I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you.
Jesus is about to leave His disciples. He knows how His going will feel to them — like children who lose the one person nobody can replace. His answer is a promise, not advice. He will not leave them desolate, because He Himself is coming to them.
The force of the verse lies in the picture Jesus chose. One writer starts with the disciples who first heard it, then draws out why kindness from others could never be enough:
The Lord spoke these words to His bewildered and sorrowful disciples, and they had a very special meaning for them: they were to see Him alive from the dead. They did see Him; they looked with wonder on His wounded hands and side. But they are also good and true words for us... Think about the words, "I will not leave you as orphans." This is what they mean: I will not leave you desolate, forlorn, lonely, and uncared for. It is all that and more. Others may care for an orphan, and care very tenderly, but the heart cries out for the love of relationship. "I want my mother" is the cry that breaks from the heart of the bereaved child. I will not leave you crying out like that for Me, said the Lord, I will come to you.
The same writer turns the word into a description of what we are in ourselves, apart from Christ:
An orphan is one who is without a protector or guide, without help or resource... we are orphans, defenceless and destitute, if we do not have the Lord. Well, to a company of nobodies such as we are, the Lord says, "I will come to you." And then we have everything, and we glory in the Lord.
Earlier in the chapter Jesus promised to come again and receive His own to Himself. Verse 18 sits in a different setting. He has just spoken of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Several writers read the two promises as distinct:
In John 14:3 we have the Lord coming again in person to take His own to be with Himself. In verse 18 we have His spiritual coming to us now. Before that second promise, and to prepare for it, He tells of the coming of the Holy Spirit (verse 16).
One writer names which coming is meant, and how far it stood from what the disciples were hoping for:
But the Lord said, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." He does not mean here His future coming, but the gift of the Spirit. So He would comfort them while He was away... Nothing could be further from what they thought and expected of the Messiah of Israel, seen by every eye.
This question is old, and writers have never all answered it the same way. Kelly lists them:
Tholuck, Meyer, Luthardt, Godet, Plummer and Charles also take this "coming" as the Holy Spirit. Zahn, following Augustine, understands it as the coming spoken of in verse 3. Ewald and Weiss take it here of the Lord's appearance to His disciples after His resurrection.
Another writer reads the promise as covering three stages:
He would not leave them as orphans, but would come to them: first in person after He rose, then in spirit, and at last in person from heaven. Their eternal life would depend on nothing but its flowing from Him. Could they be joined to Him any more closely?
Kelly ties the promise to the life the Lord Himself lives:
"I will not," He says with emphasis, "leave you as orphans" (that is, by leaving them); "I will come to you"... Community of nature is taught here... "Because I live, you also will live." Nothing can be more intimate than this.
One writer reads the promise as made to the gathered company, and names what opens the door to Him:
Christ comes to the company of those on earth who have shut the door on the first man — that is, on themselves. "I will not leave you [the company] as orphans; I will come to you." (John 14:18.) He comes to that company whenever He can, and whenever they make room for Him in this way.
Another writer sets that beside a later promise, made to the believer standing alone:
Earlier the Lord had promised His presence to His own together... now the promise is to the individual believer. So often down the centuries, and in these last days, devoted saints of God have found themselves isolated and alone because of their faithfulness to Christ. If others desert them, or if they cannot meet with other believers, they can still have the companionship of Christ.
- Orphaned. The word means desolate and unprotected. That is what we are in ourselves — no guide, no help, no resource.
- Not abandoned. Kindness from others cannot answer an orphan's cry. Only the One the heart cries for can, and He promises to come.
- How He comes. Most writers tie the promise to the gift of the Spirit. Others read it of His appearances after the resurrection, or of His return in verse 3. On this, commentators differ.
- What He brings. Not just comfort while He is away, but shared life: because He lives, His own live.
- Where He comes. To the gathered company that makes room for Him, and to the believer left standing alone.
Yet a little and the world sees me no longer; but ye see me; because I live ye also shall live.
Jesus is hours from the cross. He tells His disciples that a short time will end the world's view of Him for good — but not theirs. The promise turns on a single word: because. Their life is not an independent possession but a consequence of His.
The "little while" marks the end of Christ's public showing to the world. One writer notes how this has held since the crucifixion:
When He was drawing near to the cross of Calvary, He said to His disciples, "Yet a little while, and the world sees Me no more; but you see Me." And it is true: since He was taken down from the cross, no worldly eye has rested on Him. His mission to the earth then closed.
Behind that closure lies a decision. The world had already made its judgment of Him:
He is going to the Father's house. The world and the Father are in direct opposition… They saw no beauty in Him that they should desire Him. And when the world rejected Him, He went up to sit at the Father's right hand. The accepted One of the Father was the rejected One of the world.
"But you will see me" cannot mean ordinary eyesight, since the disciples were about to lose that too. What takes its place is better, not worse:
Soon the world would see Him no more. His relations with the world came to an end, except as Lord of all. His relations with His own did not. They would see Him, not yet with their natural eyes, but by faith, as the Spirit revealed Him. That sight is far clearer and better than the sight their natural eyes had given them.
What faith sees is not the Christ of the past. It is the Man who has entered glory:
In the little while the Lord speaks of here, the world only saw Him in rejection and dishonour. But after that little while He entered into His glory. There His loved ones gaze on Him with the deepest pleasure and joy. And this is because the Lord could add, "Because I live, you shall live also." Living in His life, we can look into heaven. We see what is invisible to those whom the Son of God has not made alive.
The link between His living and ours is not just a comparison. It is a shared nature:
"I will not," He says with emphasis, "leave you orphans" — that is, by His departure from them. "I will come to you."… Is the Holy Spirit not forming us into a body, uniting the believer to Christ as the head? There is more than this. What is taught here is a shared nature, not the unity of the body that we find in Paul's letters. "Because I live, you shall live also." Nothing can be more intimate than this.
The life in view comes from the other side of the grave. One writer links it to the breath of the risen Christ:
The Son of God, having life in Himself, now comes with it to His saints. He breathes on them now, as long ago He breathed into man's nostrils (Gen. 2). Only this was the breath of the last Adam, the life-giving Spirit. He had a life to give, a life won from the power of death. That life was therefore beyond death's furthest reach.
If the life is His, its security is His too. One writer pushes that reasoning to its limit:
When we are made alive, the life is not looked at as being in us. Christ says, "Because I live, you shall live also." So this life cannot change. If Christ's life can in any way be cancelled or set aside, then the life in us can be too, and not otherwise. If Christ can die, so can we; but if death no longer has dominion over Him, neither has it over us.
For a believer full of fear, the same logic silences doubt:
My life is bound up in His. I have said it before, and I say it again: it will be time for me to have doubts and fears when I find that Christ has them.
Safety is not the whole of it. The same verse describes an ongoing dependence:
"Because I live you shall live also" is not only security. It takes in all His present service for us, so that we may hang upon Him moment by moment.
- Because — everything in the verse hangs on this word. They live because He lives. Their life is never a separate supply held in themselves.
- Departure — the world's last sight of Christ was the cross. No worldly eye has seen Him since, and His relations with the world are closed.
- Sight — believers still see Him, by faith and through the Spirit. That sight is clearer than natural eyes ever gave. It rests on Him where He now is, in glory.
- Certainty — the life cannot change, because its source cannot change. Those joined to Him could die only if Christ could die.
- Dependence — this shared life is not a stored deposit but a daily hanging on Him, sustained by all He is doing for us now.
In that day ye shall know that I [am] in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.