Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chapters I to XIVMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chapters I to XIV
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. John -- Commentaries
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.
I. The two seekings.
As I have observed, there is a very significant omission in one of the
forms of the words. The enemies are told that they will never find Him,
but no such dark words are spoken to the friends. So, then, hostile
seeking of the Christ is in vain, and loving seeking of Him by His
friends, though they understand Him but very poorly, and therefore seek
Him that they may know Him better, is always answered and
over-answered.
Let me deal just for a moment or two with each of these. In their
simplest use the words of my first text merely mean this: 'You cannot
touch Me, I am passing into a safe asylum where your hands can never
reach Me.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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