NOTES for Mat 17:10
This conversation takes place immediately after the Transfiguration of the Lord, when Jesus asks the disciples to keep silent about the confirmation they have now received from above that Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior awaited by the house of Israel. And the disciples' question is quite natural, although prompted by doubt. From childhood they know that the Messiah's coming must be preceded by the coming of the prophet Elijah, and now the tradition they have known since childhood comes into conflict with their own experience, just lived through. Christ lets them understand that there already was a man who "prepared His ways," John, whom they did not receive and killed. And that rejection and suffering lie ahead for Him Himself. These terrible words are a warning to all of us.
Very often we have a formed idea of how grace can and cannot manifest itself, trying to squeeze God's design into our earthly notions. Then the same danger lies in wait for us: not to notice, to overlook, inadvertently to reject the one sent by God, and thereby to refuse God Himself. There is only one path: to listen to the word of God and live in trust, not relying on ready-made recipes and not placing excessive hopes in someone else's experience.