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is not in this verse a contrast drawn between asking the Son, which shall cease, and asking the Father, which shall begin ; but the first half of the verse closes the declaration of one blessing, namely, that hereafter they shall be so taught by the Spirit as to have nothing further to inquire ; the second half of the verse begins the declaration of a new blessing, that whatsoever they shall seek from the Father, He will give it them in the Son's name.
There are then two things here as the marks of the Christian life all through the ages : the cessation of the ignorant questions addressed to a present Christ, and the satisfaction of desires. These may be conveniently studied under the headings given by Godet :—
I. Fulness of Knowledge. IL Fulness of Power.
I.
Fulness of Knowledge.
"And in that day ye shall ask me nothing."
When our Lord went in and out among His disciples, He was their Prophet and Teacher in this way, that, if they wanted to know anything, the meaning of a place in Scripture, the right and wrong of what was being done, or the like — anything, in short, concerning their duty — they might go straight to Him and ask Him a question about it, as the Jews of old asked the prophets who were among them. And so in the Gospel history we find them continually doing this. Now what a great and unspeakable privilege this was, we all in some sort understand and feel at once. We know what a loss it is, when we are forced to part from some parent or friend, a frail mortal like ourselves, only a little better and wiser. How much more, when they had to part from Him who is perfect and infinite Goodness and Wisdom.
The state of things which was passing was the old familiar intercourse, the questions and the answers of the daily life. The relation of the Lord to His followers, as that of teacher and disciples, made the asking of questions the most natural thing in the world. As a matter of fact, we find in the Gospels that this
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is what the disciples were constantly doing. It might be a question of failure on their part : " Lord, why could not we cast it out ? " It might be a moment of danger, as on the lake, when the disciples did not fall to prayer, but awoke their sleeping Lord : " Master, carest thou not that we perish ? " It might be some far-reaching question : " Lord, are there few that be saved ? " It might be some suggested limitation of their loyalty : " Lord, why cannot I follow thee now ? " Especially in the last discourses recorded by St. John do we find such questions, implied or expressed. There was the question of St. Thomas, who wanted to tie our Lord down to definiteness of statement: "Lord, we know not whither thou goest ; how know we the way ? " There was the implied question of Philip, echoing the world-wide difficulty that besets the government of the world : " Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us." There was the question of the other Judas, with its shadow of the agelong perplexity, as to election and predestination : " Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world ? " And even as our Lord was speaking there was a question, as to the meaning of certain words of His, which was in the hearts, and almost on the lips, of the whole body of the Apostles : " Jesus perceived that they were desirous to ask him, and he said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves concerning this, that I said, A little while, and ye behold me not; and again a little while, and ye shall see me ? " And then the Lord gave them for answer the assurance that though they should be sorrowful, their sorrow should be turned into joy. Thus were the disciples constantly in the habit, as was natural, of asking questions. Often the Lord's answers seem to be purposely indirect and even evasive, but they always had reference to the particular difficulty that had been expressed. Now, the old privileged state of things, the easy, natural intercourse, was to cease. No longer would the disciples be able to turn to a present Master in time of perplexity or moment of danger. No longer would they hear the familiar accents speaking in answer to their questionings. It would be strange if the passing away of the old intercourse did not seem to the disciples to be all loss. For what condition of things could possibly seem to them better than the old ? ^
^ A. E. Coulthard, in The Record, 1908, p. 508.
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It is under these circumstances that Christ pronounces the words : " In that day ye shall ask me nothing." Are we, then, to understand the words as words of discouragement to the already depressed disciples, or may we take them as words of the deepest comfort : " In that day ye shall ask me nothing, because every- thing will be revealed to you " ?