'Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then
I go unto Him that sent Me. 34. Ye shall seek Me, and shall not find
Me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come.'—JOHN vii. 33, 34.
'Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek Me;
and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say
to you.'—JOHN xiii. 33.
No greater contrast can be conceived than that between these two groups
to whom such singularly similar words were addressed. The one consists
of the officers, tools of the Pharisees and of the priests, who had
been sent to seize Christ, and would fain have carried out their
masters' commission, but were restrained by a strange awe, inexplicable
even to themselves. The other consists of the little company of His
faithful, though slow, scholars, who made a great many mistakes, and
sometimes all but tired out even His patience, and yet were forgiven
much because they loved much. Hatred animated one group, loving sorrow
the other.
Christ speaks to them both in nearly the same words, but with what a
different tone, meaning, and application! To the officers the saying is
an exhibition of His triumphant confidence that their malice is
impotent and their arms paralysed; that when He wills He will _go_, not
be dragged by them or any man, but go to a safe asylum, where foes can
neither find nor follow. The officers do not understand what He means.
They think that, bad Jew as they have always believed Him to be, He may
very possibly consummate His apostasy by going over to the Gentiles
altogether; but, at any rate, they feel that He is to escape their
hands.
The disciples understand little more as to whither He goes, as they
themselves confess a moment after; but they gather from His words His
loving pity, and though the upper side of the saying seems to be
menacing and full of separation, there is an under side that suggests
the possibility of a reunion for them.
The words are nearly the same in both cases, but they are not
absolutely identical. There are significant omissions and additions in
the second form of them. 'Little children' is the tenderest of all the
names that ever came from Christ's lips to His disciples, and never was
heard on His lips except on this one occasion, for parting words ought
to be very loving words. 'A little while I am with you,' but He does
not say, 'And then I go to Him that sent Me.' 'Ye shall seek Me,' but
He does not say, 'And shall not find Me.' 'As I said unto the Jews,
whither I go ye cannot come, so now I say to you,' that little word
'now' makes the announcement a truth for the present only. His
disciples shall not seek Him in vain, but when they seek they shall
find. And though for a moment they be parted from Him, it is with the
prospect and the confidence of reunion. Let us, then, look at the two
main thoughts here. First, the two 'seekings,' the seeking which is
vain, and the seeking which is never vain; and the two 'cannots,' the
inability of His enemies for evermore to come where He is, and the
inability of His friends, for a little season, to come where He is.