Now the Lord refers to the time when he will come in the flesh. Amazingly, he says there will be no man to welcome him as their Messiah and Redeemer. He says it even more clearly in the D&C 133:66: “In that day when I came unto mine own, no man among you received me.” This was because they thought he was the King Messiah. They had declared all scriptures concerning the first coming of Christ as a Redeemer as a myth because they felt would never kill their Messiah. They thought he would overthrow the Romans and make the Jews the rulers of the world. When he didn’t, they decided he must be an imposter and they consented to his death.
Of course, many will say, “Well, at least his Apostles received him.” But the truth is that they, like the rest of the Jews, thought he had come as the King Messiah. They also were expecting Jesus to overthrow the Romans, and make the Jews the rulers of the world. However, when they saw that this was not going to happen, the inspired version of Mark 14:36 says even the Apostles began to doubt that he really was the Messiah.
In fact we learned from the great Jewish scholar, Maimonides, that the Rabbis had been warning the people that if someone came along performing a lot of miracles but did not overthrow the Romans he could not be the Messiah. In other words, the seed was planted, even in the minds of the Apostles that if the miracle-working Jesus did not overthrow the Romans, he might well be an imposter. Even when he told them he would be crucified and resurrected, Mark says: “They understood it not.”1 Luke says,“The saying was hid from them.”2 And John says: “They knew not the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”3
John indicates to us that no matter how many times Jesus said he would be lifted up or crucified but rise from the tomb the third day, the Apostles still did not understand what he was talking about until the Holy Ghost illuminated their minds after the Savior was glorified. So we see that even the Apostles did not at first recognize Jesus in his role as a redeemer when he came in the meridian of time, and this is why Jesus could say that when he came the first time no man knew him for who he really was.