Verse 33
Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go ye cannot come; so now I say unto you.
Little children ... is found nowhere else in the Gospels and was used here, perhaps, for the first time by the Lord. This tender address and the circumstances under which it was used endeared the words to John who made them a permanent part of his vocabulary (1 John 2:1,12,18,28 etc.).
As I said unto the Jews ... See John 7:34 and John 8:21,22. In those instances, Jesus referred to the eternal impossibility of wicked men having fellowship with himself; but here he referred to the temporary separation of the Lord from the disciples by reason of his approaching death and departure to the heavenly world. As Hovey noted:
In going to his Father through the dreadful pathway of death, he would enter upon a life distinct from the present, and inaccessible to his own in their earthly state. In view of this impending separation, he proceeded to enjoin them to love one another.[9]
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