John 16:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Indeed, immoderate sorrow is dangerous. It is dangerous and can lead to death. Therefore Paul also said: "lest such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow" (2 Cor 2:7). From this also they received no small consolation, learning that He knew the excess of their sorrow. They were in extreme distress from fear of separation from Him and from expectation of the afflictions about to befall them. They did not know whether they would have strength to endure them courageously. But why did He not tell them this later, when they had already been counted worthy of the Spirit? So that you may know that they were very virtuous.

But now, going to My Father and leaving you, I forewarn you of this so that you may make yourselves secure. "And none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?'" For because of sorrow you have been troubled and thrown into confusion. Your hearts are shaken by the expectation of calamities.

When He goes to the Father, He usefully and at the proper time reveals to them the inevitable coming of what will await them. If even among ourselves there is concern not to mistake the proper time for something, how much more must this be fitting for God? Thus the time for silence was at the beginning, when the necessity of giving them instruction about the future had not yet come. But when He was going to the Father, the time to speak had come. Was the Savior, then, removed from the disciples when He returned to the Father, while remaining with them by the operation, power, and grace of the Spirit? How, or in what manner? For He does not deceive when He says: "Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Mt 28:20).

Of course, He saw what His words produced in their hearts. Clearly, they did not yet have within themselves the spiritual consolation they would receive through the Holy Spirit. Therefore they feared losing what they saw outwardly in Christ. Since they could not doubt that they would soon lose Him who brought them truth, their human feeling was full of sorrow. They would be deprived of the bodily sight of Him. But He knew what would be more profitable for them. Certainly the inward contemplation, when the Holy Spirit would comfort them, is higher. He would not present a human body for bodily contemplation, but would pour Himself into the hearts of believers.

United to one another by love, they must wage a common struggle against the world estranged from the Kingdom of God. He foretells the persecutions awaiting them. Ahead of them lies their struggle with all that exists on earth, a struggle Christianity must begin and carry on. But in this struggle He promised them the help of the Holy Spirit. Everything needed for the spread of the Church of God He will accomplish through them. The Lord briefly sums up His action in the world in this: the Holy Spirit will bring the world to awareness of its sins and reveal in this the cause of its unbelief. Then He will compel the world to acknowledge that Jesus did not die as a sinner for His own sins. He died as the Holy One, and as the Holy One He ascended to His Father in heaven.

The disciples stood inconsolable around the Lord not only because of the Savior's prediction of the afflictions awaiting them. They were troubled chiefly by the thought of separation from Him, and specifically by their failure to understand the Lord's words about His departure to the Father. This unclear understanding of what awaited them and the Lord in the nearest future should have made them turn to their Teacher for new explanations, beyond 13:36 and 14:5. Yet their sorrow was too great, and their thought was crushed by this heavy feeling. Therefore Jesus Christ, probably after some silence, again turns to their consolation. He consoles them by reminding them that His relation to the Father contains a source of blessings for them (7:39).

But I am going away, and with My departure human malice will direct all its strength against you, My disciples, whom I command to go into the world and continue My work. Yes, I am going to Him who sent Me. Although none of you now asks Me, "Where are You going?" I see how your heart has become sorrowful.

"I have said this to you," that is, I have spoken of My departure from them and of the afflictions to which they will be subjected after Me. "Sorrow has filled your heart," because in this they turned their attention more to separation from Him than to the great fruits of His departure. He now points to these fruits again, gathering them into one promise: the coming to them of another Comforter precisely as a result of His departure. He indicates this with force and with something like heightened assurance: "I tell you the truth." For them, the disciples, it is necessary that He depart from them to the Father. This is the indispensable condition for the descent of the Holy Spirit, by whose power and action they will conquer the world hostile to them.

Christ's words about the persecutions awaiting the apostles after His departure to the Father filled their hearts with sorrow. To console and encourage them, Christ explains that He must go to the Father. That is, He must pass through the way of the Cross, sufferings, and death. Only by virtue of the redeeming merits of Christ the Savior is the appearing of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, in the world possible. With the all-powerful help of the Holy Spirit, the malice and persecutions of the world will not be fearful to the apostles. They will conquer the world and bring it to obedience and faith in Christ the Savior. Describing the activity of the Holy Spirit in relation to the unbelieving world, Christ says that the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment (v. 8).

How weak men are, and how inexhaustible is heavenly love in its readiness to help us in our infirmity! When the Savior told His disciples where He was going (Jn 14:5), He directly declared that He was leaving them (Jn 16:4), though not without heavenly help. Yet the disciples were so filled with sorrow over separation from the Teacher that, in mute silence, they gave free rein to their grief (Jn 16:5-6). The loving Teacher had strengthened the hearts of His disciples against the attacks of the malicious world. Then He offers various consolations to ease their sorrow over separation from Him. He explains in detail the appearing and actions of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter (Jn 16:5-16). He shows the joy they will later have when they see Him again (Jn 16:17-22).

"No one asks" and "sorrow has filled your heart." Chrysostom indicates that the disciples remained silent from grief and fear. Earlier (Jn 13:36; 14:5-8) they still dared to turn to Him with questions. "Where are You going?" "How can we know the way?" "Show us the Father." But now they were wholly cast down in spirit. Grief took hold of the disciples especially because the Lord said that He was going to "Him who sent Him." They knew and believed that the Sender is God Almighty. They clearly understood that the Lord was speaking of His death. The Lord fixes their attention on the fact that, in fear and grief, they no longer ask Him Himself where He is going and why. He Himself now reveals to them that knowledge of where He is going will bring them consolation, strength, and joy.