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40. Did Peter ask Jesus where He was going? John 13:36 vs. John 16:5

Sometimes I’m not sure if I should be amused at these contradiction accusations, or insulted.

John 13:36
Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward.”

John 16:5
“But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’”

In John 13, the Last Supper is over, and Jesus begins preparing His disciples for what is about to happen. Because everything is about to get really bad, and they’re pretty clueless.

He sends Judas off to do his dirty work, and He tells His disciples, for the first time, that He’s leaving. Oh, and this time they can’t follow. 

He’s given this line to other people before, and every time He did, He left that town, or home, for another. His disciples were always with Him, because that’s what disciples did. Heretofore, the conversation has always been about towns or temples, so Peter – surprised that Jesus would deny them their role as disciples – assumes the same and asks,

“Lord, where are you going?”

The short conversation that follows demonstrates that Peter and Jesus are not talking about the same thing.

In chapter 14, Jesus starts to clarify by talking about the Father’s house. Thomas reiterates Peter’s question about where He is going, and Jesus gives him a deeper, more thought-provoking answer than most of us would have liked.

Chapters 14 and 15 continue with some encouragement, some instruction, some Q&A, etc. All of it is steeped in Old Testament imagery, and prophetic foreshadow.

It’s a really intense conversation, and it takes a toll on the disciples.

At the beginning of chapter 16, Jesus tells them why He’s just been a buzz-kill, and, just before noting the sorrow that has “filled” their hearts, He says they haven’t asked Him where He’s going.

They had asked Him where He was going when they thought He was packing up for the next leg of the tour, but when He started to get supernatural – started talking about persecution, started saying things like, “abide in Me” even though He’s apparently leaving – they stopped asking. It got difficult. They got overwhelmed, and they stopped asking.

Matthew Henry’s Commentary notes,

… but they did not pursue it, they did not take the answer; they were in the dark concerning it, and did not enquire further, nor seek for fuller satisfaction;

Gill’s Exposition comments,

… when Christ had suggested to his disciples, that he was going to his Father’s house, to prepare mansions for them, they did not seem to understand him, John 14:2. Nor did they ask what he meant by his Father’s house, or what those mansions were he was going to prepare; and what the glory was he was going to possess for himself and them; they ask neither about the place he was going to, nor the way to it, nor the happiness to be enjoyed there.

The beautiful thing about Jesus is that He explains it anyway,

and in doing so reveals more of His character to us: He is not afraid of questions, in fact, He is eager to answer them. We don’t need to feel like we can’t ask the same question twice if we don’t understand Him, and He would much rather we ask so that we can take comfort in Him rather than in our own sorrow.

He is not surprised by your doubt, or weakened by your unbelief.

Come to Him in whatever condition or degree of faith you find yourself. Be real with Him, and He will make Himself real to you.