Jesus always prepared His disciples for what was to come.  Like the Good Shepherd, He went before them and prepared them for the next steps, and in His own sacrificial death He taught how those who believe in Him must also sacrifice themselves for His sake (John 10:14-16).  But at the time Jesus spoke these serious words to the trainee apostles, the disciples could not believe that their Master would be killed.  In their minds, everything was in His favour and, apart from the religious power-holders, everybody seemed to love Jesus.

So, before the final journey to meet His death in Jerusalem, the Lord gave them a briefing, explaining exactly what would happen. The details were so graphic and surely (we might have thought) unmistakable – a clear echo of Isaiah 53:3-10.  Jesus would be unjustly tried by the Gentile ruler Pontius Pilate and cruelly crucified by Gentile soldiers, yet He would rise on the third day.  But the disciples had no idea what He was talking about at that time (John 12:16).

At a human level, they could not bring their understanding into line with Jesus' prediction of the future.  They simply could not see what it meant.  True, they were anticipating a Messianic coup against the Roman authorities, but there was another reason for their dull minds - God had not allowed them to understand the message (1 Corinthians 2:6-8).  So why was it given?  It was a way of preparing them for Pentecost when the Holy Spirit would allow them to see how the ministry, death and resurrection perfectly fulfilled Christ's words and why His ministry had to happen that way (John 16:12-15).  On that day, and not before, they would get the message.  But when they did, it was action time!  Their job was then to proclaim the message with bold conviction ... and many were saved - it was the beginning of the church (Acts 2:40-41).

God does not speak to us to inflate our minds with interesting information.  He speaks so that people will take action (Deuteronomy 29:29).  For the disciples, there was no action to take until Jesus had fulfilled His commission - so there was no need for them to understand.  Their only task was to observe what happened so that they could be credible witnesses to others later.  Until the Holy Spirit filled them at Pentecost, they had no explanation of what they had seen, and therefore no message to pass on to others.  But their observation role was far from pointless: the apostles would be able to refute the untrue stories about Jesus, because they had seen His miracles and wonderful signs for themselves (2 Peter 1:16-18).  That is why Jesus commanded them to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8) to prove that what happened to Him was just what He planned.  What a reassurance to us too - our faith is not built on imaginary stories but on the truth of what Jesus said and did (Luke 1:1-4).  Like the disciples, when we know that for ourselves, we then have a message to tell others.