxious to make it clear to them. Another companionship than His was prepared for them. It would not be an outward and visible companionship, but, for that very reason, its value would be greater. The Divine Spirit would enter into them, and His Presence with them would be permanent, unchanging, secure against all the risks and disturbances which attach to outward relationships. The Spirit could not come to them till Christ had gone away. As long as Christ was with them, they would naturally cling to the outward Presence. They lacked as yet the power to apprehend and rely upon inward and spiritual help. It was inevitable that it should be so. We all instinctively cling to what is visible, and to the things with which we have contact through our bodily senses.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE LITTLE WHILE

The disciples did not know what our Lord meant. Our Lord heard their reasonings, and He came and explained to them that little while.

I. The little while.Yet it is not so easy for us to understand it perfectly, and we must reason with ourselves even as the disciples did. Some people have thought that our Lord merely meant that there should be a spiritual seeing of Him, and that in that spiritual seeing they should have perfect rest and perfect joy; that Christ should be all in all to them. But can we limit it in that way? Our Lord was speaking of the time when the Jews should rejoice because He, the great Destroyer of the peace of Jerusalem, the One Who attacked all the corruptions of the Jewish Church, was hanged upon the Cross. Did the disciples see Him? Was not that a little time? Did He not rise again on the third day, did He not at once appear to them? So that we have an explanation of the first little while perfectly clear to our minds and thoughts. It was simply this, the world rejoiced because the Christ was dead; the disciples wept because the Christ was dead. They looked upon Him now, they saw Him with them, they heard His words, and He had told them that a little while hence He would be passing away, and they should see Him no more. Is not that the explanation of the first little while?

II. Gods little while.But when we come to the second little while, there is a difficulty as to what our Lord meant. He was to go to the Father, yet do we not see Christ now? The disciples saw Him as He rose from the dead. We, too, see Him upon that Cross which is our glory, and He is to us the living One, because He was the dead. When He rose from the grave He only proved to us that the Father accepted His sacrifice, and because He had borne the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors, therefore He had come out victorious with a victory that would last for ever and ever. Christ is to us a source of constant blessing, the source of all our consolation. He lives in our faith, and, if we have any hearts, He lives in our love, He lives in our life. So when the disciples saw Him again their joy was full, because they knew that Christ had risen. And their joy was to remain that which no one could take from them; it was to last for ever. So it has ever been; and all the greatest and most devout thinkers upon this verse have been of opinion that the little while in which Christ promised to be seen again is the little while of God which lasts on in the Christian Church until Christ shall come again.

III. The sight of Christ.So, too, do we not see Christ? What do we mean by saying at the end our prayers, Through Jesus Christ, unless we see Him? It is, indeed, a sight of faith, but it is the sight the Spirit gives us of all the love, power, beauty, and work of Christ. Let us ask God the Holy Spirit to paint for us the living Christ more perfectly, to show us the praise of that endless love, and to cast His bright beams upon our own reading concerning the Blessed Lord. It is just so that we must pass the little while here until there comes, in the soft shades of night, the voice which says, Come up hither, and we go and meet our Lord in the bright beams of His own light.

Rev. S. Bache-Harris.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

6

A little while Is uttered twice; the first means the time until Jesus was to be crucified and buried; the second is the time of three days he would be in the grave. After Jesus went to his Father the disciples could not see him, it is true, but in order for him to go to the Father, it was necessary for him to come forth from the grave, and then would come the period that would make the second absence a little while also to which Jesus referred in this important conversation.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.

[And ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.] “A little while, and ye shall not see me, because I go to the Father; and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father”; i.e. “Ye shall not see me personally, but virtually.” It is true, they did not see him when he lay in the grave; and they did see him when he rose again: but I question whether these words ought to be taken in this sense, because it would sound somewhat harshly here what is added, “Ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.” I would therefore rather understand it of his ascending into heaven; after which they saw him, indeed, no more personally, but they did see him in the influences and gift of his Holy Spirit. And so what follows agrees well enough with this sense of the words, Joh 16:23; “In that day ye shall ask me nothing” [as ye were now about to inquire of me, Joh 16:19]: “ask the Father in my name; and he shall reveal to you whatever you shall ask of him.”

Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels

Not all Christ’s sayings were understood by His disciples. We are told this distinctly in the passage we have now read.-“What is this that he saith? We cannot tell what he saith.”-None ever spoke so plainly as Jesus. None were so thoroughly accustomed to His style of teaching as the Apostles. Yet even the Apostles did not always take in their Master’s meaning. Surely we have no right to be surprised if we cannot interpret Christ’s words. There are many depths in them which we have no line to fathom. But let us thank God that there are many sayings of our Lord recorded which no honest mind can fail to understand. Let us use diligently the light that we have, and not doubt that “to him that hath, more shall be given.”

We learn, for one thing, in these verses, that Christ’s absence from the earth will be a time of sorrow to believers, but of joy to the world. It is written, “Ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice.” To confine these words to the single point of Christ’s approaching death and burial, appears a narrow view of their meaning. Like many of our Lord’s sayings on the last evening of His earthly ministry, they seem to extend over the whole period of time between His first and second advents.

Christ’s personal absence must needs be a sorrow to all true-hearted believers. “The children of the bride-chamber cannot but fast when the bridegroom is taken from them.” Faith is not sight. Hope is not certainty. Reading and hearing are not the same as beholding. Praying is not the same as speaking face to face. There is something, even in the hearts of the most eminent saints, that will never be fully satisfied so long as they are on earth and Christ is in heaven. So long as they dwell in a body of corruption, and see through a glass darkly,-so long as they behold creation groaning under the power of sin, and all things not put under Christ,-so long their happiness and peace must needs be incomplete. This is what Paul meant when he said, “We ourselves, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” (Rom 8:23.)

Yet this same personal absence of Christ is no cause of sorrow to the children of this world. It was not sorrow to the unbelieving Jews, we may be sure. When Christ was condemned and crucified, they rejoiced and were glad. They thought that the hated reprover of their sins and false teaching was silenced forever.-It is not to the careless and the wicked of our day, we may be sure. The longer Christ keeps away from this earth, and lets them alone, the better will they be pleased. “We do not want this Christ to reign over us,” is the feeling of the world. His absence causes them no pain. Their so-called happiness is complete without Him. All this may sound very painful and startling. But where is the thinking reader of the Bible who can deny that it is true? The world does not want Christ back again, and thinks that it does very well without Him. What a fearful waking up there will be by-and-by!

We learn, for another thing in this verse, that Christ’s personal return shall be a source of boundless joy to His believing people. It is written, “I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” Once more we must take care that we do not narrow the meaning of these words by tying them down to our Lord’s resurrection. They surely reach much further than this. The joy of the disciples when they saw Christ risen from the dead, was a joy soon obscured by His ascension and withdrawal into heaven. The true joy, the perfect joy, the joy that can never be taken away, will be the joy which Christ’s people will feel when Christ returns the second time, at the end of this world.

The second personal advent of Christ, to speak plainly, is the one grand object on which our Lord, both here and elsewhere, teaches all believers to fix their eyes. We ought to be always looking for and “loving His appearing,” as the perfection of our happiness, and the consummation of all our hopes. (2Pe 3:12; 2Ti 4:8.) That same Jesus who was taken up visibly into heaven, shall also come again visibly, even as He went. Let the eyes of our faith be always fixed on this coming. It is not enough that we look backward to the cross, and rejoice in Christ dying for our sins; and upwards to the right hand of God, and rejoice in Christ’s interceding for every believer. We must do more than this. We must look forward to Christ’s return from heaven to bless His people, and to wind up the work of redemption. Then, and then only, will the prayer of eighteen centuries receive its complete answer,-“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Well may our Lord say that in that day of resurrection and reunion our “hearts shall rejoice.”-“When we awake up after His likeness we shall be satisfied.” (Psa 17:15.)

We learn, lastly, in these verses, that while Christ is absent believers must ask much in prayer. It is written, “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

We may well believe that up to this time the disciples had never realized their Master’s full dignity. They had certainly never understood that He was the one Mediator between God and man, in whose name and for whose sake they were to put up their prayers. Here they are distinctly told that henceforward they are to “ask in His name.” Nor can we doubt that our Lord would have all His people, in every age, understand that the secret of comfort during His absence is to be instant in prayer. He would have us know that if we cannot see Him with our bodily eyes any longer, we can talk with Him, and through Him have special access to God. “Ask and ye shall receive,” He proclaims to all His people in every age; “and your joy shall be full.”

Let the lesson sink down deeply into our hearts. Of all the list of Christian duties there is none to which there is such abounding encouragement, as prayer. It is a duty which concerns all. High and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned,-all must pray. It is a duty for which all are accountable. All cannot read, or hear, or sing; but all who have the spirit of adoption can pray. Above all, it is a duty in which everything depends on the heart and motive within. Our words may be feeble and ill-chosen, and our language broken and ungrammatical, and unworthy to be written down. But if the heart be right, it matters not. He that sits in heaven can spell out the meaning of every petition sent up in the name of Jesus, and can make the asker know and feel that he receives.

“If we know these things, happy are we if we do them.” Let prayer in the name of Jesus be a daily habit with us every morning and evening of our lives. Keeping up that habit, we shall find strength for duty, comfort in trouble, guidance in perplexity, hope in sickness, and support in death. Faithful is He that promised, “Your joy shall be full;” and He will keep His word, if we ask in prayer.

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Notes-

v16.-[A little while, and ye shall, etc.] There is a difficulty in this verse which requires consideration. To what time does our Lord refer when He says, “a little while and ye shall not see Me,” and “ye shall see Me”? There are two answers.

(a) Some think, as Chrysostom, Cyril, and Hengstenberg, that our Lord only meant, “in a few hours I shall be removed by death, and buried, and then you will not see Me; and again after three days I shall rise again, and then you will see Me.”

(b) Others think, as Augustine, Maldonatus, and Wordsworth, that our Lord meant, “In a short time I shall leave the world, ascend up to heaven, and go to my Father, and you will see Me no more; and again, in comparatively short time, I shall return to the world at my second advent, and you will see Me again.”

I decidedly prefer the second of these interpretations. To explain the words, “Ye shall not see Me,” and “Ye shall see Me,” by our Lord’s death and resurrection, seems to me a forced and unnatural interpretation. Moreover it completely fails to explain the words, “I go to the Father.” Both here and all through the passage, I believe our Lord is speaking for the benefit of the whole Church until His coming again, and not merely for the benefit of the eleven apostles. The true sense is best seen by inverting the order of the words. “The time has arrived when I must leave the world, and go back again to my Father. The consequence is that in a little time you will no longer see Me with your bodily eyes, for I shall be in heaven and you on earth. But take comfort! In a little time I shall return again with power and great glory, and then you and all my believing people will see Me again.”

It is worth notice, in support of the view I maintain, that the expression in Greek, “a little while,” is almost the same as in Heb 10:37, when the second advent is clearly spoken of. Moreover the expression, “I go,” is distinctly applied in several places to our Lord’s final departure from the world, and seldom, if ever, to our Lord’s death on the cross.

Alford thinks His meaning is manifold, and says, “[The words] ‘Ye shall see Me’ began to be fulfilled at the resurrection, then receive its main fulfilment at Pentecost, and shall have its final fulfilment at the return of our Lord.” This strikes me as a very untenable view.

It is curious that the first “Ye shall see” is in the present tense, and is an entirely different word to the second, which is a future. The first would be rendered literally, “Ye behold, or gaze upon Me.”

v17.-[Then said some, etc.] This whole verse shows how little the disciples realized or understood our Lord’s meaning at present, when He spoke of His second advent. Yet when we consider how widely different are the meanings put on our Lord’s words by Christians in this day, we can hardly feel surprised that eleven weak believers, like the apostles, could not take in the full sense of the words when they first heard them, the night before the crucifixion.

v18.-[They said therefore…little while.] This sentence shows that it was the “time” mentioned-“a little while”-which perplexed the disciples. We may conjecture that they could not make out whether it meant “literally” a few days or hours, or figuratively a comparatively short time. And is not this precisely the point on which all students of unfulfilled prophecy disagree? The verse before us is curiously applicable to many a prophetical controversy.

[We cannot tell…saith.] These words would be more literally rendered, “We do not know what He is speaking of.”

v19.-[Now Jesus knew…ask Him.] Here, as in other places, our Lord’s perfect knowledge of the hearts and thoughts of all around Him is pointed out. The word “ask,” we should carefully note, is literally “to ask questions about a thing.” It is the same word that is used in Joh 16:23 : “at that day ye shall ask Me nothing.”

[And said, etc.] The word rendered, “Do ye inquire among yourselves of that?” would be more literally, “Concerning this, do ye seek with each other?”

v20.-[Verily…say unto you.] It should be observed in this verse that our Lord gives no reply to the inquiry of the disciples. He does not tell them what He meant by saying “a little while.” Questions about times and dates are rarely answered in Scripture. Our attention is rather turned to practical things.

[Ye shall weep and lament, etc.] I believe, with Augustine and Bede, that the whole verse is meant to be a general description of the state of things between the first and second advents of Christ. “During my absence from the world after my ascension, you, my beloved disciples, and all believers after you, shall have many reasons to lament and mourn, like a bride separate from her husband, while the wicked world around you shall rejoice in my absence, and not wish to see Me return. During this long weary interval, you and all believers after you shall often have sorrow and tribulation; but at last, when I come again, your sorrow shall be turned into joy.” In support of this view I advise the reader to study Mat 9:15. The idea in each place seems the same. (Compare also Isa 65:14.)

Poole remarks, “The time of this life is the worldling’s hour, while it is for the most part the power of darkness to all who love and fear God. But as the worldling’s joy shall at last be turned into sorrow, so the godly man’s sorrow shall be turned into joy.” (Isa 50:11; Mat 25:23.)

The interpretation of Chrysostom, Cyril, and others, which makes the whole verse fulfilled by the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord, appears to me very unsatisfactory. It hardly affords time for the weeping and rejoicing which is here described. Nor is it quite clear that the day during which our Lord lay in the grave was a day of rejoicing to His enemies, if we may judge by their anxiety to prevent, if possible, His resurrection from the dead.

v21.-[A woman, etc.] This verse is an illustration of the whole state of the Church between the first and second advents of Christ. It was to be a time of pain, anxiety, and desire for deliverance, from which the only cessation would be at the personal return of Christ.

We are distinctly told in Rom 8:22, that “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain until now.” It is the normal state of things while Christ is absent. The second coming of the second Adam can alone restore joy to the world. The Church in Rev 12:2, is compared to a woman “travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.” The wars and disturbances of the world are called in Mat 24:8, the beginning of “sorrows;” and the word “sorrows” there means literally “the pains of a travailing woman.”

The whole idea of the verse seems to be that the interval between Christ’s first and second advent will be, to the Church, a period of pain, sorrow, and anxiety, like the state of a woman expecting her delivery,-that the end of this period will be the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ the second time,-and that when our Lord does come the second time, the joy of the true Church will be so great, that the former sorrow and tribulation will be comparatively forgotten. The joy of seeing Christ will swallow up the afflictions of His absence. (Compare Rom 8:18-22; 2Co 4:17.)

v22.-[And ye now therefore, etc.] I apply to this verse the same principle of interpretation that I have applied to the preceding ones. I think our Lord is speaking of the sorrow and pain which believers would feel during the interval between His first and second advent. “You are now entering on a period of pain, sorrow, and tribulation. But fear not. It shall not be for ever. I will return and see you again. In that day your heart shall be filled and satisfied with joy, a joy which no one can ever take from you, a joy which shall be for ever.”

I cannot bring myself to believe that this “see you again” can possibly refer to the short period of forty days between the resurrection and the ascension! Above all, I feel strongly that the words, “Your joy no man taketh from you,” could certainly not be applied to the times of trouble, and tribulation, and persecution even unto death, which the primitive Church passed through in the beginning of its existence. The sensible joy of the primitive Church, beyond doubt, was often taken away, as when Stephen was martyred, James slain with the sword, and Peter put in prison. The second coming of Christ is the only time of universal and unbroken joy to which believers can look forward. Now we are in the wilderness, and our sorrowless home is yet to be reached. Then, and then only, will tears be wiped from all eyes.

v23.-[And in that day…ask…nothing.] In the first part of this verse I believe, with Augustine, that the “day” spoken of is the day of our Lord’s second advent. The “asking” is asking questions, or making inquiries, such as the disciples had wanted to make in Joh 16:19. “They were desirous to ask Him.” The Greek word is the same, and quite different from the word rendered “ask” in the latter part of this verse. The meaning of the sentence is, “In the day of my second advent you will not need to ask Me any questions. You will then fully understand the meaning of many things which you do not understand now.” The far superior light which believers will enjoy in the day of Christ’s second coming, is the chief point of the promise, as in 1Co 13:12.

Cyril and Chrysostom, however, apply “that day” to our Lord’s resurrection and the forty days following it.

[Verily, verily…whatsoever…ask…give it you.] In this portion of the verse our Lord renews and repeats His former promise about prayer. “Until that day when I come again, I solemnly declare that whatsoever things you shall ask in prayer from the Father in my name, He will give them to you.”

The word “ask” in the Greek, in the latter part of this verse, is entirely different from the word rendered “ask” in the former part. Here it signifies seeking or petitioning in prayer. There it meant asking questions.

It is worth noticing here how very frequent and full are the encouragements to prayer which our Lord holds out in the Gospels.

The “whatsoever” of the text must of course be limited to whatsoever things are really for God’s glory, the disciples’ good, and the interests of Christ’s cause in the world.

v24.-[Hitherto…nothing in my name.] This sentence means that up to this time the disciples had not prayed for anything through the name and mediation of Christ. They had followed Him as a teacher, looked up to Him as a master, loved Him as a friend, believed Him as the Messiah predicted by the prophets. But they had not fully realized that He was the one Mediator between God and man, through whom alone God’s mercy could come down to sinners, and sinful creatures could draw near to God. They were now to learn that their Master was one far higher than any prophet, yea, even than Moses himself.

Daniel’s prayer, “Shine on Thy sanctuary for the Lord’s sake,” is almost the only instance of a prayer in Messiah’s name in the Old Testament. (Dan 9:17.)

[Ask…receive…joy…full.] This sentence means, “From henceforth begin the practice of asking everything in my name and through my mediation. Ask fully and confidently, and you shall receive fully and abundantly. So asking, you shall find the joy and comfort of your own souls enlarged and filled up.”

John Gerhard here remarks: “The benefit of prayer is so great that it cannot be expressed!-Prayer is the dove which, when sent out, returns again, bringing with it the olive-leaf, namely peace of heart. Prayer is the golden chain which God holds fast, and lets not go until He blesses. Prayer is the Moses’ rod, which brings forth the water of consolation out of the rock of salvation. Prayer is Samson’s jaw-bone, which smites down our enemies. Prayer is David’s harp, before which the evil spirit flies. Prayer is the key to heaven’s treasures.”

The Greek word rendered “full” means literally “filled up,” being the perfect participle of the verb “to fill or fulfil.”

The sentence teaches us that the joy and happiness of believers admit of degrees, and may be fuller at one time than at another. It also teaches that the joy of a believer depends much on his fervency and earnestness in prayer. He that prays little and coldly must not expect to know much of “joy and peace in believing.”

We should not fail to observe how prayer is set before believers here as a plain duty, in the imperative mood, and also how desirous our Lord is that His people should be rejoicing Christians even now in the midst of a bad world. That religion which makes people melancholy and miserable and wretched-looking, is a very low type of Christianity, and far below the standard of Him who wished “joy to be full.” (Compare 1Jn 1:4.)

Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

Joh 16:16. A little while, and ye behold me no longer; and again a little while, and ye shall see me. Trial has been spoken of and encouragement given. That both shall soon be known is the transition to the present verse. The difference between the verbs behold and see must determine the meaning of the words, the former here denoting (as in chap. Joh 14:19) vision with the bodily, the latter vision with the spiritual, eye. The time closing the first little while is the death of Christ, when not beholding begins; the time closing the second little while dates from the resurrection, when the seeing begins and continues for ever (comp. chap. Joh 14:19). After the death of their Lord the disciples shall be in the position of the world (chap. Joh 13:13); under the saddening influence of that event their faith shall wane, and all the joy experienced in His presence shall disappear. But He whom they had thought lost for ever shall enter at His resurrection on a glorified existence, from which He shall send to them that Advocate in whom and through whom He shall be always with them, and they with Him.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

In these words our holy Lord proceeds to comfort his disciples with a promise, that, however he was now to be removed from them, yet they should shortly see him again, namely, after his resurrection; it being impossible that he should be held by death, but must arise and go to his Father. His disciples, not understanding what he meant, but labouring under the prejudices of their national errors, concerning the temporal kingdom of the Messias, knew not what to make of those words. A little while and ye shall not see me.

Our Saviour therefore explains himself to his disciples, telling them that they shall have a time of sad sorrow and grief of heart, during the time of his sufferings and absence from them, but their sadness shall soon be turned into joy, when they shall see him alive again after his resurrection.

This he illustrates by the similitude of a travailing woman, who soon forgets her sorrow after she hath brought forth a child. Thus will their revive upon the sight of him risen from the grave; and no man shall be able to take their joy away from them, because he shall die no more, but go to heaven, and there live for ever, to make intercession for them.

Learn hence, 1. From the apostles not understanding Christ’s words concerning his departure, though so often inculcated upon them, A little while and ye shall not see me, because I go to the Father, hence note, how unreasonable it is to arrogate to man’s understanding a power to comprehend spiritual mysteries, yea, to understand the plainest truth, till Christ enlightens the understanding; let the doctrine be delivered ever so plainly, and repeated ever so frequently, yet will men continue ignorant, without divine illumination.

How often had this plain doctrine of Christ’s departure to the Father been preached to the disciples by Christ’s own mouth! Yet still they say, What is it that he saith? We cannot tell what he saith.

Learn, 2. The different effects which Christ’s absence should have upon the world, and upon his disciples; the world will rejoice but ye shall weep and lament.

Note, 1. That it is the wretched disposition of the world to rejoice in the absence and want of Christ out of the world. When I am gone, the world will rejoice.

2. That nothing is the cause of so much sorrow and sadness to sincere disciples, as Christ’s absence and removal from them: such is their estimation of the worth of him, so great is the apprehension of the want of him, that there is no loss comparable to his absence and removal from them: ye shall weep and lament at my departure, though the world will rejoice.

Learn, 3. That the believer’s sorrow for Christ’s absence, though it be very great, yet it shall not be perpetual: Ye have now sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy shall no man take from you. The joy of the saints may be interrupted, it shall never be totally extinguished; it is a permanent joy, of which they shall never be totally deprived, till they enter into the ocean of eternal joy: Your joy no man taketh from you.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Joh 16:16-22. A little while When I am dead and buried; and ye shall not see me I shall not converse with you on earth, as I have hitherto done; and again For your encouragement and comfort, I assure you it will be but a little while longer, and ye shall see me And that to your much greater comfort and advantage; because I go to the Father When I shall be so mindful of your interest with him, as, ere long, to bring you to an eternal abode with him. Then said some, What is this that he saith The terms in which Jesus had spoken of his death, resurrection, and ascension, being very obscure, the disciples were altogether at a loss to understand them. Wherefore, having revolved them a while in their own minds, they asked one another privately if they could comprehend what he meant. But each of them declared, with a kind of astonishment, that he could affix no idea to his words at all. Jesus, observing their perplexity, and knowing that they inclined to ask him about this matter, prevented them, by signifying that he knew what they had been saying. He therefore said, Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, &c. I will explain myself upon this point: Verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament When ye see me dead; but the world shall rejoice Your not seeing me is an event which shall occasion great grief to you, and joy to my enemies. However, your sorrow shall be turned into joy When ye see me risen. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, &c. The state of mind you shall be in when the events happen of which I am speaking, I cannot better describe than by comparing it to the condition of a woman in travail. During her labour she hath exquisite pain, because the birth approaches; but as soon as she is delivered, she forgets the anguish she was in, being filled with joy that she has brought one of the human species into the world. Just so, you, my disciples, will be in the greatest distress during the time of my departure. But, as I am to rise again from the dead, and to ascend into heaven, you will forget your sorrow, and rejoice exceedingly; and from that time forth your joy shall be of such a kind, as that it shall not be in the power of men to rob you of it. Macknight.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

III. The Last Farewell: 16:16-33.

From these distant prospects which He has just opened to the disciples with respect to their future work (Joh 15:1 to Joh 16:15), Jesus returns to the great matter which occupies the thought of the present moment, that of His impending departure. This is natural; thus He should close. At the same time, the conversational form reappears, which is no less in the natural course of things.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

16:16 {6} A {f} little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, {g} because I go to the Father.

(6) The grace of the Holy Spirit is a most distinct mirror in which Christ is truly beheld with the most sharp sighted eyes of faith, and not with the blurred eyes of the flesh: and by this we feel a continual joy even in the midst of sorrows.

(f) When a little time is past.

(g) For I go on to eternal glory, so that I will be much more present with you than I was before: for then you will feel indeed what I am, and what I am able to do.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The reappearance of Jesus 16:16-24

Jesus next turned the disciples’ attention from the Spirit’s future ministries to His own reappearance.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

As the following verses show, Jesus was referring here to His imminent departure in death and His return to the disciples shortly after His resurrection. The first "little while" was only a few hours in duration, and the second "little while" was only a few days. Other returns that Jesus had mentioned in this discourse included His return in the person of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and His bodily return at the Rapture.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

XV. LAST WORDS.

“A little while, and ye behold Me no more; and again a little while, and ye shall see Me. Some of His disciples therefore said one to another, What is this that He saith unto us, A little while, and ye behold Me not; and again a little while, and ye shall see Me: and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that He saith, A little while? We know not what He saith. Jesus perceived that they were desirous to ask Him, and He said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves concerning this, that I said, A little while, and ye behold Me not, and again a little while, and ye shall see Me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but when she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world. And ye therefore now have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh away from you. And in that day ye shall ask Me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If ye shall ask anything of the Father, He will give it you in My name. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be fulfilled. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: the hour cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but shall tell you plainly of the Father. In that day ye shall ask in My name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father. I came out from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go unto the Father. His disciples say, Lo, now speakest Thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now know we that Thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask Thee: by this we believe that Thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye may have peace. In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”– Joh 16:16-33.

In the intercourse of Jesus with His disciples He at all times showed one of the most delightful qualities of a friend–a quick and perfect apprehension of what was passing in their mind. They did not require to bring their mental condition before Him by laboured explanations. He knew what was in man, and He especially knew what was in them. He could forecast the precise impression which His announcements would make upon them, the doubts and the expectations they would give rise to. Sometimes they were surprised at this insight, always they profited by it. In fact, on more occasions than one this insight convinced them that Jesus had this clear knowledge of men given to Him that He might effectually deal with all men. It seemed to them, as of course it is, one of the essential equipments of One who is to be a real centre for the whole race and to bring help to each and all men. How could a person who was deficient in this universal sympathy and practical understanding of the very thoughts of each of us offer himself as our helper? There is therefore evidence in the life of Jesus that He was never non-plussed, never at a loss to understand the kind of man He had to do with. There is evidence of this, and it would seem that we all receive this evidence; for are we not conscious that our spiritual condition is understood, our thoughts traced, our difficulties sympathised with? We may feel very unlike many prominent Christians; we may have no sympathy with a great deal that passes for Christian sentiment; but Christ’s sympathy is universal, and nothing human comes wrong to Him. Begin with Him as you are, without professing to be, though hoping to be, different from what you are, and by the growth of your own spirit in the sunshine of His presence and under the guidance of His intelligent sympathy your doubts will pass away, your ungodliness be renounced. He is offered for your help as the essential condition of your progress and your growth.

Seeing the perplexity which certain of His expressions had created in the minds of His disciples, He proceeds to remove it. They had great need of hopefulness and courage, and He sought to inspire them with these qualities. They were on the edge of a most bitter experience, and it was of untold consequence that they should be upheld in it. He does not hide from them the coming distress, but He reminds them that very commonly pain and anxiety accompany the birth-throes of a new life; and if they found themselves shortly in depression and grief which seemed inconsolable, they were to believe that this was the path to a new and higher phase of existence and to a joy that would be lasting. Your grief, He says, will shortly end: your joy never. Your grief will soon be taken away: your joy no one shall take away. When Christ rose again, the disciples remembered and understood these words; and a few chapters further on we find John returning upon the word and saying, “When they saw the Lord, they were glad,”–they had this joy. It was a joy to them, because love for Christ and hope in Him were their dominant feelings. They had the joy of having their Friend again, of seeing Him victorious and proved to be all and more than they had believed. They had the first glowing visions of a new world for which the preparation was the life and resurrection of the Son of God. What were they not prepared to hope for as the result of the immeasurably great things they had themselves seen and known? It was a mere question now of Christ’s will: of His power they were assured.

The resurrection of Christ was, however, meant to bring lasting joy, not to these men only, but to all. These greatest of all events, the descent to earth of the Son of God with all Divine power and love, and His resurrection as the conqueror of all that bars the path of men from a life of light and joy, became solid facts in this world’s history, that all men might calculate their future by such a past, and might each for himself conclude that a future of which such events are the preparation must be great and happy indeed. Death, if not in all respects the most desolating, is the most certain of all human ills. Anguish and mourning it has brought and will bring to many human hearts. Do what we will we cannot save our friends from it; by us it is unconquerable. Yet it is in this most calamitous of human ills God has shown His nearness and His love. It is to the death of Christ men look to see the full brightness of God’s fatherly love. It is this darkest point of human experience that God has chosen to irradiate with His absorbing glory. Death is at once our gravest fear and the spring of our hope; it cuts short human intercourse, but in the cross of Christ it gives us a never-failing, divinely loving Friend. The death of Christ is the great compensation of all the ill that death has brought into human life; and when we see death made the medium of God’s clearest manifestation, we are almost grateful to it for affording material for an exhibition of God’s love which transforms all our own life and all our own hopes.

Lasting joy is the condition in which God desires us to be, and He has given us cause of joy. In Christ’s victory we see all that is needed to give us hopefulness about the future. Each man finds for himself assurance of God’s interest in us and in our actual condition: assurance that whatever is needful to secure for us a happy eternity has been done; assurance that in a new heavens and a new earth we shall find lasting satisfaction. This true, permanent, all-embracing joy is open to all, and is actually enjoyed by those who have something of Christ’s Spirit, whose chief desire is to see holiness prevail and to keep themselves and others in harmony with God. To such the accomplishment of God’s will seems a certainty, and they have learned that the accomplishment of that will means good to them and to all who love God. The holiness and harmony with God that win this joy are parts of it. To be the friends of Christ, imbued with His views of life and of God, this from first to last is a thing of joy.

That which the disciples at length believed and felt to be the culmination of their faith was that Jesus had come forth from God. He Himself more fully expresses what He desired them to believe about Him in the words: “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again I leave the world, and go to the Father.” No doubt there is a sense in which any man may use this language of himself. We can all truthfully say we came forth from God and came into the world; and we pass out from the world and return to God. But that the disciples did not understand the words in this sense is obvious from the difficulty they found in reaching this belief. Had Jesus merely meant that it was true of Him, as of all others, that God is the great existence out of whom we spring and to whom we return, the disciples could have found no difficulty and the Jews must all have believed in Him. In some special and exceptional sense, then, He came forth from God. What, then, was this sense?

When Nicodemus came to Jesus, he addressed Him as a teacher “come from God,” because, he added, “no man can do these miracles which Thou doest except God be with Him.” In Nicodemus’ lips, therefore, the words “a teacher come from God” meant a teacher with a Divine mission and credentials. In this sense all the prophets were teachers “come from God.” And accordingly many careful readers of the Gospels believe that nothing more than this is meant by any of those expressions our Lord uses of Himself, as “sent from God,” “come forth from God,” and so on. The only distinction, it is supposed, between Christ and other prophets is that He is more highly endowed, is commissioned and equipped as God’s representative in a more perfect degree than Moses or Samuel or Elijah. He had their power to work miracles, their authority in teaching; but having a more important mission to accomplish, He had this power and authority more fully. Now, it is quite certain that some of the expressions which a careless reader might think conclusive in proof of Christ’s divinity were not intended to express anything more than that He was God’s commissioner. Indeed, it is remarkable how He Himself seems to wish men to believe this above all else–that He was sent by God. In reading the Gospel of John one is tempted to say that Jesus almost intentionally avoids affirming His divinity explicitly and directly when there seemed opportunity to do so. Certainly His main purpose was to reveal the Father, to bring men to understand that His teaching about God was true, and that He was sent by God.

There are, however, some expressions which unquestionably affirm Christ’s pre-existence, and convince us that before He appeared in this world He lived with God. And among these expressions the words He uses in this passage hold a place: “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.” These words, the disciples felt, lifted a veil from their eyes; they told Him at once that they found an explicitness in this utterance which had been a-wanting in others. And, indeed, nothing could be more explicit: the two parts of the sentence balance and interpret one another. “I leave the world, and go to the Father,” interprets “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world.” To say “I leave the world” is not the same as to say “I go to the Father”: this second clause describes a state of existence which is entered upon when existence in this world is done. And to say “I came forth from the Father” is not the same as to say “I came into the world”; it describes a state of existence antecedent to that which began by coming into the world.

Thus the Apostles understood the words, and felt therefore that they had gained a new platform of faith. This they felt to be plain-speaking, meant to be understood. It so precisely met their craving and gave them the knowledge they sought, that they felt more than ever Christ’s insight into their state of mind and His power to satisfy their minds. At length they are able to say with assurance that He has come forth from God. They are persuaded that behind what they see there is a higher nature, and that in Christ’s presence they are in the presence of One whose origin is not of this world. It was this pre-existence of Christ with God which gave the disciples assurance regarding all He taught them. He spoke of what He had seen with the Father.

This belief, however, assured though it was, did not save them from a cowardly desertion of Him whom they believed to be God’s representative on earth. They would, when confronted with the world’s authorities and powers, abandon their Master to His fate, and “would leave Him alone.” He had always, indeed, been alone. All men who wish to carry out some novel design or accomplish some extensive reform must be prepared to stand alone, to listen unmoved to criticism, to estimate at their real and very low value the prejudiced calumnies of those whose interests are opposed to their design. They must be prepared to live without reward and without sympathy, strong in the consciousness of their own rectitude and that God will prosper the right. Jesus enjoyed the affection of a considerable circle of friends; He was not without the comfort and strength which come of being believed in; but in regard to His purpose in life He was always alone. And yet, unless He won men over to His views, unless He made some as ardent as Himself regarding them, His work was lost. This was the special hardship of Christ’s solitariness. Those whom He had gathered were to desert Him in the critical hour; but the sore part of this desertion was that they were to go “each to his own”–oblivious, that is to say, of the great cause in which they had embarked with Christ.

At all times this is the problem Christ has to solve: how to prevail upon men to look at life from His point of view, to forget their own things and combine with Him, to be as enamoured of His cause as He Himself is. He looks now upon us with our honest professions of faith and growing regard, and He says: Yes, you believe; but you scatter each to his own at the slightest breath of danger or temptation. This scattering, each to his own, is that which thwarts Christ’s purpose and imperils His work. The world with its enterprises and its gains, its glitter and its glory, its sufficiency for the present life, comes in and tempts us; and apart from the common good, we have each our private schemes of advantage. And yet there is nothing more certain than that our ultimate advantage is measured by the measure in which we throw in our lot with Christ–by the measure in which we practically recognise that there is an object for which all men in common can work, and that to scatter “each to his own” is to resign the one best hope of life, the one satisfying and remunerative labour.

In revealing what sustained Himself Christ reveals the true stay of every soul of man. His trial was indeed severe. Brought without a single friend to the bar of unsympathetic and unscrupulous judges: the Friend of man, loving as no other has ever loved, and craving love and sympathy as no other has craved it, yet standing without one pitying eye, without one voice raised in His favour. Alone in a world He came to convince and to win; at the end of His life, spent in winning men, left without one to say He had not lived in vain; abandoned to enemies, to ignorant, cruel, profane men. He was dragged through the streets where He had spoken words of life and healed the sick, but no rescue was attempted. So outcast from all human consideration was He, that a Barabbas found friendly voices where He found none. Hearing the suborned witnesses swear His life away, He heard at the same time His boldest disciple deny that he knew any person of the name of Jesus. But through this abandonment He knew the Father’s presence was with Him. “I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.”

Times which in their own degree try us with the same sense of solitariness come upon us all. All pain is solitary; you must bear it alone: kind friends may be round you, but they cannot bear one pang for you. You feel how separate and individual an existence you have when your body is racked with pain and healthy people are by your side; and you feel it also when you visit some pained or sorrowing person and sit silently in their presence, feeling that the suffering is theirs and that they must bear it. We should not brood much over any apparent want of recognition we may meet with; all such brooding is unwholesome and weak. Many of our minor sufferings we do best to keep to ourselves and say nothing about them. Let us strive to show sympathy, and we shall feel less the pain of not having it. To a large extent every one must be alone in life–forming his own views of things, working out his own idea of life, conquering his own sins, and schooling his own heart. And every one is more or less misunderstood even by his most intimate friends. He finds himself congratulated on occurrences which are no joy to him, applauded for successes he is ashamed of; the very kindnesses of his friends reveal to him how little they understand his nature. But all this will not deeply affect a healthy-minded man, who recognises that he is in the world to do good, and who is not always craving applause and recognition.

But there are occasional times in which the want of sympathy is crushingly felt. Some of the most painful and enduring sorrows of the human heart are of a kind which forbid that they be breathed to the nearest friend. Even if others know that they have fallen upon us they cannot allude to them; and very often they are not even known. And there are times even more trying, when we have not only to bear a sorrow or an anxiety all our own, but when we have to adopt a line of conduct which exposes us to misunderstanding, and to act continuously in a manner which shuts us off from the sympathy of our friends. Our friends remonstrate and advise, and we feel that their advice is erroneous: we are compelled to go our own way and bear the charge of obstinacy and even of cruelty; for sometimes, like Abraham offering Isaac, we cannot satisfy conscience without seeming to injure or actually injuring those we love.

It is in times like these that our faith is tested. We gain a firmer hold of God than ever before when we in actual life prefer His countenance and fellowship to the approbation and good-will of our friends. When in order to keep conscience clean we dare to risk the good-will of those we depend upon for affection and for support, our faith becomes a reality and rapidly matures. For a time we may seem to have rendered ourselves useless, and to have thrown ourselves out of all profitable relations to our fellow-men: we may be shunned, and our opinions and conduct may be condemned, and the object we had in view may seem to be further off than ever; but such was the experience of Christ also, till even He was forced to cry out, not only Why have ye, My friends, forsaken Me? but “My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” But as in His case, so in ours–this is only the natural and necessary path to the perfect justification of ourselves and of the principles our conduct has represented. If in obedience to conscience we are exposed to isolation and the various loss consequent upon it, we are not alone–God is with us. It is in the line of our conduct He is working and will carry out His purposes. And well might such an one be envied by those who have feared such isolation and shrunk from the manifold wretchedness that comes of resisting the world’s ways and independently following an unworldly and Christian path.

For really in our own life, as in the life of Christ, all is summed up in the conflict between Christ and the world; and therefore the last words of this His last conversation are: “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good courage. I have overcome the world.” When Christ speaks of “the world” as comprising all that was opposed to Him, it is not difficult to understand His meaning. By “the world” we sometimes mean this earth; sometimes all external things, sun, moon, and stars as well as this earth; sometimes we mean the world of men, as when we say “All the world knows” such and such a thing, or as when Christ said “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.” But much more commonly Christ uses it to denote all in the present state of things which opposes God and leads man away from God. We speak of worldliness as fatal to the spirit, because worldliness means preference for what is external and present to what is inward and both present and future. Worldliness means attachment to things as they are–to the ways of society, to the excitements, the pleasures, the profits, of the present. It means surrender to what appeals to the sense–to comfort to vanity, to ambition, to love of display. Worldliness is the spirit which uses the present world without reference to the lasting and spiritual purposes for the sake of which men are in this world. It ignores what is eternal and what is spiritual; it is satisfied with present comfort, with what brings present pleasure, with what ministers to the beauty of this present life, to the material prosperity of men. And no soul whatsoever or wheresoever situated can escape the responsibility of making his choice between the world and God. To each of us the question which determines all else is, Am I to live for ends which find their accomplishment in this present life, or for ends which are eternal? Am I to live so as to secure the utmost of comfort, of ease, of money, of reputation, of domestic enjoyment, of the good things of this present world? or am I to live so as to do the most I can for the forwarding of God’s purposes with men, for the forwarding of spiritual and eternal good? There is no man who is not living for one or other of these ends. Two men enter the same office and transact the same business; but the one is worldly, the other Christian: two men do the same work, use the same material, draw the same salary; but one cherishes a spiritual end, the other a worldly,–the one works, always striving to serve God and his fellows, the other has nothing in view but himself and his own interests. Two women live in the same street, have children at the same school, dress very much alike; but you cannot know them long without perceiving that the one is worldly, with her heart set on position and earthly advancement for her children, while the other is unworldly and prays that her children may learn to conquer the world and to live a stainless and self-sacrificing life though it be a poor one. This is the determining probation of life; this it is which determines what we are and shall be. We are, every one of us, living either with the world as our end or for God. The difficulty of choosing rightly and abiding by our choice is extreme: no man has ever found it easy; for every man it is a sufficient test of his reality, of his dependence on principle, of his moral clear-sightedness, of his strength of character.

Therefore Christ, as the result of all His work, announces that He has “overcome the world.” And on the ground of this conquest of His He bids His followers rejoice and take heart, as if somehow His conquest of the world guaranteed theirs, and as if their conflict would be easier on account of His. And so indeed it is. Not only has every one now who proposes to live for high and unworldly ends the satisfaction of knowing that such a life is possible, and not only has he the vast encouragement of knowing that One has passed this way before and attained His end; but, moreover, it is Christ’s victory which has really overcome the world in a final and public way. The world’s principles of action, its pleasure-seeking, its selfishness, its childish regard for glitter and for what is present to sense, in a word, its worldliness when set over against the life of Christ, is for ever discredited. The experience of Christ in this world reflects such discredit upon merely worldly ways, and so clearly exhibits its blindness, its hatred of goodness, its imbecility when it strives to counterwork God’s purposes, that no man who morally has his eyes open can fail to look with suspicion and abhorrence on the world. And the dignity, the love, the apprehension of what is real and abiding in human affairs, and the ready application of His life to a real and abiding purpose–all this, which is so visible in the life of Christ, gives certainty and attractiveness to the principles opposed to worldliness. We have in Christ’s life at once an authoritative and an experimental teaching on the greatest of all human subjects–how life should be spent.

Christ has overcome the world, then, by resisting its influence upon Himself, by showing Himself actually superior to its most powerful influences; and His overcoming of the world is not merely a private victory availing for Himself alone, but it is a public good, because in His life the perfect beauty of a life devoted to eternal and spiritual ends is conspicuously shown. The man who can look upon the conflict between the world and Christ as John has shown it, and say, “I would rather be one of the Pharisees than Christ,” is hopelessly blind to the real value of human life. But what says our life regarding the actual choice we have made?

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary