I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you.
Here observe, 1. The condition which the disciples were in upon the account of Christ's removal from them, and that was sad and comfortless: fatherless or orphans, as the word signifies. Learn hence, That Christ's departure, or the loss of his gracious presence, is very sad and comfortless to a pious soul; well might the disciples here lament and mourn upon the occasion of Christ...
Verse 18. Comfortless. Greek, orphans. Jesus here addresses them as children, . He says that he would show them the kindness of a parent, and, though he was going away, he would provide for their future welfare. And even while he was absent, yet they would sustain to him still the relation of children.
18. I will not have you orphans. This passage shows what men are, and what they can do, when they have been deprived of the protection of the Spirit. They are orphans, exposed to every kind of fraud and injustice, incapable of governing themselves, and, in short, unable of themselves to do any thing.