A superficial glance at the former part of these verses may fail to
detect their connection with the great preceding promise of the
Spirit who is to guide the disciples 'into all truth.' They appear to
stand quite isolated and apart from that. But a little thought will
bring out an obvious connection. The first words of our text are
really the climax and crown of the promise of the Spirit; for that
Spirit is to 'guide into all the truth' by declaring to the disciples
the things that are Christ's, and in consequence of that
ministration, they are to be able to see their unseen Lord. So this
is the loftiest thought of what the divine Spirit does for the
Christian heart, that it shows Him a visible though absent Christ.

Then we have in the subsequent part of our text the blundering of the
bewildered disciples and the patient answer of the long-suffering
Teacher. So that there are these three points to take up: the times
of disappearance and of sight; the bewildered disciples; and the
patient Teacher.

I. First of all, then, note the deep teaching of our Lord here, about
the times of disappearance and of Sight.

The words are plain enough; the difficulty lies in the determination
of the periods to which they refer. He tells us that, after a brief
interval from the time at which He was speaking, there would come a
short parenthesis during which He was not to be seen; and that upon
that would follow a period of which no end is hinted at, during which
He is to be seen. The two words employed in the two consecutive
clauses, for 'sight,' are not the same, and so they naturally suggest
some difference in the manner of vision.