Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary John 13:33

"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." — John 13:33 (ASV)

“My children [GK 5448]” is expressive of Jesus’ love and concern for the Eleven, who must have seemed to him to be weak and immature (cf. John’s use of the same term to introduce admonitions in 1Jn 2:1, 12, 28; 3:7, 18; 4:4; 5:21). Jesus recalled to their memory his words to the Jews: “Where I go, you cannot come” (8:21). To the disciples he was speaking of the fact that they were now unprepared to follow him, though they would rejoin him later . To the Jews he made no such promise; instead, he predicted that they would die in their sins.