Lange Commentary - John 16:16

Lange Commentary - John 16:16 - 16:33

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Lange Commentary - John 16:16 - 16:33

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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 Church’s 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 longer behold me, ïὐ÷Ýôé èåùñåῖôÝ ìå ]: and again, a little while, and ye shall [will] see me [ ὄøåóèÝ ìå ], because ¹⁷I go to the Father. Then [Therefore] said some of his disciples among themselves [to one another, ðñὸò ὰëëÞëïõò ], 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, ïὐ÷ ïἴäáìåí ôß ëáëåῖ ]. Now 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, ðåñὶ ôïýôïõ æçôåῖôå ìåô ’ áëëÞëùí ὅôé ] 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] 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] have sorrow: but I will [shall] see you again, and your heart shall [will] rejoice, and your joy no man [no one] taketh [will take, ὰñåῖ ,] 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], 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, ðáñïéìßáéò ; but 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].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

[Olshausen states the connection thus: Before the Spirit can fulfil His blessed work, a painful separation is necessary. But the ìéêñïí 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. èåùñåῖôå and ὄøåóèå 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 [ êáὶ ïὐêÝôéèåùñåῖôÝ ìå ].—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 Christ’s resurrection, on the occasion of which His disciples did see Him again. [Ebrard, Hengstenberg, Ewald, Weiss likewise refer ὄøåóèå 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 ὄøåóèå 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 ( ôὸ ìéêñüí )?—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 ìéêñüí , Joh_14:19, without stumbling. In the first place, the double ìéêñüí 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 ôὸ ìéêñüí . 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 [ êëáýóåôå êáὶ èñçíÞóåôå ὑìåῖò ].—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 [ ὁ äὲ êüóìïò ÷áñÞóåôáé ].—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 [ ὑìåῖò ëõðçèÞóåóèå ], emphatically: plunged in sorrow. 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: åἰò ÷áñὰí ãåíÞóåôáé , not merely changed for joy, but changed into, so as itself to become—so that the very matter of grief shall become matter of joy; as Christ’s 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 [ ἡ ãõíὴ ὅôáí ôßêôῃ , ëýðçí ἔ÷åé . Mark this touching proof of the Saviour’s sympathy with suffering humanity and woman’s deepest trial (Gen_3:16).—P. S.] The woman [ ἡãõíÞ ]. This is the universal rule; hence the definite article. 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 [ ἡ ὥñá áὐôῆò , her (appointed) time]. For woman the fateful hour of tribulation.—But when she is delivered of the child [ ὅôáí äὲ ãåííÞóῃ ôὸ ðáéäßïí —not necessarily masculine (puer), but indefinite]. The anguish is forgotten—merged 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 ( ἅíèñùðïò ), a mystery of personal, infinite life. See Gen_4:1—Into the world [ ὅôé ἐãåííÞèç ἄíèñùðïò åἰò ôὸí êüóìïí ]. 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 joy—we may say—was the recompense of their anguish; it was not, however, born of their anguish.” Against this view we will cite the remark of Lücke: “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. De Wette’s 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 Christ’s coming to the Church. 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 Christ’s 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 joy—no 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 nothing—an 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 Father’s 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.

Ask—inquire of—Me nothing.—Chrysostom and others interpret ἐñùôᾶí 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 ïὐê ἐñùôÞóåôå , 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 ask—petition—the Father for, etc.—Accordingly, the meaning is: Ye shall in that day ask—inquire of—Me nothing. That is, their immature disciplehood and pupilage—that 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 revelation—revelation 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 ἄí ôé 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 Meyer’s decision for ὅ ôé ἄí 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 Christ’s 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 ( ἵíá ). Christ’s 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 [ ἐíðáñïéìßáéò ],—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 ôáῦôá 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 ἐí ðáñïéìßáéò 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 ἐí ðáñïéìßᾳ . 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).

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 Christ’s 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 … plainly—openly—without concealment—with freedom of speech—free-spokenly ( ðáῤῥçóßá ). As a substantive, ðáῥῥçóßá 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 means—the 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: áἰôÞóåóèå , ἐñùôÞóù . [Bengel: Cognitio parit orationem. Lücke: “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 Lücke and others, on the other hand, it is declarative of the directness of prayer to the Father,—a directness removing the necessity for intercession. 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, life’s 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 ( ὑìåῖò emphasized) who have loved Me.” Meyer. Love to Christ in faith in His name is the medium through which believers experience the Father’s 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, faith’s 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:

Joh_16:16.—[The text. rec. reads ïὐ , not; but ïὐêÝôé , no longer, is supported by à . B. D. L., Orig., Vulg., Syr., etc., and adopted by Lachmann, Tischend. (ed. viii., against ïὐ of his former edd.), Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort. Lange follows it, and says, in opposition to Meyer, who considers ïὐêÝôé an interpretation from Joh_16:10; Joh_14:19, that it agrees better with the contrast between èåùñåῖôå and ὄøåóèå .—P. S.]

Joh_16:16.—[The words ὅôé ( ἐãὼ ) ὺðÜãù ðñὸò ôὸí ðáôÝñá 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 ὄøåóèÝ ìå ), but they are wanting in à . 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.]

Joh_16:18.—[On minor differences of reading in Joh_16:17-18 see Alf. and Tischend. ed. viii.—P. S.]

Joh_16:19.—[Lange with Lachm. retains ïὖí (after ἔãíù ) which is backed by A. and suits the Johannean style, but Tregelles, Alf., Tischend., W. and H. omit it in accordance with à . B. D. L.—P. S.]

Joh_16:20.—[ äÝ , but, before ëõðçèÞóåóèå is omitted by Lange in accordance with à . ¹ B. D. L., Tischend. (ed. viii., against his former edd.), Alf., etc. It marks a contrast which has already been presented.—P. S.]

Joh_16:22.—[ ἔ÷åôå is supported by à .* B. C., etc., and adopted by Lange, Tregelles, Alf., Tischend., Westcott and H.; the future ἕîåôå , which Lachmann prefers with A. D. L. and à .^c, seems conformed to the fut. in Joh_16:20. Meyer, on the contrary, thinks that ἔ÷åôå is conformed to ἔ÷åé in Joh_16:21 and to íῦí .—P. S.]

Joh_16:22.—[The rec. áἴñåé , taketh, is supported by à . A. C. D.², L., approved by Lange, Tischend. (viii.); the future ἀñåῖ , will take, is adopted by Lachm., Alford, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, in accordance with B. D., Vulg., Orig.—P. S.]

Joh_16:23.—[ ἄí ôé , 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. ὅóá ἄí . The best authorities put ἐí ôῷ ὀíüìáôß ìïõ after äþóåé ὑìῖí , not before (as the text. rec. does). Christ is the medium of all communication between the Father and the believer.—P. S.]

Joh_16:25.—[ ἀëë ’, 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 à ., according to Tischend. ed. viii., sustain the omission.—P. S.]

Joh_16:27.—[The text. rec. and Tischend ed. viii. read èåïῦ (from Joh_13:3) with à .* A. C.³, etc., but à .^ca B. C.* D. L. X., Syr., etc., Lachm., Lange, Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort give the preference to ðáôñüò .—P. S.]

[Alford: “ ËõðçèÞóåóèå 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.]

[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. ὁ äïῦëïò , Joh_15:15.—P. S.]

[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 joy—till “Christ be formed in him,” is this birth of pain. “And the whole Church, the Spouse of Christ—nay, even the whole Creation, óõíùäßíåé , 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.]

[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.]

[So also Alford: ðáñïéìßá , 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 discourse—and 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 ðáñïéìßá , 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.]

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

V

GLORIFICATION OF CHRIST’S 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 from 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 [ ἐí ðáῤῥçóßᾳ ], and speakest no proverb [parable]. ³⁰Now are we sure [we know, ïἴäáìåí ] that thou knowest [ ïἶäáò ] 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.] Behold, the [an] hour cometh, yea, is now [omit now] 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, ἔ÷åôå ] 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 [ Ἐîῆëèïí ἐê ôïῦ ðáôñὸò êáὶ åëÞëõèá åἰò ôὸí êüóìïí ðÜ ëéí ἀößçìé ôὸí êü óìïí êáὶ ðïñåýïìáé ðñὸò ôὸí ðáôÝ ñá . Bengel: “Re-capitulationem maximam habet hic versus.” Meyer: “A simple, grand summary of His whole personal life.” Mark the symmetry of the four clauses: ἔîÞëèïí , ἐëÞëõèá , ἀößçìé , ðïñåí ́ ïìáé 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 [ Ἴäå , íῦí ἐí ðáῤῥçóßᾳ ëáëå ͂ ò , êáὶðáñïéìßáí ïὐäåìßáí ëÝ ãåéò ]—Behold, i.e. with astonishment do they perceive that He even now speaks to them in this new way. We cannot subscribe to Lücke’s and Tholuck’s unconditional approval of the words of Augustine: illi usque adeo non inlelligunt, ut nec saltem se non intelligere intelligant. 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 Christ’s saying, in respect of its fundamental thought, is proved by the declaration: by reason of this we believe [ ἐíôïýôῳ )—propter hoc— ðéóôåý ïìåí . ὅôé ἀðὸèåïῦ ἐîῆëèåò ]—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. Ἐí ôïý ôῳ (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,—but—in 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 Meyer’s 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 ὅôé and indicative of the object (not the ground) of faith.—P. S.]

Joh_16:31. Ye do now believe [̓́ Áñôéðéóôåýåôå Comp. Joh_16:27, ðåðéóôåý êáôå ὅôé , etc., and Joh_17:8, ἐðßóôåõóáí ὅôé , etc.—P. S.]—In reading the sentence as a question, with Euthym. Zigab., Olshausen and others, we should overlook the fact that Christ actually acknowledges the upsoaring of their faith,—a fact evidenced by the very restriction that follows. Lücke dubiously declares against the reading of the proposition as a question; Meyer is more decided in his recognition of the concession therein expressed; Bengel takes said concession in too unconditional a sense: nunc habeo, quod volui et volo; opposed to the latter view are the restrictive ἄñôé 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 [ ἐëÞëõèåí ], saith the Lord, with a presentiment of the approaching crisis.—That ye will be scattered [ ἵíá óêïñðéóèῆôå ἕêáóôïò åἰò ôὰ ἵäéá ], with ἵíá ; this is the destiny of the hour. See Mat_26:31; Zec_13:7. [The passage of the prophet Zechariah, from which the óêïñðéóèῆôå 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 åἰò ôὰ ἵäéá : to his own property or home. Comp. Isa_53:6. A man’s peculiar possessions were no hindrance to the êïéíùíßá , but the latter was shaken by the circumstance of every man’s seeking safety in his own way.—And leave Me alone [ êἀìὲ ìüíïí ἀöῆôå ]. To this degree shall their faith waver.—Going one’s 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. [ êáß —adversative, and yet, an emphatic and pathetic use of êáß , accompanied by a pause and unexpectedly introducing the opposite, as often in John (see Meyer and Alford)— ïὐê åἰìὶ ìüíïò , ὅôé ὁ ðáôὴñ ìåô ̓ ἐìïῦ ἐóôéí —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 ôáῦôá is not necessarily to the last ôáῦôá 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 [ ἵíá ἐí ἐìïὶ åἰñÞíçí ἔ÷çôå ]. 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). 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 åἰñÞíç comp. notes on Joh_14:27; on èëῖøéò , 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 [ ἀëëὰ èáñóåῖôå ]—The strengthening of their weakness in their impending tribulation. [A living commentary of this èáñóåῖôå 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. [ ἐãὼ íåíßêçêá ôὸí êü óìïí , “not, only before you, but for you, that ye may be able to do the same;” comp. 1Jn_5:4-5. Ἐãὼ —I, not you—is 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:

Joh_16:28.—Codd. B. C. L. X., Lachmann, Tischendorf read ἐê ; Cod. A. [C.² text. rec.], etc. ðáñÜ , which might be a dogmatical modification [or a repetition of the ðáñÜ in Joh_16:27].

Joh_16:32.— Íῦí [text. rec.] is wanting in à . A. B. C.¹

Joh_16:31.—[I read ἄ ñ ô é ð é á ô å ý å ô å 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 ( ἄñôé is emphatic) ye believe, but how soon will your 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 Father’s 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 ìéêñü í are symbolical of the alternation of Good Friday and Easter periods in the Church; an alternation regularly continuing until the day of Christ’s appearing. The Apostles studied this ìéêñüí 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. Christ’s 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, Christ’s intercession coincides with the immediate prayer of the Holy Spirit within the heart (Rom_8:25), in which latter prayer the manifestations of the Father’s 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 Father—is the key to the other half—His 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 (Alleinsgefühl) 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 life—a 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. Christ’s 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 God’s 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 Christian’s 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 Christ’s 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_2:15—If 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 Christ’s 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 born—a 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 ìéêñü í —it is a ìáêñüí —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 Christian’s art is patiently to wait.

Joh_16:17-18. God’s 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 Christ’s 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 world—personally, therefore—He 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. [23–30.] 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 God’s 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 3—There 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 God’s 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 ascension—unto 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 God’s 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 12—Joh_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).

[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 Saviour’s 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 mother’s 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 Lord’s 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 Father’s love.

[From Burkitt: Joh_16:16-22. How unreasonable it is to arrogate to man’s 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 Christ’s 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 Christ’s 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 Christ’s 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. Christ’s 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 Spirit’s coming was Christ’s 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 Christians—1. 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 Christ’s disciples in this world are like travailing pains, sure and sharp, but not to last long, and in Order to a joyful product.—Christ’s 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.—Note—1. 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. Christ’s 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 both—1. 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 Christ’s 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 Father—1. We have an Advocate; 2. We have to do with a Father.

Joh_16:27. The character of Christ’s disciples; they love Him, because they believe He came out from God.—See what advantage Christ’s 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.—Observe—1. The matter of their faith; We believe that Thou camest forth from God; 2. The motive of their faith—His 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. Christ’s 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 Christ’s 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 Christ—1. When solitude is their choice; 2. When solitude is their affliction.—While we have God’s 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 Christ’s 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 Christ’s 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 joy—“on 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 ( âëåðü íùí áὐôῶí , 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 church’s victory, and this joy of the heart is the contrast of the world’s 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 heart’s 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 perfection—until 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 Christ’s 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 èëßøéò 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:

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