Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name. Ordinary readers are apt to lay the emphasis of this statement on the word "nothing;" as if it meant, 'Hitherto your askings in My name have been next to nothing, but now be encouraged to enlarge your petitions.' Clearly the emphasis is on the words "in My Name," and the statement is absolute: 'hitherto your prayers to the Father have not been offered in My Name;' for, as Olshausen correctly says, prayer in the name of Christ, as well as prayer to Christ, presupposes His glorification. Ask - `When I shall have gone to the Father, ye shall have but to ask in this new, all-prevailing form;'
And ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. So that the new footing on which they would find themselves with Jesus-no longer beside them to be consulted in every difficulty, but with them, notwithstanding, as an all-prevalent Medium of communication with the Father-would be vastly preferable to the old.