Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father?
This verse takes place on the night before Jesus was arrested and crucified — during his final long conversation with his twelve disciples, sometimes called the Farewell Discourse. Jesus had just told them he was going away and that they would see him again 'in a little while,' and that he was going to the Father. The disciples had no framework for what he meant: they didn't yet understand that he was describing his death and resurrection. So rather than asking Jesus directly, they started whispering among themselves, trying to puzzle it out. Their confusion is completely understandable — what Jesus was describing had never happened before in human history.
God, I have questions I haven't fully voiced and confusions I've been trying to sort out on my own. Give me the courage to stop analyzing and just come to you with the mess of it. Thank you that you're not frustrated by my confusion — you meet it. Amen.
They're doing it quietly, just among themselves — 'What does he mean?' It's the theological equivalent of passing a note in class. These aren't slow people. They've walked with Jesus for three years, watched him heal the sick and calm a storm and raise someone from the dead. But what he's describing sits so far outside their categories that they go in circles trying to decode it, afraid to simply ask. There's something painfully recognizable about this. How often do you spend more energy trying to figure out what God is doing — talking it through with friends, reading your way through the uncertainty, lying awake at 3 AM running through scenarios — than you spend just bringing the question directly to him? Jesus, just a few verses later, notices they want to ask and meets their confusion head-on. He's not annoyed. He's not waiting for them to have it figured out first. If you're in a stretch of 'what does this mean?' right now, you don't have to decode it before you come. You can bring the confusion itself.
Why do you think the disciples talked among themselves rather than asking Jesus directly? What does that reveal about how they understood their relationship with him in that moment?
When God's plans or timing confuse you, what is your instinctive first move — to ask God directly, to talk it through with others, or to sit alone with the uncertainty? What does that pattern tell you?
Is there something you sense God might be doing or saying in your life right now that you don't fully understand? What would it look like to bring that confusion to him in prayer rather than just thinking about it?
Are there questions about faith that you feel embarrassed or afraid to ask — of God, or of other believers? What makes certain questions feel off-limits, and who taught you that?
What is one honest, unresolved question you could bring to God in prayer this week, without needing to have the answer ready before you begin?
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Luke 24:44
These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.
John 16:1
Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
John 14:22
And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.
Mark 9:10
Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.
John 16:30
Some of His disciples said to one another, "What does He mean when He tells 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 to My Father'?"
AMP
So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says 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 to the Father’?”
ESV
[Some] of His disciples then said to one another, 'What is this thing He is telling us, 'A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me'; and, 'because I go to the Father '?'
NASB
The Disciples’ Grief Will Turn to Joy 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,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”
NIV
Then some of His disciples said among themselves, “What is this that He says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?”
NKJV
Some of the disciples asked each other, “What does he mean when he says, ‘In a little while you won’t see me, but then you will see me,’ and ‘I am going to the Father’?
NLT
That stirred up a hornet's nest of questions among the disciples: "What's he talking about: 'In a day or so you're not going to see me, but then in another day or so you will see me'? And, 'Because I'm on my way to the Father'?
MSG