John 16:29-30

“His disciples say, ‘Lo, you now speak plainly and do not speak in mysterious words. Now we know that you know all things and do not need that any man should ask you. By this we believe that you came forth from God'.”

The disciples now accept as wholeheartedly as they can that He has come into the world from the Father, that He has ‘come forth from God'. Thus they realise He is a heavenly figure and must know all things, and self-contentedly say that now none of them need ask Him anything about it any more, for now they understand. How foolish is the wisdom of men. They will soon learn how little they know. Do they now think that His going to the Father will be peaceful and without problems? Probably. For they were certainly not ready for what lay ahead.

Their response is understandable. The truth is that no one likes to be told that they do not understand. So they begin to put on a pretence of understanding, and to save their own self-respect even convinced themselves that they did. The disciples had not liked being told that they saw all things as parables. They liked to think that they really did understand things, unlike those others. Their pride demanded that they tell Jesus that now at last they understood. So they seized on His current words and told Him that now they could suddenly understand what He meant. Notice that Jesus immediately righted their wrong impression. He did it gently by referring to belief rather than understanding. He did not want to humiliate them. But He knew that the greater their self-confidence the greater the spiritual collapse when their belief was all revealed within the next few days to be totally wrong.