And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.
This verse follows an event called the Transfiguration, where Jesus took three of his closest disciples — Peter, James, and John — up a mountain, and his appearance suddenly changed: his clothes blazed white, and two towering figures from Jewish history appeared beside him: Moses, who led Israel out of slavery, and Elijah, Israel's most famous prophet. As they came back down the mountain, Jesus told them to keep what they'd seen secret until 'the Son of Man had risen from the dead' — a title Jesus used for himself. The disciples obey, but the phrase 'rising from the dead' stops them cold. They had no framework for what that meant when applied to the Messiah personally, so they tried to figure it out among themselves — and couldn't.
Jesus, I am often like your disciples — holding your words, turning them over, not quite sure what they mean for me yet. Thank you that you didn't require full understanding before you invited them to follow you. Give me the patience and the honesty to keep walking even when I don't have it figured out. Amen.
They discussed it among themselves — which is a polite way of saying they argued in quiet, bewildered voices all the way down that mountain. These were not slow men. They had watched Jesus heal people no doctor could touch, calm a storm mid-sentence, feed five thousand people with a packed lunch. They were paying attention. But this sentence — 'risen from the dead' — didn't fit any mental category they had. So they did what people do when something true doesn't compute: they talked around it in circles until they gave up and kept walking. There is something deeply human, and deeply holy, about that moment of unresolved confusion. They didn't pretend to understand. They didn't manufacture a confident interpretation to seem more faithful. They held the mystery out between them, admitted it didn't make sense yet, and kept following anyway. Faith has always involved sentences we can't yet fully parse — promises that won't resolve until we're on the other side of something hard. If you're sitting with a teaching or a promise from Jesus that you honestly don't know what to do with yet, you're in good company. The disciples were working it out too. They just kept walking down the mountain.
The disciples had just witnessed something extraordinary and still couldn't grasp what Jesus was telling them — what does this suggest about how understanding actually develops in the life of faith?
What is a teaching or promise from Jesus that you're still 'discussing among yourselves' — turning over, not quite sure what it means for your actual life?
Is it a sign of weak faith to not fully understand something you believe? Or is living with unresolved questions part of what faith actually is? Where do you land on that?
Think of someone in your life who is wrestling with hard questions about faith. When they express confusion, how do you typically respond — with patience and curiosity, or with quick answers that close the conversation?
What is one practice you could add to your life that would help you sit with mystery and tension rather than rushing past it to reach a tidy conclusion?
He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,
Luke 24:6
Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
Luke 24:7
And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
Luke 2:51
Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father?
John 16:17
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
John 2:19
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Luke 24:27
And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.
Mark 16:6
When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
John 2:22
So they [carefully and faithfully] kept the matter to themselves, discussing and questioning [with one another] what it meant to rise from the dead.
AMP
So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might mean.
ESV
They seized upon that statement, discussing with one another what rising from the dead meant.
NASB
They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.
NIV
So they kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.
NKJV
So they kept it to themselves, but they often asked each other what he meant by “rising from the dead.”
NLT
They puzzled over that, wondering what on earth "rising from the dead" meant.
MSG