Aware that they wanted to question Him, Jesus said to them, “Are you asking one another why I said, ‘In a little while you will not see Me, and then after a little while you will see Me’?
19. Jesus, therefore, knew that they wished to ask him. Though sometimes the Lord appears to speak to the deaf, he, at length, cures the ignorance of his disciples, that his instruction may not be useless. Our duty is to endeavor that our slowness of apprehension may not be accompanied by either pride or indolence, but that, on the contrary, we show ourselves to be humble and desirous to learn.
Our Lord Jesus, for the comfort of his sorrowful disciples, here promises that he would visit them again. I. Observe the intimation he gave them of the comfort he designed them, Joh 16:16. Here he tells them, 1. That they should now shortly lose the sight of him: A little while, and you that have seen me so long, and still desire to see me...
Commenting on John 16:16-22
A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow,.... As was said she should have, Gen 3:16; This is God's ordination and appointment for sin: because her hour is come; is at hand; the fixed time in nature is up, and there is no avoiding it: but as soon as she is delivered of the child; for though the sorrow is great, yet there is...