³³ “Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’”

With great affection, Jesus refers to His disciples as “little children.” John, the Gospel chronicler, stands alone in recording Jesus’ reference to the disciples with this word. While the regular word for children (Greek: teknon) is used by Jesus elsewhere (e.g. Mark 10:24), only the beloved disciple John noticed and recorded the diminutive form (Greek: teknia), a term of endearment—and He used it only after Judas had left. The only other place in the NT this word form can be found occurs in John’s first epistle, where he refers to his readers seven times as “little children.” He certainly emulated his Master well. In using this word, John captures and embodies the intimate relationship that Christians experience first with the Savior and then with those whom we disciple. In his elderly years (he penned the Gospel of John and his epistles circa A.D. 90-95), he wrote as a fatherly figure (because of his age), but also as a spiritual father (regardless of age) to those whom he desired to see grow into spiritual maturity.

Jesus now drops a bomb, He’s going to leave the disciples, and so the urgency for final instructions. He’s leaving, and they can no longer follow Him. He had already said this to the “Jews” before: “For a little while longer I am with you, then I go to Him who sent Me. You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come” (John 7:33–34). (In John’s writings, the term “Jews” refers to the Israelites in general, and probably the Jewish leaders in particular). The Jews had understood Him to mean that He would leave the physical land of Israel and go to the Jews scattered around the empire. Another time when He reiterated these words they thought He might be speaking of suicide (John 8:21-22). So, the words were not new to the disciples, but now these words were being directed at them! They would soon be without Jesus. They had not yet heard Jesus’ post-resurrection promise, “Lo, I will be with you always even to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20).

For now, He was going to be with them only a little longer, a matter of a few hours, and He still had much to say. But they would discover after Pentecost a new and greater presence of the God whom they served, in the person of the Holy Spirit—about which Jesus had yet much to teach them in the Upper Room. But, first things first, He next speaks to them about love, the foundation of everything else He wants to teach them.

Lord, while I would absolutely love to have You here physically with me, I believe by faith that You are with me in a greater way, by Your Spirit.