When Jesus told his disciples that “he shall rise the third day”, Mk 9:31, “they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him”, Mk 9:32.
Why didn’t they understand? If we can figure this out, the answers will help us to know why we don’t understand some of the things we should understand.
I say “should understand”, because there are things that you and I can’t understand right now. We’re like Peter when Jesus was washing the disciples’ feet. Jesus said to him, “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter”, Jn 13:7. Some of the things we don’t know he’s going to show us later.
We’re like the disciples in Jn 2:18-22, when Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”. They, like the Jews, thought he must have been talking about the temple where he had just run out the merchants. They didn’t understand that he was talking about the temple of his body until after he had risen from the dead. Then, “they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said”.
No doubt the people in the Tribulation are going to understand some of the difficult verses in Hebrews, James, Peter and John that we still struggle with.
They understood not. Why?
They were afraid to ask him. They were “afraid” to ask him, Mk 9:32. What were they afraid of? More than likely, they were afraid to disclose their ignorance and hardness of heart.
In Mk 8:15, when Jesus told his disciples to “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod”, they didn’t understand him. In Mk 8:21, Jesus asked, “How is it that that ye do not understand”? His tone sounds like a harsh rebuke.
We often don’t understand the scripture because we don’t want to humble ourselves and admit that we don’t know. So, we just sit in silence and ignorance, content to remain “in the dark”.
If you don’t know, ask Jesus to show you. Or ask someone who does know to help you to understand it. That’s what pastors and teachers, whom God has given to the church, are there for.
They were asking other men instead of him. In Mk 9:9-10, Jesus told his disciples to tell no man about his transfiguration “till the Son of man were risen from the dead”.
They didn’t know “what the rising from the dead should mean”. To try to figure it out, they questioned “one with another”. They were hopeless to come up with the right answer because none of them knew what the right answer was. Yet they should have known.
In Mk 8:15 when Jesus told them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, “they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread”, Mk 8:16. They came to the wrong conclusion. They understood not.
When you go to commentaries to understand something that Jesus said that you don’t understand, you have to be careful. Often what you read is as far from the truth as the disciples were from understanding what Jesus meant about the leaven. Men often try to reason among themselves what the Bible says. And you can tell this because they keep quoting each other.
They didn’t believe what he said. You know that the disciples didn’t believe what he said about rising the third day.
When Mary told them that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they “believed not”, Mk 16:11. And when the two men who had seen Jesus on the road to Emmaus told the disciples “neither believed they them”, Mk 16:13.
Therefore, when Jesus appeared unto the eleven “he upbraided them with their unbelief, and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen”, Mk 16:14.
Well, if they didn’t believe in him rising after eyewitnesses testified that he had, they surely didn’t believe in him rising before it ever happened. They understood not.
Unbelief is one of the prime causes of not understanding the scripture. Much of the retranslation of the Bible is due to unbelief. The authors of modern Bibles just don’t believe what they’re reading in the King James Bible. You must come to the Bible with a believing heart if you are going to understand it.
They missed a clear cross reference. In Matt 12:39-40, Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees that the only sign he was going to give them was the sign of the prophet Jonas. He explained that “the Son of man (shall) be the three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”. And as Jonas came up, so did Jesus.
The Bible is the best commentary on itself. Cross referencing scripture with scripture helps you to understand what you’re reading. But so often, people haven’t read enough Bible to even know where the cross references are. And, thus, they often don’t understand something that is clear in the scripture. You won’t either if you keep missing the cross references. You must study.
They, like Martha, thought they already knew. When Jesus, speaking of Lazarus, told Martha “Thy brother shall rise again”, Jn 11:23, she replied, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day”, Jn 11:24. What she already knew kept her from understanding what Jesus was saying. Lazarus was going to rise from the dead that day.
The disciples would have believed in the same resurrection that Martha believed in. They didn’t know that Jesus was going to rise three days after he was buried. Yet, this is exactly what he told them he was going to do. What they already knew kept them from understanding what they didn’t know.
So often, Christians limit themselves to what they already know and miss so much that the Lord is trying to show them in the scripture. You’re better off coming to the Bible as a little child and not as a scholar, There is much about this book you don’t know yet. So don’t act like you do.
Conclusion: the hardest people to teach, the ones who have the hardest time learning, are the ones that think they already know. Likewise, the people who don’t believe what God wrote, have a terrible time with understanding.
Don’t be afraid to admit to the Lord and to people who know, that you don’t understand something God wrote. Avoid trying to reason it out with other people who don’t know either. This idea of going around the room to see what each other “got out of it” is a big waste of time, unless you’re doing a family devotion.
Come to this Book with a humble mind, and a believing heart, and study.
They Understood Not, Mk 9:32 – Jul 19, 2026
When Jesus told his disciples that “he shall rise the third day”, Mk 9:31, “they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him”, Mk 9:32.
Why didn’t they understand? If we can figure this out, the answers will help us to know why we don’t understand some of the things we should understand.
I say “should understand”, because there are things that you and I can’t understand right now. We’re like Peter when Jesus was washing the disciples’ feet. Jesus said to him, “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter”, Jn 13:7. Some of the things we don’t know he’s going to show us later.
We’re like the disciples in Jn 2:18-22, when Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”. They, like the Jews, thought he must have been talking about the temple where he had just run out the merchants. They didn’t understand that he was talking about the temple of his body until after he had risen from the dead. Then, “they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said”.
No doubt the people in the Tribulation are going to understand some of the difficult verses in Hebrews, James, Peter and John that we still struggle with.
They understood not. Why?
They were afraid to ask him. They were “afraid” to ask him, Mk 9:32. What were they afraid of? More than likely, they were afraid to disclose their ignorance and hardness of heart.
In Mk 8:15, when Jesus told his disciples to “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod”, they didn’t understand him. In Mk 8:21, Jesus asked, “How is it that that ye do not understand”? His tone sounds like a harsh rebuke.
We often don’t understand the scripture because we don’t want to humble ourselves and admit that we don’t know. So, we just sit in silence and ignorance, content to remain “in the dark”.
If you don’t know, ask Jesus to show you. Or ask someone who does know to help you to understand it. That’s what pastors and teachers, whom God has given to the church, are there for.
They were asking other men instead of him. In Mk 9:9-10, Jesus told his disciples to tell no man about his transfiguration “till the Son of man were risen from the dead”.
They didn’t know “what the rising from the dead should mean”. To try to figure it out, they questioned “one with another”. They were hopeless to come up with the right answer because none of them knew what the right answer was. Yet they should have known.
In Mk 8:15 when Jesus told them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, “they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread”, Mk 8:16. They came to the wrong conclusion. They understood not.
When you go to commentaries to understand something that Jesus said that you don’t understand, you have to be careful. Often what you read is as far from the truth as the disciples were from understanding what Jesus meant about the leaven. Men often try to reason among themselves what the Bible says. And you can tell this because they keep quoting each other.
They didn’t believe what he said. You know that the disciples didn’t believe what he said about rising the third day.
When Mary told them that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they “believed not”, Mk 16:11. And when the two men who had seen Jesus on the road to Emmaus told the disciples “neither believed they them”, Mk 16:13.
Therefore, when Jesus appeared unto the eleven “he upbraided them with their unbelief, and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen”, Mk 16:14.
Well, if they didn’t believe in him rising after eyewitnesses testified that he had, they surely didn’t believe in him rising before it ever happened. They understood not.
Unbelief is one of the prime causes of not understanding the scripture. Much of the retranslation of the Bible is due to unbelief. The authors of modern Bibles just don’t believe what they’re reading in the King James Bible. You must come to the Bible with a believing heart if you are going to understand it.
They missed a clear cross reference. In Matt 12:39-40, Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees that the only sign he was going to give them was the sign of the prophet Jonas. He explained that “the Son of man (shall) be the three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”. And as Jonas came up, so did Jesus.
The Bible is the best commentary on itself. Cross referencing scripture with scripture helps you to understand what you’re reading. But so often, people haven’t read enough Bible to even know where the cross references are. And, thus, they often don’t understand something that is clear in the scripture. You won’t either if you keep missing the cross references. You must study.
They, like Martha, thought they already knew. When Jesus, speaking of Lazarus, told Martha “Thy brother shall rise again”, Jn 11:23, she replied, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day”, Jn 11:24. What she already knew kept her from understanding what Jesus was saying. Lazarus was going to rise from the dead that day.
The disciples would have believed in the same resurrection that Martha believed in. They didn’t know that Jesus was going to rise three days after he was buried. Yet, this is exactly what he told them he was going to do. What they already knew kept them from understanding what they didn’t know.
So often, Christians limit themselves to what they already know and miss so much that the Lord is trying to show them in the scripture. You’re better off coming to the Bible as a little child and not as a scholar, There is much about this book you don’t know yet. So don’t act like you do.
Conclusion: the hardest people to teach, the ones who have the hardest time learning, are the ones that think they already know. Likewise, the people who don’t believe what God wrote, have a terrible time with understanding.
Don’t be afraid to admit to the Lord and to people who know, that you don’t understand something God wrote. Avoid trying to reason it out with other people who don’t know either. This idea of going around the room to see what each other “got out of it” is a big waste of time, unless you’re doing a family devotion.
Come to this Book with a humble mind, and a believing heart, and study.