would the real Elijah please stand up?

Matthew 17:9-13

This conversation occurs as Jesus, James, John and Peter are on their way down the mountain just after seeing Jesus in all his glory, along with Elijah and Moses. The key words are: Son of Man, Elijah, and suffer. Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man twice in these verses which fits well with how he refers to himself through out the book of Matthew so far. It seems to be his favourite title for himself.
The teachers of the law (and the disciples) were looking for a literal Elijah to preceed the Messiah. Jesus makes it clear, and his disciples come to understand, that the prophecy was talking about a prophet with the same character and ministry as Elijah - one who called people back to worship of the true God. Elijah was a picture of the one who was to preceed the Messiah. Jesus indicates, and the disciples realize, that John the Baptist fulfills that picture.
In all of this discussion, the disciples seemingly miss two important points that Jesus makes: that he is going to die and be raised again and that he will suffer at the hands of the people who caused the suffering of John.
I know there have been lots of times when I have missed the important points that Jesus and other people have been trying to make because I have focused on the wrong thing. I saw a great example of this last night on t.v.: a daughter was trying to tell her mom that the mom's boyfriend was abusing her but the mother translated that conversation in such a way that all she heard was that the daughter was missing her dad. I'm terrible at reading the subtext. In this case, it's not even really subtext. Jesus initiates the conversation but the disciples are distracted with the order of fulfilled prophecy. I pray that I would be better at listening to what is actually being said, both by Jesus and by others, and not as pre-occupied with what I think they are saying or expect them to say.