John 16:16–24

Jesus Predicts His Return to the Disciples

¹⁶“A little while and you will see me no more, and again a little while and you will see me. ¹⁷So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he is saying to us, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going away to the Father’?” ¹⁸So they kept on saying, “What is this that he is saying, ‘A little while’? We do not understand what he is speaking about!”

¹⁹Jesus knew that they were wanting to ask him, and he said to them, “Are you deliberating with one another about this—that I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? ²⁰Truly, truly I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will change to joy. ²¹A woman, when she gives birth, experiences pain because her hour has come. But when her^* child is born, she no longer remembers the affliction, on account of the joy that a human being has been born into the world. ²²So you also are experiencing sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy from you. ²³And on that day you will ask me nothing. Truly, truly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. ²⁴Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.