The disappointment the disciples express in this verse points to an important truth: it’s possible to have the facts right and to come to the wrong conclusion. The disciples had the facts right about Jesus, but they’d grown impatient and dejected, replacing bright hope with dashed hope and a sense that Jesus had failed them.
Spiritual dejection is always wrong and always our fault—not God’s or anyone else’s. Dejection is often a sign of physical sickness, and spiritually it is the same. Spiritual dejection springs from one of two sources: either I’ve satisfied a lust, or I haven’t. To lust after something is to say, “I must have it at once.” Spiritual lust makes us go to God with demands, instead of seeking God himself.
What have I been hoping God will do? Am I irritated that it’s already the “third day” and he hasn’t done it? It’s easy to imagine that my feelings are justified; hasn’t God promised to answer my prayers (Matthew 21:22)? Whenever I find myself reasoning like this, insisting that God answers prayer, I can be sure I’m offtrack.
We look for visions from heaven, for earthquakes and thunder that “prove” God’s power, and we feel dejected when we don’t see them. We never dream that God is in the people and things around us. If we do the duty that lies nearest, we will see him. One of the most amazing revelations comes when we learn that it is in the commonplace things that the deity of Jesus Christ is realized. When we understand this, we are filled with wonder, and the spirit of dejection fades away.
