¹⁷ Some of His disciples then said to one another, “What is this thing He is telling us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?” ¹⁸ So they were saying, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is talking about.”

“Some,” but not all of the disciples were still in a quandary. They had absolutely no clue in the Upper Room (U.R.). One wonders which were the ones who were not in the quandary. Might John, the writer, have been one of them that in the midst of all the gloom had a glimmer of hope through an undying faith in Christ? He was part of the “inner” three that Jesus took into closer confidence from time to time (see Matt 17:1, 26:37), the other two being his brother James and Peter. John was the first to recognize the truth of Christ’s resurrection, “So the other disciple [i.e. John] who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed” (John 20:8).

Whether or not John had it all figured out (and in all likelihood he did not), the evidence points toward his having a propensity toward faith. Maybe this played into his being “the beloved disciple” (John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 20). It is no wonder that Jesus on the cross entrusted His own earthly mother to John.

While various named individuals questioned Jesus about what He was saying, here no names are proffered. There was a general foreboding, and a resistance to asking Him any further. The thought, any thought, about His leaving them gave them a sense of abandonment. After all, did they not just a week or so earlier enter Jerusalem amidst a crowded throng proclaiming, “Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest” (Matt 21:9)? Was this not the fulfillment of what He had spoken of repeatedly, “the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”? And now is He leaving? That made no sense at all to some of the disciples.

Often in our Christian walk, after the newness of our salvation experience tempers down, and the humdrum of life picks up, and when the difficulties of life seem to be overbearing, we face a similar conundrum. Some Christians are among those who question why God has abandoned them. How could He go silent at such a time as this? Just like the disciples, they might be tempted to say, “This is not how I envisioned things turning out.” But others in faith rest in God who knows the whole story of our lives, not just the page in which we now live. In faith we keep turning the pages to see how the rest of the story develops.

Lord, thank You that the final chapter of my life has not yet been written. The book of my life is working to a wonderful conclusion.