16 16:16“A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” 17 16:17So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?” 18 16:18So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” 19 16:19Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? 20 16:20Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. 21 16:21When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 16:22So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. 23 16:23In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. 24 16:24Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
25 16:25“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. 26 16:26In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; 27 16:27for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 16:28I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”
29 16:29His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! 30 16:30Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.” 31 16:31Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32 16:32Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. 33 16:33I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Having described how he will go away so that he can send the Spirit, who will continue his ministry and glorify him (John 16:4–15), Jesus prepares the disciples for his death by promising them joy at his resurrection (vv. 16–22). He adds that they will enjoy a new and deeper access to the Father in prayer (vv. 23–28) and commands them to take heart because he has overcome the world (vv. 29–33).
Jesus begins by stating, “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me” (v. 16). There are at least two possible meanings to this statement: Jesus could be talking about the disciples’ not seeing him because he has ascended to heaven, and then seeing him again at the second coming; or Jesus could be talking about the disciples’ not seeing him when he is dead and buried, and then seeing him again after his resurrection. The rest of the passage helps us decide between these possibilities.
In verses 23–28 Jesus will speak of the new access to the Father the disciples will have in prayer once they have seen Jesus again. This indicates that after they have seen him again, their lives will continue, as they continue to pray. This would not seem to reflect changed circumstances after the second coming, but it would fit the changed circumstances after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Thus, it seems that Jesus is referring to the disciples’ not seeing him while he is in the tomb but then seeing him again after the resurrection. Once he is raised from the dead, they will rejoice (v. 22) and will enjoy new access to the Father in prayer (vv. 23–28). A further consideration against the idea that Jesus speaks of his ascension and second coming is the fact that he speaks of these events taking place in “a little while.” What he has in view seems to be the immediate future.
The disciples are clearly puzzled by these words of Jesus, restating and discussing them in verses 17–18. Whether because of his keen powers of observation or because of his divine omniscience, Jesus knows the disciples desire to pursue the matter, so he inquires of their discussion (v. 19).
Jesus then predicts the emotions the disciples will feel when what he is describing comes to pass (v. 20). These emotions confirm that Jesus is speaking of his death and resurrection, not his ascension and return. The disciples will weep and lament because they see Jesus crucified and buried. Meanwhile, the world will rejoice over the death of Jesus, thinking they have rid themselves of one who has convicted them of sin (cf. Rev. 11:7–10). Jesus transitions at the end of John 16:20 to the way the disciples will feel after he is raised from the dead: their sorrow will turn to joy.
Jesus compares his death and resurrection to childbirth in verses 21–22. Just as a woman undergoes a painful delivery, the disciples will feel the anguish of the crucifixion of Jesus (v. 21). But just as the pain of childbirth is eclipsed by the joy of a newborn baby, so the disciples’ sorrow over Jesus death will be eclipsed by their joy at his resurrection (vv. 21–22). The joy the disciples feel when they see Jesus again will be such that no one can take it from them (v. 22b).
Why does Jesus use this comparison to childbirth? Just as new life comes when a baby is born, so the death and resurrection of Jesus brings new life to the world. Just as a woman endures the curse of Genesis 3:16—the curse of “pain in childbearing”—so Jesus will endure the judgment of the cross and thereby conquer the curse of death when he is resurrected.
16:23–28 A New Access to the Father in Prayer. Having discussed the way the disciples’ sorrow will turn to joy (16:16–22), Jesus next reveals more ways in which his going away will benefit his followers (vv. 23–28). In addition to making it possible for the Helper to come to his followers (v. 7), the departure of Jesus will open new access to the Father in prayer.
When Jesus states what will take place “in that day” (v. 23), he clearly refers to the time after the disciples’ sorrow has turned to joy (vv. 20, 22). Each time Jesus speaks of the disciples’ praying in his name, he speaks of such prayer as taking place after his departure (14:13–14; 15:16; 16:23–24, 26). Jesus thus envisions the disciples’ enjoying an access to the Father in prayer through the name of Jesus that they did not have prior to his death and resurrection. In keeping with this, he states, “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (v. 24).
The cross of Christ cleanses his followers from sin and guarantees the salvation of God’s people. Jesus laid down his life for the sheep, and he will call his sheep by name. Jesus sent his disciples to bear fruit, and part of that fruit-bearing will entail their prayers in the name of Jesus—prayers in keeping with the character and mission of Jesus. Jesus will certainly answer such prayers, for he will certainly save all his people, transform them into his own image, and lead them to glory. Jesus means to give full joy to his people, the joy he himself experiences (v. 24; cf. 15:11). Full joy comes only through love, and love means sacrificing oneself for the benefit of others.
Jesus acknowledges that he has been speaking in “figures of speech” (16:25), a term used also in 10:6 to describe the way Jesus spoke of himself as the good shepherd. What is in view is the way in which Jesus has not explicitly stated that he will be crucified and risen but has hinted that he at first will not be seen but later will be seen (16:16); and also the way in which he has stated that when the disciples do not see him, they will mourn, but their sorrow will turn to joy when they see him again (v. 20). Probably the comparison to childbirth is another of the “figures of speech” in view (vv. 21–22).
Jesus promises that the hour is coming when he will stop speaking in a veiled way and instead will tell them openly of the Father (v. 25). We see some of this in chapters 20–21, when Jesus has been raised from the dead. Then in the book of Revelation Jesus pulls back the veil to show John what must take place. Luke also records that Jesus “opened [the] minds” of his followers after the resurrection (Luke 24:45) and taught them prior to his ascension (Acts 1:3). Jesus may also have in view the way the Spirit will bring what he said to remembrance and lead the disciples into all truth (John 14:26; 16:12–15).
The departure of Jesus will benefit the disciples because it will enable him to send the Spirit (v. 7), grant them new access to the Father through prayer in the name of Jesus (v. 23), and bring about the time when Jesus will speak openly with them about the Father (v. 25). In addition, Jesus speaks of a deepened intimacy with the Father (vv. 26–27).
What Jesus states in verses 26–27 seems to indicate that the Father will himself hear prayers in the name of Jesus made by the followers of Jesus. Jesus appears to be saying that the disciples should not think the success of their prayers depends on Jesus’ taking their requests to the Father, for the Father is well disposed to them already. Jesus makes this plain as he explains that the Father loves them (v. 27). The Father’s love for them and favorable disposition toward them is based on the fact that they have loved Jesus and believed that he came from God (v. 27). Once again, John is clear that the Father has initiated love (cf. 3:16), and that we love because he first loved us (cf. 1 John 4:19). John is not saying, therefore, that people earn the Father’s love but is describing the grace in which believers stand because they love Jesus and believe his claims (cf. Rom. 5:1–2). It is, after all, because Jesus goes away to the Father that the day will come when the Father himself will hear prayers made in the name of Jesus (John 16:26–27).
In verse 28 Jesus himself summarizes his first coming: he came into the world from the Father, and now he leaves the world to go to the Father.
16:29–33 Jesus Has Overcome the World. It seems that the clear statement of verse 28 prompts the disciples’ response in verse 29 that Jesus is speaking plainly rather than with figurative speech. The disciples go one step further in verse 30, apparently concluding from the open statement of his divine origin in verse 28 that Jesus knows all. When they add that he needs no one to question him, they seem to be responding to the way that Jesus knew what they wanted to ask him apart from their actually stating it (v. 19). This convinces them that Jesus came from God, and it may indicate that when John noted, “Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him” (v. 19), he meant that Jesus knew not because he was an observant man but because he possessed supernatural knowledge as one who came from God.
In 13:38 Jesus asked Peter a question before predicting his denials. Now in 16:31–32 Jesus asks the disciples a question before predicting that they will abandon him. Their belief that he came from God (vv. 30–31) will not keep them from scattering from him to save their own skin (v. 32). Jesus knows, however, that even if all humans desert him, he is “not alone, for the Father is with [him]” (v. 32).
The last words Jesus says to his disciples before he begins to address the Father in prayer summarize everything he has spoken to them since he washed their feet in chapter 13. He has spoken in chapters 13–16 in order for his followers to have peace in him (16:33). Though he is leaving, if they believe what he has said in chapters 13–16, they will have peace. In the world, as he has warned them, they will have tribulation. They will face the same woes he himself has faced. They will fulfill the appointed suffering, completing the messianic woes. They are to take heart not because Jesus promises that they will live hassle-free lives with no suffering but because he has declared that he has overcome the world (16:33).
What does it mean that Jesus has overcome the world? It means that he was tempted in every way yet was without sin (Heb. 4:15). It means that he “loved not [his life] even unto death” (cf. Rev. 12:11). It means that he “fought the good fight, . . . finished the race, . . . kept the faith,” and “fulfilled [his] ministry” (cf. 2 Tim. 4:5, 7).
1 Some manuscripts from the Father