Matthew 17:22-23
22 As they were meeting in Galilee, Jesus told them, "The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.
23 They will kill Him, and on the third day He will be raised up." And they were deeply distressed.
The final thought that Jesus communicated to his disciples was that he would be raised up on the third day; however, they were distressed, deeply distressed.
It occurs to me that they should have been extremely excited and overjoyed. Jesus had just spoken of his final victory over death and the grave. But they missed it, and they were therefore deeply distressed at the situation.
I imagine that there are two reasons that this scenario played out as it did. First, they didn't understand the big picture. The words, "on the third day he will be raised up," did not register with their thinking process - it wasn't within their scope or worldview. So they missed it.
Second, they succumbed to the part of human nature that seems to focus on negative news above and beyond positive news. We get stuck at the negative and it so dominates our thinking and perspective that the positive is overlooked. The disciples did not get past the thoughts that Jesus would be betrayed and killed. So they missed it.
I won't invest my time in writing and your time in reading the application of these thoughts to our present day lives -- I believe it is obvious.
