Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were overwhelmed with grief (Mt 17:22-23).
This is the second time in the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus shares with his disciples about his passion. They are overwhelmed with grief, because their focus is on the first part of Jesus’ statement that he will be handed over to death. They do not understand the second part about how he will be raised on the third day. How could they? There was no point of reference for the disciples.
For us today, we can read these statements and gloss over them a bit too easily because we celebrate Easter each year, we celebrate that Jesus has risen, but do we really take in what that means for our lives? Does the fact, the reality, that Jesus has conquered death and become the first born of the new creation really matter to us?