They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith.
This verse comes from the night before Jesus was crucified. He had been speaking with his twelve disciples in what scholars call the "farewell discourse" — his final, intimate teaching before his arrest. Jesus had told them he would be leaving "for a little while" and then they would see him again, referring to his coming death and resurrection. The disciples didn't understand this and kept whispering among themselves, trying to puzzle it out. The phrase "a little while" confused them because they couldn't yet see what was coming. This moment is a raw and honest snapshot of people who deeply loved Jesus, sitting with his words and still feeling completely lost — a picture of faith wrestling with mystery it can't yet resolve.
God, I don't always understand what you're doing or what you're saying, and sometimes that silence feels like absence. Thank you that the disciples didn't understand either and you didn't abandon them for it. Stay with me in the not-knowing, and give me people to ask the hard questions with. Amen.
There's something almost comforting about the image of the disciples huddled together, quietly asking each other, "What does he mean?" These weren't strangers or skeptics. They had walked with Jesus for three years, seen miracles, heard his teachings, shared meals. And they still said, plainly and collectively: we don't understand. Nobody in that circle pretended to have it figured out. Nobody went quiet out of shame or performed a nod of fake comprehension. They just kept asking each other the honest question, out loud, in the room. We tend to treat spiritual confusion as evidence that something's gone wrong — that if your faith were strong enough, the fog would lift. But Jesus didn't rebuke these men. He didn't sigh or walk away. He kept talking, kept leaning toward their confusion rather than away from it. Maybe your season of "I don't understand what God is saying" isn't a detour from faith — maybe it's exactly the middle of it. You don't have to perform clarity you don't have. Ask the question out loud. Ask it again. The "little while" eventually resolves, but you don't have to pretend it already has.
What clues does the context of this moment — the night before Jesus's death — give you about why the disciples were so confused about the phrase "a little while"?
When have you sat with something in Scripture or your faith and genuinely not understood it — and what did you do with that confusion?
Do you believe God is bothered by honest confusion and unanswered questions? What shapes your answer to that?
When someone close to you expresses doubt or confusion about faith, how do you typically respond — and does this verse shift anything about how you might show up for them?
What is one question about God or faith you've been carrying privately but haven't asked out loud — and who in your life could you bring that question to this week?
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Hebrews 5:12
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
So they were saying, "What does He mean when He says, 'A little while'? We do not know what He is talking about."
AMP
So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.”
ESV
So they were saying, 'What is this that He says, 'A little while '? We do not know what He is talking about.'
NASB
They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”
NIV
They said therefore, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is saying.”
NKJV
And what does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand.”
NLT
What is this 'day or so'? We don't know what he's talking about."
MSG