John 13:33Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

It contributed no little to Christ's glory in their minds when, having clearly learned it afterward, they remembered that they had heard it before from Christ Himself. But why does He cast their souls beforehand into despondency, saying, "I shall be with you only a little longer"? This was fittingly said to the Jews. But why do You place us alongside those ungrateful ones? Not at all. Why then did He say, "as I said to the Jews"? By this He reminded them that He was not predicting this only now, when the calamities were already approaching. He had foreseen it before, and they themselves were witnesses, since they heard Him say this to the Jews. For this reason He added, "little children," so that the apostles, hearing "as I said to the Jews," would not think these words were spoken to them exactly as to the Jews. Thus He said this not to cast them into despondency, but to encourage them, so that calamities coming unexpectedly would not trouble them. "Where I am going, you cannot come." By this He shows that His death is a departure and passage to a place where bodies subject to corruption are not admitted. He says this to stir up love for Himself in them and to make it more fervent. You know that we are kindled with special love for our friends when we see them departing to a place where it is impossible for us to go. Thus He said this to the Jews in order to frighten them, but to the apostles in order to kindle love in them. This place is such that not only they, but even you, beloved, cannot come there. Here He also shows His dignity. "And I say to you now." Why "now"? It is one way for them and another for you, that is, not together with them. When did the Jews seek Him, and when did the disciples? The disciples did after they fled. The Jews did when, after the capture of their city and the coming upon them of God's wrath from this, they suffered terrible and inexpressible calamities. Thus I spoke to the Jews then because of their unbelief. I speak to you now so that calamity may not overtake you unexpectedly.

To the Jews He said, "You will seek Me, and where I am going you cannot come" (Jn 7:36), in order to bring fear upon them. To the disciples He says it in order to kindle love in them. For when we see one of our friends departing, we are usually kindled with warm love for him, especially if he is going to a place where we cannot come. Therefore He says this to them in order to kindle love in them. For this reason He added, "little children," so that they would not think He had said this to them from the same disposition as to the Jews, but from love. The Jews sought the Lord when their city was taken, and the wrath of God came upon them from every side. Josephus also bears witness that this happened to them because of the murder of Jesus. The disciples sought Him when they fled or experienced another sorrow. Therefore elsewhere He says: "The Bridegroom will be taken away, and then the friends of the Bridegroom will fast" (Mt 9:15). Thus the Lord foretells the future to both groups. To the former He speaks because of unbelief, and to the latter because of love, so that calamities may not come upon them unexpectedly.

They were immediately about to fall into no small dangers. They would often suffer attacks from the unrestrained madness of the Jews and be subjected to frenzies from certain others. They would go throughout the whole world and preach the Savior's teaching to those still in error.

Thus they endured bonds, were not strangers to insults and reproaches, and no less experienced every other torment. Yet before this, while they were with Christ, they had known nothing of the kind.

Then, He says, "you will seek" My presence earnestly, when varied waves of temptations encompass you. But these words of the Savior by no means led the disciples to timidity or crushed them with fear.

Rather, they prepared them to receive courage and, as it were, taught them beforehand to provide themselves with patience for bearing what awaited them in the future.

Therefore we shall not find the words of the Psalm useless. On the contrary, everyone will see great benefit in them: "I prepared myself and was not troubled" (Ps 118:60).

For what attacks us wholly unexpectedly can harm us very greatly and bring us into great fear. But what has already drained away much of fear beforehand through expectation and foreknowledge does not have such irresistible power against those whom it attacks.

The soul has become accustomed to it and, in its mind, has often experienced it as already present. It is like some bloodthirsty and savage beast that leaps out from a forest thicket and hidden lair.

When it rushes upon someone who does not see it, it strikes the one who did not expect the attack and devours him, seizing one unprepared for struggle. But the one who sees it from afar and knows what awaits him takes up weapons.

He will either suffer less harm or flee without hindrance. In the same way, I think, with temptations, what is wholly unexpected strikes us much more powerfully and fiercely than what has already been expected.

Therefore in the words "you will seek Me," our Lord Jesus Christ most usefully indicates what must happen to His disciples because of His absence. He also indicates the terrors that will arise from their future enemies, preparing them by foretelling to receive courage.

He deems it necessary to add also the indication of the obstacle that presently lies on the path of their following Him. What I said "to the Jews," He notes, this I now say "to you": "Where I go, you cannot come."

For the time had not yet come for the holy Apostles, who had not yet completed their ministry, to be found in the mansions above. Their passage into that state was undoubtedly reserved for the proper time.

Yet we must again observe that, when the Lord addressed the Jews and indicated the same thing, He said, "You will seek Me and will not find Me" (Jn 7:34, 36). But to His disciples He says only, "You will seek Me," while He deems it necessary to pass over "and will not find Me."

For what reason? Not finding Him was fitting for the Jews, because of their immeasurable unbelief and extraordinary impiety toward Him. But to those who had sincere affection for Him and preserved unfeigned love, it would already have been unjust to say, "You will not find Me." For He was with them and would remain with them always.

He said this so that they would not think that God would glorify Him in such a way that He would no longer be joined to them in earthly fellowship. "Yet a little while I am with you," He said. It is as though He were saying, "Although I shall be glorified in My approaching Resurrection, I shall not immediately ascend into heaven. Yet a little while I am with you."

As it is written in the Acts of the Apostles, after the Resurrection He spent forty days with them (cf. Acts 1:3). He came and went, ate and drank. He had no need of food and drink, yet by this He showed that His flesh was so true that, though no longer needing to eat and drink, it possessed the power to do so.

What then? Was He referring to those forty days when He said, "Yet a little while I am with you," or to something else? It may also be understood thus: "Yet a little while I am with you," that is, "I am still, like you, in this weakness of the flesh." This would mean until He died and rose again. After He rose, although, as was said, He remained with them forty days in the full manifestation of bodily presence, He was nevertheless not with them in fellowship of human weakness.

There is also His other, divine presence, inaccessible to human senses. Of this He said, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Mt 28:20). This is surely not the same as, "Yet a little while I am with you," for "a little while" is not "to the end of the age."

Even if one takes it so, since time flies, and in the sight of God a thousand years are like one day, or like a watch in the night (cf. Ps 89:5), we should still not think that this presence is meant here. This is especially clear because He immediately adds, "You will seek Me, and as I said to the Jews, Where I go you cannot come. So now I say to you" (cf. Jn 13:33).

That is, after this little while during which I am with you, you will seek Me, and where I go, you cannot come. But after the end of the age, will they be unable to come where He goes? What then will He mean when, a little later in His discourse, He says, "Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am" (Jn 17:24)?

Thus, "Yet a little while I am with you" is not spoken of that presence by which He will be with them until the end of the age. It is spoken either of the mortal weakness in which He is with them until His Passion, or of the bodily presence in which He will be with them until His Ascension. Whoever chooses either of these two explanations will not contradict the faith.

Yet lest someone think that what we have said is not true, let him consider the Lord's own words after the Resurrection in another Evangelist. We said that the Lord could have referred to fellowship in mortal flesh, in which He remained with the disciples until the Passion, when He said, "Yet a little while I am with you." After the Resurrection He said, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you" (Lk 24:44). This was said as though at that moment He were not with those who stood beside Him, saw Him, touched Him, and spoke with Him.

What then does "while I was still with you" mean, if not this: "While I was in mortal flesh, in which you remain"? For then, although He had risen in the same flesh, He was no longer with them in the same mortality.

There He was already clothed in the immortality of the flesh, and truly said, "while I was still with you." We can see no other meaning than. "when I was still with you in the mortality of the flesh." So here also it should not be taken strangely that He said, "Yet a little while I am with you." It is as though He said, "Yet a little while I am mortal, as you are mortal."

Let us now consider the words that follow. "You will seek Me, and as I said to the Jews, Where I go, you cannot come, so now I say to you." That is, "now you cannot." When He said this to the Jews, He did not add "now." Therefore those apostles could not then come where He would go, but afterward they would be able. He said this very clearly a little later to the Apostle Peter. For when Peter said, "Lord, where are You going?" He answered, "Where I am going, you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward" (Jn 13:36).

We must not negligently pass over what this means. Where, then, were the disciples unable to follow the Lord at that time, though they could later? If we say that He speaks of death, can there be found any time for a man who has been born when he cannot die? Such is the lot of mankind in this passing body. It is far easier to meet death than it was to receive life.

Therefore at that time they were not less able to follow the Lord to death. Rather, they were less able to follow the Lord to life, which has no death. For the Lord was going where, having risen from the dead, He dies no more, and death no longer has dominion over Him (cf. Rom 6:9).

How indeed could they already then follow the Lord, who was ready to die for righteousness, if they were not yet mature for martyrdom? Or how could they already then follow the Lord, who was going to the immortality of the flesh, if they could die at any time, but rise only at the end of the age? Or how could they already then follow the Lord, who, without intending to abandon them, was going to the bosom of the Father, from which He had not departed when He came to them? No one can be in that blessedness except one perfected in love.

Therefore, teaching how they might become able to go where He would go before them, He said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another" (Jn 13:34). These are the steps by which one must follow Christ. But we must defer a fuller discourse on them to another time.

When speaking to the disciples, He did not add this, because they found Him after the Resurrection. He said "You will seek Me" to the Jews in order to humble their fury, but to the disciples in order to inspire in them still greater love for Himself. "And as I said to the Jews, Where I am going you cannot come, so now I say to you." Jesus Christ said this to the Jews because they were unworthy to come to that place. He says it to the disciples because they were not immediately, not together with Him, to die.

To this time after the Ascension the Lord now turns their gaze, saying: "You will seek Me." That is, you will desire to follow Me, to find Me and be with Me. But for a time this is not necessary. You must remain in the world for the spread and establishment on earth of My Kingdom. Therefore you cannot now follow Me and come where I am going, into the heavens, into the glorious and triumphant Kingdom of the Messiah in heaven. "As I said to the Jews" (cf. Jn 7:34; Jn 8:21): with this difference, that to the Jews this was said as a threat and punishment, with the direct indication that they would never find Him if they did not believe in Him, and would die in their sins. The apostles, however, cannot come to Him only for a time. Later He will take them to Himself, so that they also may be where He is (Jn 14:3). "He said this to the Jews in order to frighten them, but to the apostles in order to kindle love in them" (Chrysostom).

"You will seek Me," He says, "and as I said to the Jews, so I now say to you: where I am going, you cannot come." "He reminds them that He is not predicting only now, at the approach of troubles, but had long foreseen it. They themselves are witnesses to this, having heard what He said to the Jews." To the Jews the Savior said not only that they would seek Him, but also that they would not find Him. He said to them not only that they could not come where He was going, but also that they would die in their sin (Jn 7:31; Jn 8:21). He does not speak this way to His disciples. Nevertheless they too will only seek Him. Nevertheless they too cannot go where He is going, and this last word is applied to them now. What does this mean? It means that faith united with love can only seek the Son of God on earth. Cold faith seeks Him and does not find Him, and dies in sin. Even the most sincere followers of Christ cannot from earth see the glory with which the Son of God is now glorified. Even beyond the grave, the saints of God will see the full glory of the Son of God only when He Himself appears in the glory of His Father. "When Christ, your life, appears in glory, then you also will appear with Him in glory," says the Apostle of Christ (Col 3:4).

The Lord Jesus, going to suffering and death, went not merely as man, but as the God-man. This path cannot be accessible or known to a simple mortal. In this respect the disciples, like the Jews, could not follow the Lord at that moment. Compare below, v. 35.

But to the disciples the Lord said (Jn 14:18): "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." And again: "A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father" (Jn 16:16). Therefore the disciples, who were to seek the Lord, were also to find Him.

Yet to find the Lord, one must seek Him with love and faith. "You will seek Me and will not find Me," the Lord said to the Jews. Chrysostom says that they did indeed seek Him with torments of soul during their calamities and the destruction of Jerusalem.

But the words "You will seek Me" are addressed also to the disciples, to all believers, and to the whole world forever. Only to unbelievers did the Lord say, "You will not find Me." The whole Christian world must ceaselessly seek the Lord.

The Lord's disciples sought Him, found Him, and were counted worthy to see Him after the Resurrection. The protomartyr Stephen was counted worthy, even after the Lord's Ascension, to see Him before his own death (Acts 7:55-56). The Apostle Paul also saw the Lord during his life (Acts 9:4; 22:18; 1 Cor 15:8).

All believers find the Lord in their hearts when they seek Him. They find rest and joy as soon as they recognize their loneliness without the Lord and acquire the great knowledge that the earth is not man's home, but only a temporary dwelling.