John 16:12–22

¹²“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.^{z 13}But when he, the Spirit of truth,^a comes, he will guide you into all the truth.^b He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. ¹⁵All that belongs to the Father is mine.^c That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

The Disciples’ Grief Will Turn to Joy

¹⁶Jesus went on to say, “In a little while^d you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”^e

¹⁷At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’^f and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”^{g 18}They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”

¹⁹Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? ²⁰Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn^h while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.^{i 21}A woman giving birth to a child has pain^j because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. ²²So with you: Now is your time of grief,^k but I will see you again^l and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.^m