Once again, Jesus makes a very firm assertion about the Spirit Realm. The whole point here is to heighten their adherence to an otherworldly focus. As long as their minds and motives are locked in this prison existence, they cannot enjoy all the blessings God grants to His children.
Jesus makes an enigmatic statement about how they will soon not see Him, and then again soon after that, they will see Him once more. The truth of things often fits poorly in human language. This is a parable. He would be taken from their fleshly eyes, but would then reappear in the form of the Holy Spirit in each of their hearts.
But because they were still stuck in their worldly view of things, the words puzzled them. Surely during this night walk through the city, you can imagine them hissing back and forth amongst themselves, trying not to interrupt His discourse. To answer their questions, He offers yet another parable. This time it’s the image of a mother giving birth. Birth pangs are indescribably painful, but so is the joy after the child is delivered. Just so, they will sorrow as the birth of a new kingdom convulses their world, but then comes that new life and the joy will crowd out the memories of this next few days of chaos and terror.
This will be an eternal joy, because it would usher their awareness into a higher realm. They would then have Jesus forever, meaning it would no longer rest on the flesh, a joy that suffers no vulnerabilities.
When that day comes, they are to cease speaking to Him as their High Priest before the Father. Instead, they will be welcome to face the Father themselves as children, brothers of Jesus. They will ask in Jesus’ name — meaning, they would ask under His authority. In their minds, it would naturally assume they would ask for things consistent with Jesus’ mission. Jesus emphasized this business of asking in His name, but not praying to Him.
And when that time of spiritual union comes, He will no longer need to use parables. With the divine Presence in their hearts, the Father can be seen as directly as anything their souls can possibly perceive. With the awakening of heart-led awareness, they will know in ways they cannot now imagine. That is part and parcel with no longer calling on Jesus as the go-between. The Father loves them right along with loving His own Son.
That’s because they will have embraced Jesus as their Lord, as their covenant feudal Head of Household. Once they really, finally understood that He was the literal Son of God, they could fully embrace the implication that this made them children of Heaven. The Father dispatched Jesus from Heaven, and to Heaven Jesus must return to carry out His mission.
So now the disciples got that part. They could easily assert by faith that Jesus was not like any other man. No doubts now.
Did they really, finally get that? Good, because they would need to hang onto that when human forces scattered them. Yes, their fleshly natures would reassert themselves for a little while, and they would all flee Jesus in this time of terror. But He would never be alone, as He had the unspeakable certainty who He was and how His Father would never desert Him.
So it was important to get them at least started down that path, even if the gate through which they passed was tribulation they could not image. He wanted them to at least secure that anchor point in their awareness. He wanted to ensure they were told clearly they had reason for hope and faith: He was already Master of this world, Satan’s superior.
“But because they were still stuck in their worldly view of things,”
Seems like the apostles were like us more than we think.
^ Assuming here that these were just the 12 He was talking to. Didn’t check the context yet.
The context is that late night stroll from the Upper Room to the Garden of Gethsemane. It’s just the 12.