1 I tell you all this to keep you from stumbling and falling away.
2 They will put you out of the Jewish communities. Still more, the hour is coming when anyone who kills you will claim to be serving God;
3 they will do this because they have not known the Father or me.
4 I tell you all these things now so that when the time comes you may remember that I told you.
I did not tell you about this in the beginning because I was with you.
5 But now I am going to the One who sent me and none of you asks me where I am going;
6 instead you are overcome with grief because of what I have said.
7 Indeed believe me: It is better for you that I go away, because as long as I do not leave, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go away, it is to send him to you,
8 and when he comes, he will vindicate the truth in face of the world with regard to sin, to the way of righteousness, and to the Judgment.
9 What has been the sin? They did not believe in me.
10 What is the way of righteousness? I am on the way to the Father, meanwhile you will not see me.
11 What Judgment? The prince of this world has himself been condemned.
12 I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now.
13 When he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into the whole truth.
He has nothing to say of himself but he will speak of what he hears, and he will tell you of the things to come.
14 He will take what is mine and make it known to you; in doing this, he will glorify me.
15 All that the Father has is mine; because of this I have just told you, that the Spirit will take what is mine and make it known to you.”
The promise of a new presence
16 A little while and you will see me no more; and then a little while, and you will see me.”
17 Some of the disciples wondered, “What does he mean by: ‘A little while and you will not see me, and then a little while and you will see me’? And why did he say: ‘I go to the Father’?”
18 And they said to one another, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand.”
19 Jesus knew that they wanted to question him; so he said to them, “You are puzzled be cause I told you that in a little while you will see me no more, and then a little while later you will see me.
20 Truly, I say to you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy.
21 A woman in childbirth is in distress because her time is at hand. But after the child is born, she no longer remembers her suffering because of such great joy: a human being is born into the world.
22 You feel sorrowful now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice. And no one will take your joy from you.
23 When that day comes you will not ask me anything. Truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my Name, he will give you.
24 So far you have not asked in my Name; ask and receive that your joy may be full.
25 I taught you all this in veiled language, but the time is coming when I shall no longer speak in veiled language, but will tell you plainly of the Father.
26 When that day comes, you will ask in my Name and it will not be for me to ask the Father for you,
27 for the Father himself loves you be cause you have loved me and you believe that I came from the Father.
28 As I came from the Father and have come into the world, so I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”
29 The disciples said to him, “Now you are speaking plainly and not in veiled language!
30 Now we see that you know all things, even be fore we question you. Because of this we believe that you came from God.”
31 Jesus answered them, “You say that you be lieve!
32 The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.
33 I have told you all this, so that in me you may have peace. You will have trouble in the world; but, courage! I have overcome the world.”
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Comments John, Chapter 16
• 16.16 JESUS IN OUR MIDST
Jesus is in our midst, but to be aware of his presence requires faith. He himself said: “You will see me because you live and I also live (14:19).” It is not important that we feel his presence, what matters is to persevere in his ways. In order to attain mature faith, it is necessary that we be deprived of the consolation of his presence for more or less prolonged periods: a little while and you will not see me.
For his disciples this happened for the first time at the moment of his death; later they saw him risen from the dead. This will come true for us at the end of time, when we discover the glorious Christ whom we have awaited in faith. No one should feel overconfident about feeling his presence, for example, after a conversion. When everything seems easy, we should not look down on those who find it hard to believe or who have never felt the presence of God. In a little while, perhaps, the Lord will leave us in darkness.
After Jesus rose from the dead, a real com panion ship would be established between him and his disciples: he would speak to them clearly of the Father; they would ask in his name.
I will tell you plainly… The naive response of the apostles in verse 29 underlines by con trast what Jesus expressed in verse 25. Jesus did not mean that he would return in visible form to teach, not in parables, but more clearly; Jesus referred rather to the spiritual knowledge of him self and his words that the disciples were to re ceive from the Spirit.
You will ask in my Name (v. 26). Through a spiritual knowledge of Jesus, the believers will know what they should ask of him and he will give it to them. In the same manner, they will know the things that God does not want to give, and because of that they will neither desire nor ask for them.