³³ “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.^(A)

³³ Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time,^(A) and then I am going to the one who sent me.^{(B) 34} You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”^(C)

2 My dear children,^(A) I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate^(B) with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

The Disciples’ Grief Will Turn to Joy

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

¹⁷ At 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,’^(C) and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”^{(D) 18} They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”

¹⁹ Jesus 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’? ²⁰ Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn^(E) while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.^{(F) 21} A woman giving birth to a child has pain^(G) 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. ²² So with you: Now is your time of grief,^(H) but I will see you again^(I) and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.^(J)

Dispute Over Who Jesus Is

²¹ Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die^(A) in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”^(B)

²² This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”

²³ But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.^{(C) 24} I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he,^(D) you will indeed die in your sins.”