John 16:22

Vv. 22 makes the application of the comparison. The term: I will see you, cannot be synonymous with: you shall see me (John 16:16-17; John 16:19). The fact of the spiritual seeing again is presented here from the point of view of Jesus, not of the disciples. The death of Jesus not only separated the disciples from Him, but also Him from the disciples. He Himself, when transporting Himself to this moment, said in John 16:4: “When I was with you;” and after His resurrection, in Luke 24:44: “When I was yet with you.” It is for this reason that, not being able at that time to keep them Himself, He prays the Father to keep them in His stead (John 17:12-13).

There is no longer between Him and them the bond of sensible communion, and there is not yet that of spiritual communion. For this reason, when He shall return to them spiritually, it will be a seeing again for Him as well as for them. After this interval, in which He no longer Himself held the reins of their life, will come the day of Pentecost, when He will again have the flock under His own hand, and will sovereignly govern them from the midst of His divine state. The resurrection in itself alone could not yet form this new bond. Weiss has therefore no good foundation for finding in this expression: I will see you again, a proof in favor of his explanation (comp. John 16:25). The last words: and no one, are to be explained according to him in the sense that, even when the Risen One had once departed, the joy of the resurrection nevertheless continued in the hearts of the disciples; but see on John 16:24.

The present αἴρει, takes away, is the true reading. Jesus transports Himself in thought to that day.