Peter, James and John had just witnessed the Transfiguration; when they came down from the mountain, Jesus had cured a boy with epilepsy, and then Jesus uttered this pronouncement.
I'm sure that the apostles were confused as to what it meant and as the passage says, the meaning was concealed from them.
I'm sure that they thought that Jesus was invincible. After all, he healed people, he raised them from the dead; the apostles had seen him in his glory, so why would they think he meant he would die?
Any time he mentioned that he would suffer and die, they ignored it. In fact, at one point they were arguing among themselves as to who would sit at his right hand when he came into his Kingdom. And this was right after he told them about his coming death.
How could they possibly understand, especially when he also told them that he would rise again? What could it possibly mean to rise from the dead?
I'm sure that I wouldn't have understood him either.
We are so lucky to have the witness of the apostles to help us understand what Jesus was saying and give us a written record of his teachings.
If it hadn't been for their witness, I don't know what my life would be like. In fact, I don't know what this world would be like.
The simple and complex message of the Gospel is love.
Christians didn't always live us to this message, but for the most part, they did change the way people began to respect life more than life had been respected in more primitive ages.
We need to be reminded about what Jesus did for us in offering up his life and work harder to build up this message of love in our world today.
