Why didn’t the disciples believe Jesus at first?

Why didn’t the disciples believe Jesus at first?

Asked by Someone

Why didn’t the disciples believe Jesus at first?

It does seem strange when we read in the Gospels that the disciples just did not understand who Jesus was.

Mark’s Gospel makes this particularly clear. Having just walked on water, calmed a storm, fed five thousand people, Jesus rebukes them in 8:21 “Do you not yet understand?”  But then we get a very interesting miracle - Jesus heals a man who was born blind (8:22-26), and as soon as he does that Peter recognises that he is the Christ (8:29).  Mark is showing us that what happened to the blind man had to happen to the disciples - they had to have their ‘spiritual’ eyes opened.  To understand and believe in Jesus, we need to have our spiritual eyes opened. 

We see the same thing in John’s Gospel, where Jesus is clear that (John 3:3) ‘unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’  Jesus goes on to say that it is the Holy Spirit who gives us this new birth.

So, the reason that the apostles did not believe in Jesus is that all of us are naturally born blind to spiritual things and God’s Holy Spirit must open our eyes so that we can grasp the truth.

Answers are kindly provided by our friends at Christianity.net.au

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