Being a disciple, before and after

I have recently started re-reading the New Testament, and one of the things that stands out is how much the disciples apparently missed.

I guess I really started thinking about it in Matthew 15, when the Savior himself asks, "Are ye also yet without understanding?" Then in the next chapter, he tells them to beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Saducees.

Matthew 16:

 7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.

 8 Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?

 9 Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?

 10 Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?

 11 How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?

 12 Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

That took me back to my mission, when our president was talking to us about the woman at the well. The disciples had gone to get food, but while they were gone an encounter with one woman turned into an opportunity to teach many.

John 4:

 31 ¶In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.

 32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.

 33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?

President Bott said something like, "Meanwhile they're checking the ground for sandwich wrappers."

It would be easy to feel kind of superior. Reading through it seems like they needed an explanation for every single parable he used, when after a few you might think they would start thinking about it on their own. 

Of course, once you know there is a deeper meaning, even if you have some ideas, it probably seems reasonable to ask, and make sure you're not missing anything. We know what the parables mean because we have read the explanations.

There is a definite turning point after the Resurrection, and two factors with that seem very important to me. 

One is the Resurrection itself. They had seen him raise people from the dead three times, including one who was believed past the point where being restored to life was possible.  Still, it must have been very difficult to comprehend that Jesus would let himself die and then bring himself back. Even thought he told them it would happen, it was possible to believe he meant something else, shielding themselves from something that was too much to contemplate. Looking forward it is hard to imagine; looking back it all makes sense.

The other key change is that after the Holy Ghost comes - not as a visiting witness but as an abiding comforter. That makes things really different. The disciples can be stronger, wiser, and more faithful.

The obvious question, then, is for us, graced with the ability to look back, read the records with the explanations and the hindsight of seeing how things worked out, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, how should we be? Are we understanding as much as we should?