Mark 9:32 Commentary and Bible Study

Why were they afraid to ask him? Because they feared that their notion of the kingdom of God would come to an end. They didn't yet fully understand him. Even after the transfiguration, the three disciples – Peter, James and John – still believed that although he was the Messiah, the promised Son of God who had come into the world, he had come to bring about an earthly empire, an earthly transformation of the lot of the Jewish people; that he had come to be a political Messiah primarily. They could not get this out of their heads and the idea that he, the great miracle worker, the Son of God was not at some point going to take up arms, or something of that kind, and going to reign. They didn’t understand that he was going to be humiliated and die. If he is going to die, then what will become of this glorious kingdom on earth? They thought it would all come to an end with this talk of death. So they were afraid of any explanation. They didn't yet understand he had come to be a spiritual Saviour, to save men and women for all eternity, and the kingdom of God was an eternal and a heavenly kingdom. The idea that he should rise again from the dead: this was a great mystery and so they just did not receive it and they were frightened to ask him, lest he should elaborate in a way they didn’t want to hear.