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He took the twelve aside, and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written through the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be completed. For he will be delivered up to the Gentiles, will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit on. They will scourge and kill him. On the third day, he will rise again.”
They understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they didn’t understand the things that were said.
Luke 18:31-34 sits inside this longer paragraph.
He took the twelve aside, and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written through the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be completed. For he will be delivered up to the Gentiles, will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit on. They will scourge and kill him. On the third day, he will rise again.”
They understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they didn’t understand the things that were said. As he came near Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the road, begging. Hearing a multitude going by, he asked what this meant. They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. He cried out, “Jesus, you son of David, have mercy on me!” Those who led the way rebuked him, that he should be quiet; but he cried out all the more, “You son of David, have mercy on me!”
He took the twelve aside, and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written through the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be completed.
For he will be delivered up to the Gentiles, will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit on.
They will scourge and kill him. On the third day, he will rise again.”
They understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they didn’t understand the things that were said.
He toke vnto him twelve and sayde vnto them. Beholde we go vp to Ierusalem and all shalbe fulfilled that are written by the Prophetes of the sonne of man.
He shalbe delivered vnto the gentils and shalbe mocked and shalbe despytfully entreated and shalbe spetted on:
and when they have scourged him they will put him to deeth and the thyrde daye he shall aryse agayne.
But they vnderstode none of these thinges. And this sayinge was hid from them. And they perceaved not the thinges which were spoken.
Then Iesus tooke vnto him ye twelue, and said vnto them, Beholde, we goe vp to Hierusalem, and all things shalbe fulfilled to the Sonne of man, that are writttn by the Prophets.
For he shall be deliuered vnto the Gentiles, and shalbe mocked, and shalbe spitefully entreated, and shalbe spitted on.
And when they haue scourged him, they will put him to death: but the thirde day hee shall rise againe.
But they vnderstood none of these things, and this saying was hidde from them, neither perceiued they the things, which were spoken.
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv31, 34 As sure and certain as persecution is, so sure…
As sure and certain as persecution is, so sure is the glory which remaineth for the conquerors.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv31–34 31 Then he took unto him the twelve, and…
31 Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.
Ver. 31. See Mat 20:17; Mar 10:32.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On v31 We shall afterward, in the history of our Saviour’s…
We shall afterward, in the history of our Saviour’s passion, see all these things exactly fulfilled, and our Lord here assures his disciples, that it was but in accomplishment of all that was prophesied concerning the Messiah; nor was it any more than he had told them, Luk 9:22, and again, Luk 9:44; Mat 20:17-19, Mar 10:32-34. Yet it is said, that they understood none of these things. The words were easy enough to be understood, but they could not reconcile them to the notion of the Messiah which they had drank in, they could not conceive how the Messiah, that should redeem Israel, should die, or be thus barbarously used by those whom he came to redeem, or save. We have great need to consider well what notions we entertain concerning the things of God. All this blindness and unbelief of the disciples was bottomed in the false notion of the Messiah which they had taken up. However, our Saviour thought fit to inculcate them, to prepare them against the offence they might take at them when the providence of God brought them forth. It is good for us to hear, though it be only for the time to come.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v31 We find our blessed Saviour very frequently acquainting his…
We find our blessed Saviour very frequently acquainting his disciples with his approaching sufferings, to prevent the offence that they might take at them, when the providence of God brought them on: this design was to arm them with expectation of his sufferings; and to quicken them to preparation for their own; yet, it is here said, That the disciples understood none of these sayings: Why so? Were not the words easy enough to be understood? Yes, but they could not reconcile them to the notion of the Messiah which they had drank in: they concluded he should be a temporal prince, and subdue their temporal enemies: but could not conceive how he, that should redeem Israel, should die, and be thus barbarously used. We have great need to consider will what notions we have concerning the things of God, before we entertain them; for false notions once taken up, are not without great difficulty laid down.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v31 Here is, I. The notice Christ gave to his…
Here is, I. The notice Christ gave to his disciples of his sufferings and death approaching, and of the glorious issue of them, which he himself had a perfect sight and foreknowledge of, and thought it necessary to give them warning of, that it might be the less surprise and terror to them. Two things here are which we had not in the other evangelists: - 1. The sufferings of Christ are here spoken of as the fulfilling of the scriptures, with which consideration Christ reconciled himself to them, and would reconcile them: All things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man, especially the hardships he should undergo, shall be accomplished. Note, The Spirit of Christ, in the Old Testament prophets, testified beforehand his sufferings, and the glory that should follow, Pe1 1:11. This proves that the scriptures are the word of God, for they had their exact and full accomplishment; and that Jesus Christ was sent of God, for they had their accomplishment in him; this was he that should come, for whatever was foretold concerning the Messiah was verified in him; and he would submit to any thing for the fulfilling of scripture, that not one jot or tittle of that should fall to the ground. This makes the offence of the cross to cease, and puts an honour upon it. Thus it was written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, thus it became him. 2. The ignominy and disgrace done to Christ in his sufferings are here most insisted upon. The other evangelists had said that he should be mocked; but here it is added, He shall be spitefully treated, hubristhēsetai - he shall be loaded with contumely and contempt, shall have all possible reproach put upon him. This was that part of his sufferings by which in a spiritual manner he satisfied God's justice for the injury we had done him in his honour by sin. Here is one particular instance of disgrace done him, that he was spit upon, which had been particularly foretold, Isa 50:6. But here, as always, when Christ spoke of his sufferings and death, he foretold his resurrection as that which took off both the terror and reproach of his sufferings: The third day he shall rise again.
II. The confusion that the disciples were hereby put into. This was so contrary to the notions they had had of the Messiah and his kingdom, such a balk to their expectations from their Master, and such a breaking of all their measures, that they understood none of these things, Luk 18:34. Their prejudices were so strong that they would not understand them literally, and they could not understand them otherwise, so that they did not understand them at all. It was a mystery, it was a riddle to them, it must be so; but they think it impossible to be reconciled with the glory and honour of the Messiah, and the design of setting up his kingdom. This saying was hidden from them, kekrummenon ap' autōn, it was apocrypha to them, they could not receive it: for their parts, they had read the Old Testament many a time, but they could never see any thing in it that would be accomplished in the disgrace and death of this Messiah. They were so intent upon those prophecies that spoke of his glory that they overlooked those that spoke of his sufferings, which the scribes and doctors of the law should have directed them to take notice of, and should have brought into their creeds and catechisms, as well as the other; but they did not suit their scheme, and therefore were laid aside. Note, Therefore it is that people run into mistakes, because they read their Bibles by the halves, and are as partial in the prophets as they are in the law. They are only for the smooth things, Isa 30:10. Thus now we are too apt, in reading the prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled, to have our expectations raised of the glorious state of the church in the latter days. But we overlook its wilderness sackcloth state, and are willing to fancy that is over, and nothing is reserved for us but the halcyon days; and then, when tribulation and persecution arise, we do not understand it, neither know we the things that are done, though we are told as plainly as can be that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv31–34 For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles,.... As…
For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles,.... As he was by the chief priests, Scribes, and elders, to Pilate, the Roman governor, and by him to the soldiers:
and shall be mocked; as he was by the latter, when they crowned him with thorns, arrayed him in a purple robe, and put a reed into his hand, and bowed the knee to him, saying, hail king of the Jews; and likewise by the Jews when he hung upon the cross:
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and spitefully entreated. The Syriac and Persic versions leave out this clause here, and read it the next verse. It may regard the injuries done him, the abuses and affronts he received, both by words and blows:
and spitted on; as he was both by officers in the high priest's palace, and by the Roman soldiers in Pilate's hall; see Isa 50:6.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv31, 34 Matt. xx, 17; Mark x, 32.
Matt. xx, 17; Mark x, 32.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv31, 33, 34 Verse 31. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem] See…
Verse 31. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem] See the notes on this discourse, Mt 20:17-19, and Mr 10:32.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v31 Luk 18:31-34. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, &c.…
Luk 18:31-34. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, &c. — See notes on Mat 22:17-19; Mar 10:32-34. They understood none of these things — They could not but understand the literal meaning of what our Lord said. But as they could not reconcile this to their preconceived opinion of the Messiah’s kingdom, they were utterly at a loss in what parabolical, or figurative sense to take what he said concerning his sufferings; having their thoughts still taken up with the temporal kingdom.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv31, 34 See the notes at Mat 20:17-19.
See the notes at Mat 20:17-19.
By the prophets - Those who foretold the coming of the Messiah, and whose predictions are recorded in the Old Testament.
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Son of man - The Messiah. They predicted that certain things would take place respecting the Messiah that was to come. See the Dan 9:25-27 notes; Isa. 53 notes. “These things,” Jesus said, would be accomplished “in him,” he being the Son of man, or the Messiah.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v34 They understood well enough the sense of the words…
They understood well enough the sense of the words he spoke to them. But they could not understand how they could be reconciled with the idea they had previously conceived of the Messias. They were scandalized in the first place, to think that God should suffer any thing inflicted by man; they were scandalized in the second place, to hear that sufferings and death could lead to victory and empire; and lastly, they were scandalized, (their own feelings taking the alarm) lest they should be forced to imitate their Master in this part which he had chosen for himself. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v31 3. Jesus and the Blind Man (Luk_18:31-43)
3. Jesus and the Blind Man (Luk_18:31-43)
(Parallel to Mat_20:17-19; Mat_20:29-34; Mar_10:32-34; Mar_10:46-52.)
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31Then [And] he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning [lit., for, τῷ υἱῷ. κ.τ.λ.] the Son of man shall be accomplished. 32For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated [outrageously handled], and spittedon: 33And they shall scourge him, and put him to death; and the third day he shall riseagain. 34And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew [comprehended] they the things which were spoken.
35And it came to pass, that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind mansat by the way side begging: 36And hearing the multitude pass by [a multitude passingby], he asked what it meant. 37And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. 38And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. 39And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried so muchthe more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. 40And Jesus stood, and commanded41him to be brought unto him: and when he was come near, he asked him, Saying,9 What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord [or, Sir], that I mayreceive my sight. 42And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight: thy faith hath savedthee [or, caused thy recovery]. 43And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Luk_18:31. And He took.—Comp. Lange on the parallels in Matthew and Mark. The parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, which in Mat_20:1-16 precedes the repeated announcement of the Passion, and the request of the sons of Zebedee which follows it, and which is given by Matthew as well as Mark, Luke passes over. According to the Synoptics, the journey to the Passover is now continued steadily in the direction of Jericho. That, however, the Twelve were not the Saviour’s only companions in travel appears from the fact that He calls them to Himself, κατ̓ ἰδίαν, Mat_20:17-19, in order to impart to them a weighty utterance. Perhaps the women, Luk_8:2-3, were also with him, and Salome comes forth from their circle with her petition. The visible distinction between the temper of our Lord and that of the disciples is brought into view by Mark in particular, Luk_10:32, with much graphic force. It is as if the feeling of Thomas, which he so strongly uttered, Joh_11:16, had now possessed itself of all the disciples. Perhaps Jesus considers just this discouraged state of theirs best fitted for the communication to them for the third time of a prophecy which He had already delivered twice to almost deaf ears. The greater the vividness which had been given by the just-reported conversation to the prospect of hundredfold reward, the more necessary does it appear to our Lord to obviate the earthly-minded expectation with which they follow Him, even on the fatal way; and of set purpose He severs them from the circle of the others, in order, by the very mystery in the manner of His communication, to prepare them the better for the weightiness of its matter.
Τελεσθήσεται, κ.τ.λ.—The reference to the prophetic declarations on this occasion is peculiar to Luke. The Saviour speaks with emphasis of πάντα τὰ γεγρ., comp. Luk_22:37. The Messianic prophecies of suffering stand before His eyes as a great whole put in writing τῷ υἱῷ τ. ἀνθρ. for the Son of Man, a dativus commodi by which the proper destination of the word of Scripture, that of being realized in Him, is intimated; an indirect proof that for every detail of the picture of His Passion which is now sketched, Luk_18:32-33, there must also be at least an intimation to be found in the prophetic record.
Luk_18:32. Delivered unto the Gentiles.—Luke in his more summary report passes over the first delivery to the high-priests and scribes, and the condemnation to death by the Sanhedrim. On the other hand he, like Matthew and Mark, mentions the prediction of the mocking, scourging, and maltreatment of our Lord, and has, in common with Mark, the special mention of the spitting on Him. The more than usual agreement of the Synoptics in the communication of these details is a strong proof for the credibility of this prediction, which can be weakened in no manner by any dogmatic doubt (De Wette and others). According to the Synoptics, the Saviour on this occasion speaks of His resurrection on the third day expressly. The gradual climax καί, καί, καί, disappears therefore at once in an overwhelming antithesis.
Luk_18:34. And they understood none of these things, &c.—“An emphatic diffuseness.” Meyer. It is, of course, understood that this ignorance of the apostles was no wanton, but was yet in a certain sense a self-caused, ignorance; and that it had not reference to the sound of the words, but to the thing itself. Comp. Luk_9:45. How little, moreover, they understood our Lord, appeared immediately from the petition of the sons of Zebedee. Strikingly does Luke bring into view the totality of the misunderstanding, οὐδὲν συνῆκαν, and its ground, ἦν τὸ ῥῆμα κεκρυμμ., κ.τ.λ., and the natural consequence, οὐκ ἐγίνωσκον. Because their heart stubbornly repels the only intelligible sense of the words, their understanding seeks in vain for a more endurable sense which, perhaps, might be given to these words. They are spiritually as blind as the Bartimœus who now comes into view is in body.
Luk_18:35. As He was come nigh unto Jericho.—Respecting the locality of the City of Palms, and respecting the difference among the Synoptics in reference to the number of the blind men, and the question whether the miracle took place at the entrance or the leaving of the city, see Lange, ad loc. For the various attempts to remove this difficulty, and their advocates, see Meyer, De Wette, and others. If one believes that the accounts must à tout prix be brought into agreement with one another, then without doubt the conjecture of Lange that the Saviour went in and out at the same gate of the city, and that the miracle falls into two parts, seems to deserve the preference before the view that a second blind man associated himself with Bartimæus, and, at all events, deserves the preference above the unlucky harmonistic expedient which makes this miracle take place twice. We believe, however, that a spiritually free view of the Evangelical reports must frankly allow such little discrepancies, and, no doubt, institute attempts to reconcile them, but by no means force them. Comp. the admirable remark of Olshausen, Comm. 1. p. 28, and that of Chrysostom, Prœf. in Matt., in respect to the difference of the Evangelists in minor matters: αὐτὸ μὲν τοῦτο μέγιστον δεῖγμα τῆς ἀληθείας ἐστίν̇ εἰ γὰρ πάντα συνεφώνησαν μετὰ ἀκριβείας, οὐδεὶς ἂν ἐπίστευσεν τῶν ἐχθρῶν, ὅτι μὴ συνελθόντες ἀπὸ συνθήκης τινὸς ἀνθρωπίνης ἔγραψαν, ἅπερ ἔγραψαν, κ.τ.λ. [This itself is the greatest evidence of truth, for if all things had accurately agreed, no one of our enemies would have believed that they had not come together by a human agreement and written what they have written, &c.] Taking all together, we account it probable: 1. That here only one blind man was healed, and that when Matthew uses the plural, he, as is more his way, is less intent on giving the number than the description of the healed; and, 2. that the miracle did not take place before (Luke) but after the entrance of Jesus into Jericho (Matthew and Mark). Two narrators, of whom the one is an apostolic eye-witness, stand here over against one another, and it is not probable that the perverse temper of the people, Luk_19:7, would so soon and publicly have found expression if only a few moments before enthusiasm had been so powerfully awakened by the healing of the blind man, as we read Luk_18:43. Far more probable is it that the Saviour performed this miracle on His departure from Jericho, with the design also of leaving behind there an abiding impression. Only on the platform of a mechanical theory of inspiration can offence be taken at this want of diplomatic exactness in the statement of Luke. Whoever, on the other hand, regards his gospel with impartial view, will hardly be able to deny that, especially in the last period of the public life of our Saviour and in the history of the Passion, the exact chronological arrangement of the events is not to be expected, particularly from Luke, and that he in this respect often remains behind Matthew and Mark. The investigation of the cause of this phenomenon does not belong here.
Luk_18:37. That Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.—The people name our Lord according to the customary style. The blind man, who greets Him as Son of David, however, shows even by this that his faith has reached a higher grade.
Luk_18:40. Commanded him to be brought unto Him.—Luke relates, it is true, that the Saviour gave this command, but not that the blind man, upon this command being given, was led by others to Him. His account does not, therefore, conflict with that of Mark, who mentions Bartimæus throwing away his garment and coming to Jesus. Apparently we have to conceive the matter thus: that the blind man left none of the standers-by time to carry out the exact command of our Lord. As little do the accounts of the manner of the healing contradict one another, for the circumstance that Matthew alone mentions that Jesus here also, as often before, touched his eyes, is by Mark as well as by Luke neither directly nor indirectly controverted.
Luk_18:41. What wilt thou.—“Interrogat Christus, non tam cœci privatim causa, quam totius populi. Scimus enim, ut mundus Dei beneficia sine sensu devoret, nisi stimulis excitetur. Ergo Christus voce sua turbam adstantem ad observandum miraculum erigit.” Calvin.
Luk_18:43. All the people.—This statement of the impression which the miracle produced upon the whole people has been preserved to us by Luke alone. It is as if he would cause us to hear at the gate of Jericho the prelude to the Hosannas which were soon to resound far more mightily at the gates of Jerusalem, comp. Luk_19:37. That the Saviour Himself no longer desires to check this triumphant praise, appears even from the fact that He no longer imposes on the blind man any silence about what had been done, nor yet requires that he, like the demoniac, Mar_5:19, shall go home, but willingly allows Bartimæus to swell the enthusiastic throng and go before it. As to the rest, the mention of the doxology, to which the miracles of the Saviour several times give occasion, is peculiar to Luke, comp. Luk_5:26; Luk_7:16; Luk_9:43; Luk_13:17, and is wholly in the Pauline spirit. Comp. Rom_11:33-36.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The Saviour’s third prediction to His disciples of His Passion is richer in details than the two former ones. We may conclude from this that His own consciousness of His approaching fate gained continually in clearness, and that even the so-called Contingentia of the future—e.g., the spitting on Him—stood before His soul already as present. This can the less surprise us if we consider that even these here-mentioned particulars were not foreign to the prophetic image of the Messiah and His Passion, see, e.g., Isa_50:6; Psa_22:8. Phenomena of this kind create difficulty for those who know no higher basis for the prophetic viewing of the future than human presentiment alone, and will explain all phenomena in this sphere exclusively from within outward, instead of from above downward. On the other hand, we have simply to remind the reader, “After all human mediation and substratum is provided for, still the proper innermost nature of prophecy remains an every-time-renewed discovery of hidden things through the omniscient Spirit, an anticipating of the future beyond the preformations and germs of the present; in short, a speaking of God, out of which in its turn the prophesying history can alone form and comprehend itself. We have, therefore, no right to forbid every prediction, and although it stands there to explain it away out of principle, merely for the reason that we do not know how to make way for it in our understanding of history, because it appears to stand forth to us as a soothsaying prediction.” Stier. If this principle holds good even of predictions of the Old Testament, in how much higher measure must it then hold good of Him who is conscious of Himself being the end of the law and the centre of all prophecy, and whose capacity certainly no one will in any case be able successfully to dispute of knowing all, even to the minute details, which He had to know, in order, as the Founder of the kingdom of God, to accomplish His mission on earth.
2. Attention cannot be too often directed to the closeness with which the Saviour’s consciousness of His Passion attaches itself to the prophetical Scripture. He, the Son of the House, sees in the law and the prophets the Magna Charta of the kingdom of God, to which He, not less than its least subject, is bound. As if He had foreseen that hereafter the days would come in which it should be denied, in the name of science, that Israel’s prophets have ever decisively pointed to a suffering and dying Messiah, He points us to their testimony as to the clear mirror of His suffering as well as of His glory. For him who will really penetrate deeply into the sanctuary of the history of the Passion, it is of the greatest importance that he do not let the key of the prophetic Scripture be taken from Him. Here also plainly appears the truth of the maxim: titubante scriptura, simul titubat fides.
3. In the inquiry, what gave the Saviour courage and energy to go forward with so unterrified a step towards the way of suffering, we undoubtedly must not overlook the truth that He continually beyond His Passion foresaw the Resurrection on the third day. For him who really believes in the Humanity of our Lord, even His lofty courage unto death is a proof that the prediction of the resurrection in the gospel was by no means a bare vaticinium post eventum. On the other hand, it is entirely natural that in the degree in which the Passion pressed more vehemently in upon Him, the heart-exalting prospect of the Resurrection was not, it is true, in any wise shaken, but yet temporarily in His consciousness thrown into the background.
4. The incapacity of the disciples to understand our Lord’s announcement of His suffering, is a new proof of the truth that in the Christian sphere true spiritual understanding comes to pass through the organ of the heart. If the soul turns itself from a clearly uttered truth, then is also the understanding incapable of recognizing its substance and importance. Here also the well-known saying of Pascal holds good, that one must know human things in order to love them, but, on the other hand, must love Divine things if he would rightly understand them. Comp. the beautiful essay of Vinet, L’Évangile compris par le cœur.—At the same time, however, this incapacity of the disciples is an unequivocal proof of the indispensable necessity, as well as of the salutary influence, of their enlightenment through the Holy Spirit, in consequence of which they afterwards learned to regard that same Passion as absolutely necessary and worthy of God, which at first was so offensive to them, and for that very reason so incomprehensible.
5. Every healing of the blind related to us in the gospel shows in a striking symbol how the Saviour opens the eye of the soul also for the heavenly light; but in particular may the history of Bartimæus, in its beautiful gradualness of development, be called a type of this spiritual benefit pregnant with instruction. First there makes its way to him merely the report of Jesus, awakening slumbering remembrances, longings, and presagings; then it becomes evident to the people following Jesus that he has a longing for higher benefit than the multitude which only outwardly encircles the Saviour. As commonly, so here also, they do not want the sufferer to enjoy anything from Jesus apart from them, and seek to suppress his tone of lamentation, as a discord in the jubilant acclaim of joy. But this very reaction excites his longing faith to higher courage, and soon the sufferer cannot any longer rest till every hindrance yet separating him from Jesus is overcome; faith triumphs, and the first thing that he now sees is Christ Himself, before whose face he stands, and in whose light he now beholds the whole creation surrounding him as in the glory of the resurrection, “the image of the truth that in spiritual enlightenment Christ is the first, loveliest, and best of everything that one learns to recognize, upon whom, moreover, the simple eye of the spirit with good reason remains through the whole of life directed.” In conclusion, the following of Jesus, the preceding others, the united praise of God, the whole order of salvation, as well on the side of God as on that of man, lies here in nuce visibly before us, that is, if our eyes are opened.
6. “O, what power has the prayer of believers! There prayed Joshua, and the sun in the heaven stood still that he might fully beat down the enemies Now Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, which in mi[illigibel words found] course was soon to descend, also stood here still.” Bogatzky.
7. The last miracle again—the last performed on a man which is made known to us from the public life of our Lord (Mat_21:14 contains only a general notice)—presents before our eyes the high end of His manifestation in a striking manner, comp. Isa_35:5; Psa_146:8; and the homage which is here brought to Him at Jericho’s gate is a prophecy of the universal homage of the redeemed which hereafter shall be brought to Him, especially in His exalted character as the Light of the world.
8. It is an element of the pædagogic wisdom of our Lord, that He, the more His public life hastens to its end, rather seeks than avoids the opportunity to do miracles, and unconditionally accepts the homage of the healed. This also was soon to serve His weakly believing disciples as a counterpoise against the σκάνδαλον crucis.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Jesus the Light of the world, as well for the spiritually (the Twelve) as for the corporeally blind (Bartimæus): 1. He creates the light for the eye (Luk_18:31-34); 2. He opens the eye to the light (Luk_18:35-42).—How the Saviour labors to make His servants friends and intimate companions, Joh_15:15.—Jesus contrasted with His disciples: 1. His clear knowledge in contrast with their ignorance; 2. His lofty courage in contrast with their faint-hearted fear; 3. His willing precedence on the way of humiliation in contrast with their constrained following [“He longs to be baptized with blood, He pants to reach the cross.” Cowper.].—The Passion of our Lord the fulfilment of a Divine prophecy.—The relation of suffering to glory.—The courage of Christ unto death, and the shrinking from suffering of so many Christians.—Sluggishness of heart the deepest ground of the not understanding so many a word of the Lord.—Jesus and Joshua before the gates of Jericho: 1. What both find; 2. what both bring.—Whoever feels that he is spiritually blind can do nothing better than to beg.—Where the eye of the soul is yet closed, there must the ear of the body become so much more keenly alive to the report which ever flies before our Lord where He comes with His salvation: 1. Into a land; 2. into a home; 3. into a heart.—Happy for him who does not keep from the blind the knowledge that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.—How differently the Lord appears to diverse eyes: 1. To the superficial multitude He is Jesus of Nazareth; 2. to the eagerly longing Bartimæus He is the Son of David; 3. to the believing disciples He is the Son of the living God.—The Kyrie Eleison of the soul, which precedes its Hosanna. [κύριε, ἐλέησον μέ—Miserere mei Domine. In some of the German litanies, as well as in the Latin mass, this formula of supplication remains in the original Greek, being afterwards interpreted in the Latin or German.—C. C. S.]—On His way to death the Saviour permits Himself to be detained not a moment by the dissuasions of His friends, but gladly by the cry of a blind man’s distress.—“What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” One must earnestly wish to be made whole by Jesus.—What a faith is it, that really heals the spiritually blind?—In order to be able to follow Jesus one must see Him; in order to follow Him aright, one must praise God.—The good example of a sinner healed finds imitation on the part of others.—Blind Bartimæus a guide to a truly Christian celebration of the communion; his history shows us: 1. The right temper for the communion, a. steady sense of wretchedness, b. eager longing for deliverance, c. courageous coming to Jesus; 2. the highest comfort of the communion, that the Saviour, a. knows us, b. calls us, c. hears us; 3. the fruit of the communion most to be desired: a. that our eyes may see Him, b. our feet follow Him, c. our tongues praise Him.
Starke:—Quesnel:—We know not, like Jesus Christ, the time of our sacrifice and death, but we know well that we are ever coming nearer to the moment, and we therefore greatly need to think thereon and prepare ourselves therefor, 2Ti_4:6.—Jews and Gentiles have alike shamefully laid hands on Jesus, why then blame we each the other?—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—As God dealt with His child Jesus, so does He deal with all believers: suffering must precede, afterwards follows joy.—Bibl. Wirt.:—To judge with fleshly thoughts concerning the kingdom of Christ is not well.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—The blind man a poor man.—Hedinger:—Would God we were blind, then should we see.—The Lord is in time of distress nearer to us than we think.—Canstein:—Is there indeed anything pleasanter for a sinner to hear than when he learns that the Fount of Light, the Chief Physician, Jesus, is coming towards Him?—Whoever lets Jesus pass by and detains Him not with his prayer is left helpless.—Many times do we experience from those that go before and have a guise of piety, the greatest temptation and the most numerous hindrances in our Christian life.—Faith cannot hold its peace; whoever believes, he speaks—Canstein:—How often does a God-fearing soul dwell in a wretched body.—God leads one man not like another.—The friendliness of Jesus in converse with all manner of men, especially the poor and needy, calls us to imitation.—Osiander:—We will rejoice from our hearts when to our neighbors also salvation is brought from God.—J. Müller:—The history of the blind man at Jericho a mirror of the spiritual recovery of man. [John Newton’s “Mercy, O thou Son of David,” gives the very soul of this scene.—C. C. S.]—Lisco:—Pray, and it shall be given you.
On the Pericope.—Scheffer:—The last journey of the Redeemer to Jerusalem.—F. W. Krummacher:—The stages on the journey to the cross.—Fuchs:—The Saviour on His last sorrowful journey to Jerusalem: 1. Submissive as to His own suffering; 2. compassionate towards the sorrow of others.—Ahlfeld:—The true evangelical fast-keeping: 1. Concerning the fasting mood; 2. concerning the fasting prayers.—Couard:—How we may celebrate the approaching Passion-week to the blessing of our heart and life.—Stier:—The present blindness of many Christians to the right understanding of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ: 1. How it is with the blindness; 2. whereby it is healed; 3. what we then see and experience.—Braune:—The light that breaks forth from the Passion of Christ. In the Passion of Christ we learn to esteem aright: 1. The sin of the world; 2. the woe of the time.—Burkhardt:—How it comes that even to well-disposed innocent souls the word of the cross is yet hidden for a while.—The happy blind beggar.—Bomhardt:—What the passing of Christ to His suffering says to us.—Staudt:—The prayer, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me”: 1. Its necessity; 2. its power; 3. its nature.—Steinhauser:—What is it that we see when through Christ the eyes of our spirit are opened?
Van Oosterzee (from a missionary sermon):—“The sighing creation shows itself to our eyes like Bartimæus at Jericho’s gate. Not yet were his eyes unclosed, but already from afar the footsteps of the coming Saviour sound in his ears; already it is told him who approaches; already does he throw the mantle off that hinders him from making haste towards the Deliverer. Yet a little while and he has received his sight and follows the Lord, and heaven and earth sing praises at the sight to God and His Only-begotten.”
Footnotes:
[9]Luk_18:41.—Λέγων (Origen: εἰπών) at the beginning of this verse is omitted by Tischendorf, [Meyer, Alford,] according to B., D., [Cod. Sin.,] L., X. It is at least doubtful.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv31, 34 FULLER ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS APPROACHING DEATH AND RESURRECTION. (Luk…
FULLER ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS APPROACHING DEATH AND RESURRECTION. (Luk 18:31-34)
all written by the prophets concerning the Son of man . . . be accomplished--showing how Christ Himself read, and would have us to read, the Old Testament, in which some otherwise evangelical interpreters find no prophecies, or virtually none, of the sufferings of the Son of man.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v31 § 106. JESUS, vv. GOING UP TO JERUSALEM, vv.…
§ 106. JESUS, vv. GOING UP TO JERUSALEM, vv. FORETELLS HIS PASSION TO THE TWELVE APART, Luk_18:31-34.
See notes on Mat_20:17-19; Mar_10:32-34.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv31, 32, 34 31. Then he took unto him the twelve] apart,…
31. Then he took unto him the twelve] apart, and on the road, as we learn from Mat_20:17. St Mark, with one of his graphic touches of detail, describes Jesus walking before them, and (as we infer from the expression of the Evangelist) in such awful majesty of sorrow that those nearest Him were filled with deep amazement, and those who were following at a greater distance felt a hush of fear (Mar_10:32). Then it was that He beckoned them to Him, and revealed the crowning circumstances of horror respecting His death.
all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished] Rather, all the things that have been written through the prophets for the Son of Man shall be accomplished; or, perhaps, shall be accomplished to the Son of Man.
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31-34. Jesus prophesies that He should be crucified.
Between these verses and the last should probably be inserted the journey from the Peraean Bethany to the Judaean Bethany, and the Raising of Lazarus (Joh_11:1-46). This signal miracle was omitted by the Synoptists for the same reasons as those which led them to a marked reticence about the family of Lazarus (see on Luk_10:38 and my Life of Christ, ii. 173). This miracle led to a meeting of the Sanhedrin, at which it was decided—mainly on the authority of Caiaphas—that Jesus must be put to death though not during the ensuing Passover,—with such precautions as were possible. The terrible decision became known. Indeed, it led to attempts to murder Lazarus and seize Jesus, which compelled Him to retire secretly to the obscure village of Ephraim (Joh_11:54)— probably Et-Taiyibeh, not far from Bethel (Beitin), and about 20 miles from Jerusalem. Here our Lord spent, in undisturbed and unrecorded calm, the last few weeks of His life, occupied in training the Apostles who were to convert the world. Towards the close of the time He would see, from the hill of Ephraim, the crowds of Galilaean pilgrims streaming down the Jordan valley to keep the Passover at Jerusalem.; and, secure under their protection till His brief days of destined work were done, He left His place of retreat to join their caravans for His last solemn progress to Jerusalem.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv31, 32, 34 (31-34) Then he took unto him the twelve.—See Notes…
(31-34) Then he took unto him the twelve.—See Notes on Mat_20:17-19; Mar_10:32-34. St. Luke, like St. Mark, passes over the parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard. The insertion of the reference to the prophecies of the Passion is, on the other hand, peculiar to him, and is, perhaps, connected with the prominence given to those prophecies in Luk_24:27; Luk_24:44-45.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv31, 32, 34 Vers. 31-42. Jesus again tells them of his Passion.…
Vers. 31-42. Jesus again tells them of his Passion. The healing of the blind at Jericho.
Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them. St. Mark (Mar_10:32) prefaces this announcement with the words, "And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid." There was something unusual, evidently, in the manner and behaviour of the Master; silently, wrapped up in his own lofty meditations, he strode on in front of the company of his followers. A feeling of awe and fear stole over them as they watched the silent Master with the shadow of the coming cross falling, perhaps, across his countenance. Much had happened lately: the teaching growing more and more solemn as the end drew near; the raising of Lazarus; the intense enmity of the great men of the nation; the fixed determination to put the Master to death; his short retirement; then the announcement that he was going up to face his enemies at the great feast in Jerusalem; and now alone and silent he walked at their head. What was coming? thought the twelve and their friends. He read their thoughts, and, calling them round him, told them what was about to happen. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.
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Vers. 31-34. God"s concealing kindness, etc.
The clear prevision which the Lord Jesus Christ had of the future which was before him may suggest to us the thought
I GOD"S KINDNESS IS CONCEALMENT. We often try to forecast the future, and sometimes wish that we could do so less imperfectly than we can. But our very inability to do this is to us a valuable shield that saves us from great unhappiness. For who of us would care to proceed at all if he knew all the sorrowful experiences through which his path would lie? We sometimes feel a humane satisfaction that the sheep anti cattle that browse so contentedly to-day in the field have not their short enjoyment marred by any expectation of the slaughter-house they are to enter to-morrow. And we may well be thankful that so thick a veil hangs over our future, that we cannot possibly tell what are the troubles that will befall us, or where our life will be darkened with its deeper shadows. Even when, as with Paul, we know that "bonds and afflictions abide us," still, like hire., we do "not know the things that will befall us" then. And whilst, on the one hand, we very commonly have enough of premonition to make desirable preparation for coming evil, on the other hand our life is so ordered that we go happily and hopefully on our way, untroubled by the evils which are in front of us but which are mercifully hidden from our view.
II OUR LORD"S LEADERSHIP IN THE EXPERIENCE OF APPREHENSION. Our happy inability to anticipate the future is not the whole of the truth, though it is a large part of it. It remains true that there is a considerable amount of apprehension in the structure of our life. There are times when we clearly foresee some trial ahead of us. We may not know precisely the time of its arrival, nor the elements of which it will be composed. But we can tell that "our hour is coming." Before us, at no great distance, is suffering, is separation, is loss, is loneliness, is heart-ache. The road we are travelling along will soon descend, and we shall go down into the darkly shaded valley. Of that we have no doubt; and our spirit trembles, our heart is full of foreboding and, perchance, misgiving. How shall we pass through that dark valley? How bravely or how weakly, how worthily or how unbecomingly, shall we undergo that experience when it comes? There are many sources of encouragement to which we might resort. But this passage speaks to us of one of the best of them. Christ has gone this way before us this way of keen and anxious apprehension. He knew that the most trying experiences were only a little way in front of him. He knew that the last extremity of human hatred and of human cruelty would be visited upon him. The Jews would condemn him with all their malignity, and the Gentiles would maltreat him with all their disdainful and powerful heartlessness. The sad and shameful future immediately before him stood clear to his sight, clearer far than any coming sorrow can shape itself to us. Therefore we may feel that:
1. We are treading in the footsteps of our Lord, and it is enough for the disciple to be as his Master.
2. We may be confident of his tenderest and fullest sympathy. He has suffered just what we are suffering now.
3. He will help us in our time of need. As he himself sought of man the succour he did not find, and was glad to receive from heaven the comfort he did not ask, (Mar_14:34, 37; and Luk_22:43) we may be well assured that he will not refuse us all the aid we need and ask of him when the trial-hour of our experience shall have come.
III THE DIFFICULTY OF DISCIPLESHIP TO LEARN UNWELCOME TRUTH. There was no inherent incomprehensibleness in the words Christ here employed; yet "they understood none of these things" Why did they not comprehend such intelligible language? Because the truth conveyed was so exceedingly unwelcome. It cut across all their cherished hopes respecting the Messiah; it dashed their natural expectations to the ground; and it went sorely against all that their affection prompted them to believe and cherish. "It could not, must not, did not mean that," they said in their hearts. It is not the strangeness nor the profundity of truth which is too much for us; it is its remoteness from that on which we have set our heart. We do not understand that which clashes with our prejudices, or our passions, or our affections. The apostles of Christ would have saved themselves from many hours of awful sorrow and abject hopelessness and painful incredulity, if their feelings had allowed them to understand the truth which their Master put so plainly and so repeatedly before them. (Mat_16:21 Mat_17:22 Mat_20:17) Can it be that Jesus Christ is saying something to us which we ought to understand, but do not because it is unwelcome to our hearts, or because it is at variance with all our old and strong habits of thought? Is it possible that he is calling us to repentance, to self surrender, to a full confession of our faith, to a nobler life, to some field of active work, and we do not understand what he is saying to us? Where his own apostles so greatly failed, may not we be found at fault? Shall we leave it to future darkness and a great surprise and a mortifying discovery of error to set us straight? Or shall we not rather recognize in time our liability to mistake; seek to have an open mind to receive all his holy will concerning us; ask God to help us to remove the bandages of prejudice and of earthly attachments from the eyes of our understanding; seek by docility and devoutness of spirit to be such disciples of the Master that, when he speaks even unwelcome truth to us, we shall understand him and obey? C.
Vers. 31-43. Blindness, mental and physical.
Having spoken to the disciples about recompense, he balances his consolation by giving them fair warning of his own approaching humiliation and death. But they were so infatuated about the honours that they were totally blind to the humiliation. Christ"s words were no better than idle tales to them. It suggests
I THE ONE-SIDED WAY IN WHICH PEOPLE MAY READ THE BIBLE. (Ver. 31) What was about to happen to Jesus was prophesied ages before. The Old Testament presented a suffering as well as an exalted Messiah. But the Jews totally overlooked the humiliating aspect. And in the very same way people go still to God"s Word, and find there only what they want to find. It needs great trials oftentimes to expound some passages of the Divine Word to us. We are partial students; we do not enter into the wide meaning of the Word as God would have us!
II GREAT TRIALS ARE NEEDED TO OPEN OUR EYES TO THE OVERLOOKED REALITIES. (Vers. 32-34) It is plain that they did not take in Christ"s meaning until he was actually taken from them and crucified. In the terrible suffering which seemed to extinguish all their fond hopes, the overwhelmed men got the spiritual vision, and were enabled to see a suffering as well as an exalted Messiah revealed in the Divine Word. And do we not often, when crushed and broken by trial, come to appropriate passages of God"s Word which formerly were blank to us? We ought to bless God for the opened eye, even though the process of opening it be painful.
III THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST MADE AMENDS FOR ALL THE PREVIOUS SUFFERING. (Ver. 33) For resurrection was exaltation; it was glory which could only be reached through the tomb. No possibility was there of Jesus being raised if he had never died. It is an experience cheaply purchased, perhaps, through death and the grave.
IV LET US CONTRAST WITH THIS THE CURE OF BLIND BARTIMAEUS. (Vers. 35-43) From blind disciples mentally blind Luke proceeds to speak of the blind beggar and his physical cure. Jesus was proceeding to Jerusalem to enter it as King. It was a royal progress. Here was one of the splendid accompaniments of it.
1. The condition of the poor blind beggar. He was blind, and, as he could not keep himself by work, he had to beg. He was thus perfectly helpless and dependent. And he knew his deficiencies. There was no unconsciousness of them or indifference to them.
2. The knowledge he possessed of Jesus. He had heard of Christ"s miracles, how he had cured several blind men previously. He knew he was the Son of David, and regarded him as true Messiah. Hence his knowledge of Christ was sufficient to lead him to throw himself upon his mercy as soon as he had the chance.
3. The visit of Jesus to his neighbourhood. Jesus was passing on, and the crowd surged mightily around him. The noise fell upon the blind man"s acute ear, and led him to ask what it all meant. Then, as soon as he learned that Jesus was passing by, he began to cry, "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me!" Noble example! Should not all who feel their need of mercy cry as Bartimaeus did?
4. Discouragement only intensifies Ms eagerness for blessing. The crowd rebuked him, but Bartimaeus persevered. The more discouragement, the more importunity. So let it be with us in our seasons of discouragement.
5. The call of Jesus. The importunate one is summoned to the Saviour"s presence. Those who once discouraged him now urge him forward.
6. The inquiry of Jesus. Bartimaeus is asked what mercy he desires; and his whole soul goes forth in the words, "Lord, that I may receive my sight!" It is surely well when we clearly know our need and desire its supply.
7. The cure conferred and its consequences. Bartimaeus is thrown upon his faith; according to this is his cure. But his faith was strong enough for the occasion, He consequently sees plainly, and his fresh sight is used to guide him after Jesus. So is it with us if we receive from Jesus our spiritual healing. Then we see the Saviour plainly, and we learn and are proud to follow him. The people, too, in seeing us follow Christ, will learn to glorify the God of grace who has enabled us to do so. R.M.E.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v31 Behold we go up to Jerusalem
Luk_18:31-34
Behold we go up to Jerusalem
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The entrance into the Passion season
I.
WE GAZE AT THE LORD, AND INQUIRE HOW HE ENTERED THE SEASON OF PASSION.
1. Not unprepared, but with a full, clear consciousness--
(1) not only of His sufferings in general, but also in all their particulars; and
(2) of the relation between His sufferings and the Divine Word and will.
2. His consciousness afforded Him the peace, courage, and decision to endure the sufferings willingly and patiently.
II. WE GAZE AT OURSELVES, AND INQUIRE HOW WE SHOULD ENTER THIS SEASON OF THE CHURCH YEAR.
1. Not like the world, whose custom is to celebrate it with all kinds of amusement and folly; but, as the followers of Christ, let us get ready to accompany the Lord in His season of suffering.
2. Yet not like the twelve, of whom we read that they understood none of these things. We must know why and for whom the Lord suffered and died.
3. The blind man of Jericho is a good example to show how we should enter in with the Lord as He approaches His sufferings.
(1) He appeals again and again for mercy.
(2) He concentrates all his desires into one plea--that he might see. And the Lord opens his eyes. (Schaffer.)
A study for a doctrine of the atonement
I shall proceed, accordingly, to indicate some personal ways in which it seems to me we may learn to enter, in some degree, into Jesus consciousness that He must needs suffer. Yet only in some degree, and in no full measure, can we hope to comprehend in our human experience the mind that was in Jesus. The open and most natural way of thought for us to take, in our desire to understand this most sacred truth, seems to me to be in general as follows: Study what forgiveness of injuries involves to the most Christian man or woman, learn what forgiveness of wrong may cost the most Christlike heart, and from such knowledge gain the means of understanding why the Christ from God must needs suffer on the Cross. If we have not been compelled by some bitter experience of our own to learn the moral necessities of suffering in forgiving sin, let us search with reverent sympathies the depth of the trouble into which others have been plunged by some erring one to whom they were bound by vital ties; learn how father, mother, wife, must needs suffer in the continued charity, and shielding love, and ever open forgiveness of the home towards one who has gone forth from it, unworthy of it, and been lost in the world. Such in general is the vital method, the personal way, in which we may study the doctrine of the atonement of Christ for the sin of the world. Let me briefly indicate several more definite truths which we may find in such study of the Cross. First, In our experience of forgiveness, and its moral necessities, we find that there must be penitence or confession on the part of the person who has done wrong. The sense of justice and right which demands confession of wrong and restitution is as human and as Divine as the love which would forgive an offence, and accept anothers willingness to make restitution. Secondly, Human forgiveness involves a painful knowledge of the wrong which has been inflicted. Forgiveness is always born of suffering. You surely cannot forgive a friend if you have never known and felt the hurt of his unkindness. Some suffering for the injury received is an indispensable condition, or antecedent, of the exercise of forgiveness. Thirdly, We approach now another element in the history of human forgiveness, which is of deep moral significance; viz., the suffering of the injured person must be so discovered to the wrong-doer that he can know it, and have some appreciation of it, in order that forgiveness may be granted and received, and its perfect work accomplished. But you will ask, Is it not the glory of the forgiving spirit to hide its sense of hurt? And the human forgiveness is never more than a polite fiction, if there is not in the hour of reconciliation this frank declaration and acknowledgment of the wrong done, and the suffering received from it. One thing in it seems to me clear as conscience.
That wronged man cannot forgive his repentant enemy by treating his sin as though it had been nothing, by making light of it as though it had not cost him days of trouble, by hiding it in his good nature as though it were not an evil thing. Somehow that sense of injustice in his soul must find vent and burn itself out. Somehow that sense of wrong must manifest itself, and in some pure revelation of itself pass away. It cannot pass forever away except through revelation, as the fire expires through the flame. Yet in forgiveness justice must be a self-revealing flame, and not a consuming fire. Something like this has been the process of all genuine human reconciliations which I have observed. As an essential element of the reconciliation there was some revelation of pure justice. There was no hiding of the wrong. On either side there was no belittling the injury. There was no trifling with it as though a sin were nothing. It was no thoughtless forgiveness out of mere good nature, in which the hearts deeper sense of righteousness was not satisfied. I have left myself time only to point to the way by which we may ascend from this our human experience of forgiveness to the Cross of Christ, and the necessity for it in the love of God. It is a part of the penalty of sin that in every human transgression some just one must needs suffer with the guilty. This is a natural necessity of our human, or organic, relationship. And because we are so bound up together in good and in evil, we can bear one anothers burdens, suffer helpfully for another, and to a certain extent save one another from the evil of the world. Now, according to these Gospels, God in Christ puts himself into this human relationship, and, as one with man, bears his burden and suffers under the sin of the world. The Father of spirits in His own eternal blessedness may not suffer with men; but in Christ God has humbled Himself to our consciousness of sin and death. In Christ the eternal love comes under the moral law of suffering, under which forgiveness may work its perfect work. More particularly, in the life and death of Christ these several elements which we have found belonging essentially to our experience of reconciliation with one another, have full exercise and scope. For Christ, identifying Himself with our sinful consciousness, makes a perfect repentance for sin and confession of it unto the Father. Christ experiences our sin as sinful, and confesses it. And again, Christ realizes the cost of the sin of the world. His loneliness of spirit, the cruel misunderstandings of Him by all men, His Gethsemane, His Cross--all realize the cost and suffering of sin, and in view of such sufferings of the Son of Man sin never can be regarded as a light and trifling thing. And still further, Christ reveals to the world what its sin has cost, and enables man who would be forgiven to appreciate it, and to acknowledge it. (N. Smyth, D. D.)
They understood none of these things.
Misunderstanding Christ
The disciples failure to understand the Master suggests an always timely question for the followers of Jesus: What misunderstandings of Christ may still be lingering in Christianity? The question is the more pertinent and the more necessary because one reason for the disciples failure to perceive the things that were said by Jesus on His way to the Cross, was the knowledge of Him which they already possessed. Two truths in particular which they had learned better than any one else concerning Jesus, they allowed to stand in the way of their further understanding of Him. They had been taught His wonderful power. They had been eye-witnesses of His mighty works. They began to believe that Jesus could do anything. This truth of the power of the Son of Man they were ready to receive, and they stopped with the knowledge of it. He who had power from God could not be taken and killed by the Pharisees. So they grasped with eager hope the truth that Jesus was the promised Messiah of Israel, and missed the deeper truth of His character, that God so loved the world. Then again the truth which they had learned better than any others of Jesus wonderful kindness, and justice, and humanity, in their partial view of it, may have hidden from their eyes the full revelation which He would have them perceive of His Divine life. How could He who had power over death, and who had so pitied two sisters that He had restored their brother to them, and who had enveloped their lives in a friendship of wonderful daily thoughtfulness--how could He, having all power, go away from them, leave them comfortless, throw them back again upon the world, and disappoint their high hopes of Him? No wonder Peter thought it was impossible, and even said impulsively, Be it far from Thee, Lord! The truth of Christs friendship which they did know prevented them from understanding the diviner secret of Gods sacrificial love for the world, which they might have learned. So they who knew the Lord best, misunderstood Him the most; and Jesus went before His disciples in a deeper purpose and a diviner thought than they perceived. Our text reads like a devout apology of the disciples for their singular misunderstanding of Jesus Christ. The providence of God had taught them their mistake. And very instructive for us is the method by which God corrected the false perception of the disciples, and opened their eyes to true and larger knowledge of the Lord. They overcame their misunderstanding, and were brought to better understanding of Jesus Christ, through the trial and the task of their faith. These two, trials and tasks, are Gods ways of correcting mens imperfect faiths. For you will recall how those disciples, at the time of the crucifixion, and while they were waiting in Jerusalem, learned in their disenchantment, and were taught through that fearful strain and trial of their faith, as they had never been before, of what Spirit Jesus was, and what His real mission to this world was; and thus they were prepared to see and to become apostles of the risen Lord. That trial of their faith, while Jesus was mocked, and scourged, and delivered to death, and crucified between two thieves, and buried--all the light blotted from their skies, all the proud ambition broken in their souls--yet in His death a new, strange expectancy awakened in their hearts, and on the third day a vision seen which made all things a new world to them--that trial of their faith was the Lords method of teaching the disciples what before had remained hidden from them even in the plainest words of Jesus. And then this knowledge of the new, larger truth of Christs work was rounded out, and filled full of a steady, clear light to them, by the task immediately given them to do in the name of the crucified and risen Lord. They learned at Pentecost what Christianity was to be. (N. Smyth, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On v31 31–34. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem. See notes…
31–34. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem. See notes on Matt. 20:17–19 and Mark 10:32–34. Luke adds: All the things that are written by the prophets shall be accomplished.. For some things written by the prophets, see Psa. 16:10; 22:7, 8; 49:15; Isa. 53:1–9; Dan. 9:26.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v31 Luk_18:31. Then took He unto Him.—I.e., took the twelve…
CRITICAL NOTES
Luk_18:31. Then took He unto Him.—I.e., took the twelve apart. The parallel passage in St. Matthew’s Gospel says that this disclosure was made on the last journey up to Jerusalem. Between Luk_18:30 and Luk_18:31 should probably come the journey from Bethany in Peræa to Bethany in Judæa, the raising of Lazarus, and Christ’s retirement to Ephraim (Joh_11:54). From this retreat He now comes to keep His last Passover in Jerusalem. On more than one former occasion Christ had foretold His rejection and sufferings (see Mat_16:21; Mat_17:22-23). Each prediction is more full of details than the last. All things, etc.—The passage is a peculiar one, and is thus given in the R.V: “All the things that are written by the prophets shall be accomplished unto the Son of Man.”
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Luk_18:32. Unto the Gentiles.—This circumstance had not yet been foretold. It implies His crucifixion, that being a Roman and not a Jewish form of capital punishment. All the details of His passion here foretold found fulfilment.
Luk_18:34. And they understood none, etc.—Peculiar to St. Luke, though the other two Synoptists record the request proffered by James and John and their mother, which indicated a state of mind like that described here. The prophecy ran so completely counter to the fixed ideas of the disciples concerning the nature of Christ’s kingdom that they could not understand it in the least.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Luk_18:31-34
The Third Announcement of The Passion.—Jesus and the twelve were now on their way up to Jerusalem to be present at the celebration of the feast of the Passover. But though He was surrounded by disciples, and accompanied by crowds of pilgrims, He was isolated in thought from all who journeyed with Him. The multitude anticipated the coming of the kingdom of God in connection with His arrival in the holy city (chap. Luk_19:11); the disciples were intent upon ambitious schemes for securing places of honour in that kingdom (Mat_20:20-28); while He mused upon the sufferings and death which were now so near Him.
I. The prediction.—Special solemnity marked the manner in which Jesus communicated His thoughts to the disciples. He took them apart, probably in order to isolate them from the multitude, whose ignorant enthusiasm might have been set on fire by the announcement of the dangers which threatened Him, and to impress upon His disciples the deep significance of the communication He was now making to them. The minuteness and accuracy of the prediction are very remarkable. Vague forebodings of disaster are all that any mere man, placed in similar circumstances to those in which Jesus now was, would experience. But Jesus has special knowledge of all that awaits Him. His enemies are the chief priests and scribes and elders; but with them will be allied the Gentiles, as the actual inflictors of death. He foresees the mocking, and scourging, and all the brutal ill-treatment of which He will be the victim. And as plainly as the details of His suffering are foreseen by Him is the certainty of His resurrection from the dead after three days present to His thoughts. No less remarkable is the calmness with which He makes this announcement. He utters no lamentation or complaint, He manifests no reluctance, but, with unfaltering resolution, journeys up to the city where sufferings and death awaited Him. He names some of His enemies, but He is silent about His betrayer, who now, with the other apostles, stood by His side and listened to His words.
II. The purpose for which the prediction was given.—The primary object Jesus had in view was, doubtless, to prepare His disciples for the events which would so sorely try their faith in Him. Their belief in His Messiahship and Divine commission would be subjected to a severe strain by seeing Him apparently a helpless victim in the hands of His enemies. And when the time of trial came, it should have strengthened the disciples to remember that he had foreseen the sufferings which were inflicted upon Him, and had voluntarily accepted them. But we can easily believe that He desired also to find some relief for His own feelings by unburdening His mind to those who were His dearest and most trusted friends. Sorrow is lightened by the sympathy of those we love. And as Jesus afterwards, in the garden of Gethsemane, sought to have the advantage of the presence and sympathy of the three apostles who were in most intimate communion with Him, so now, doubtless, a similar feeling moved Him to take the twelve into His confidence.
III. The effect of this communication.—So far as we know the only impression the words of Christ made upon those that heard them was that of mere bewilderment. No words of sorrow or sympathy seem to have been spoken by them in reply. Their minds were still possessed by expectations of earthly sovereignty to be exercised by the Messiah, and the announcement of an ignominious death perplexed and stupified them. The allusion to the resurrection from the dead fell upon deaf ears—it was unintelligible; and any suggestion of superhuman dignity and power which might be latent in it was overborne by the disastrous character of the rest of His communication. No words could convey more vividly the utter loneliness of Christ than those which describe the effect upon the disciples of His sorrowful prediction; those who were most firmly attached to Him, and knew Him best, could not understand Him, and stood silent and perplexed as they listened to His disclosure of the sufferings He was so shortly to undergo.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk_18:31-34
Luk_18:31-33.—Christ Strengthens the Faith of His Disciples
(1) by preparing them for His humiliation, and sufferings, and death; and
(2) by assuring them of His victory over death.
Two Grounds of Comfort:—
I. The sufferings of Christ belonged to the Divine purpose in sending Him, as indicated by the prophets.
II. His ignominious death would be followed by a glorious resurrection.
Sufferings Willingly Met.
I. Our Lord clearly foresaw and foretold all the sufferings which lay before Him.
II. He willingly and eagerly went forward to meet them.
III. Our hope for acceptance with God should rest upon that obedience unto death to which Christ was now going forward.
Luk_18:31. “Written by the prophets.”—I.e., their predictions of the sufferings of the Christ (cf. Psalms 22; Isaiah 53; Zechariah 11; Zec_12:10.
Luk_18:32. “Delivered unto the Gentiles.”—The prophecy grows clearer as the event approaches. At first it had been, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (Joh_2:19); “The days will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken” (Mat_9:15). These words of Christ have rather the air of historic record than of prophetic anticipation.
Luk_18:33. “The third day.”—His death and His rising show His two natures, human and Divine—His human nature and weakness in dying; His Divine nature and power, in rising again. These show His two offices—His priesthood and His kingdom: His priesthood in the sacrifice of His death; His kingdom in the glory of His resurrection. They set before us His two main benefits—His death, the death of death; His rising, the reviving of life again: the one, what He had ransomed us from; the other, what He had purchased for us.—Andrewes.
Luk_18:34. “Understood none.”—One must know human things in order to love them, but one must love Divine things if he would rightly know them.”—Pascal.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v31 Mat 20:17-19; Luk 18:31-34; Mar 1:32-34. “And they were…
JESUS FORETELLS HIS DEATH AND RESURRECTION
Mat 20:17-19; Luk 18:31-34; Mar 1:32-34. “And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was leading them, and they continued to be excited, and following, they were afraid.” Our Lord is still over in Perea, east of the Jordan, walking along toward Jerusalem, accompanied by the vast multitudes. The disciples know that if He goes back to Jerusalem, something decisive will take place, as only a dozen days previously He had fled away from there for His life. As the Passover is now at hand, and the metropolis will be thronged with the people of Israel, not only from Judea and Galilee, but from their dispersions in all heathen lands, they know that His enemies are determined to do everything they can against Him. As it is said here that they were much excited and afraid, doubtless they were apprehensive that the thousands from Galilee, where He had spent by far the greater part of His ministerial life, would be at the Passover, and as His enemies were so hostile against Him, in all probability a bloody civil war would break out, in which they were all likely to lose their lives. Meanwhile the hopeful side of the matter was, that He would be crowned King there in Jerusalem, in the presence of the vast multitudes from all parts of the earth, who might fall in line and propagate His kingdom, and permanently establish Him on the throne of David.
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“And again taking the twelve, He began to speak to them the things which were about to happen to Him, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will deliver Him to the Gentiles, and they will mock Him, and will scourge Him, and spit upon Him, and will kill Him; and on the third day He will rise.” Luke says: “And they understood nothing of these things; and this word was hidden from them, and they knew not the things spoken.” This is the third time our Savior has told them plainly that He is going to be arrested, arraigned, condemned, scourged, crucified, and will rise the third day. Now you see that Luke here says that they understood none of those things, and we see in the subsequent history that they were utterly ignorant of His impending fate till it took place. Now why did Jesus tell them three times, and the Holy Spirit withhold it from them? N. B. — The Holy Spirit is not only the Author of the Word, but the Revelator of that Word to every person who ever understands it. It was really important that Jesus should tell them all about it, as He did three times, distinctly, by way of emphasis. The importance of this revelation is seen in the fact that it was a most important item in the prophetical curriculum, which constitutes the basis of Christian faith in all ages.
Therefore it must be revealed. Now why must it be withheld from them till after His resurrection? Do you not know that if they had understood it, they would have mustered the countless hosts to whom He had preached during the three years of His ministry and have prepared for war, in order to defend their beloved Leader and preserve His life? Thus a terrible civil war would have broken out in Jerusalem while the city was thronged with the myriads from all parts of the earth attending the Passover, and a grand army would have rallied to prevent them from killing Him, thus defeating the great end for which He came into the world; i.e., to suffer and die to redeem the lost millions of Adam’s fallen race. Hence you see the pertinency on the part of the Divine administration, that the Holy Spirit should withhold these tragic, sublime, and wonderful events appertaining to their Master, so that they should not understand them till after they had all transpired. The same fact is true in all ages, despite all the efforts of human learning to fathom and comprehend the Bible. While these are not to be depreciated, it is an incontestable fact that we only know the Word as it is revealed to us by the Holy Ghost. After the Constantinian apostasy, during the Dark Ages, when the Church was monopolized by Romanism, and retrogressed into semi-paganism, every great, cardinal, spiritual truth having evanesced, and the Holy Spirit apparently retreating away and leaving her in the dismal midnight of ignorance and superstition, even collapsing so egregiously into human infatuation and folly as to become a secret society, like Freemasonry, her mystic rites only known to her muttering priests, and locked up in a dead language, incomprehensible by the laity, — amid this dismal night of ignorance, superstition, and idolatry, she remained a thousand years, till the light again broke in, God raising up Wyclif, a Roman Catholic priest, justly denominated the Morning Star of the Reformation; followed by John Huss, of Bohemia, whom the Roman Catholics burned, and threw his ashes into the Rhine, on whose waters they floated down, impinging on many lands, germinating quite a crop of martyrs, who sprang up spontaneously, like mushrooms in the night; and like the armed men who sprang up from the dragon’s teeth which Cadmus sowed in Greece, so a magnificent crop of martyrs were soon testifying amid the flaming fagots in different European countries; finally, Luther comes to the front, the hero of the Reformation, the multitudes falling in line, getting their eyes open to the glorious truth of justification by the free grace of God in Christ, received and appropriated by faith alone, independently of Church rites, priestly manipulations, and clerical absolutions, — presenting a rank and file too formidable for the papistical power to overawe by thundering anathemas, bulls of excommunication, or the fires of Inquisition. We may here observe that during this long period of a thousand years, while the dismal Pagan night darkened the escutcheon of the historic Church, ignorance, superstition, priestcraft, prelacy, and popery, with their human institutions, autocracy, and tyranny having supplanted, and, to all human observation, obliterated every vestige of experimental godliness from the historic Church, yet God had a people in the world who knew Him experimentally, and walked with Him in the beauty of holiness, despite the terrible persecutions waged against them by the Catholic Church, A. D. 251. The Novatians, the holiness people of their day and time, withdrew from the Catholic Church on account of her corruptions. The same people in later centuries were denominated the Waldenses and Albigenses, and despite all efforts to exterminate them in blood, survived several centuries; and finally the movement received a new impetus under the leadership of the Moravians, who were instrumental in the sanctification of John Wesley, who, in the providence of God, became exceedingly prominent in the great holiness movement of his day. While Luther was evidently a sanctified man, yet he never gave the doctrine or the experience any especial attention, having all he could possibly do to rescue the primary truths of justification, regeneration, and adoption from the black grip of Satanic oblivion, long fastened on them by the tyrannical intrigues of Romanism. I am satisfied that God had His way with Luther and his compeers, using them, pursuant to His own will and purpose, in the restoration of these grand fundamental doctrines of experimental salvation. As Wycli£ was the morning star and Luther the rising sun of the great justification revival, in a similar manner George Fox, the founder of Quakerism; John Bunyan, the Baptist; and John Knox, the Presbyterian, were the morning stars of the great sanctification revival, whose sun arose with Wesley and his compeers. As the great doctrine of entire sanctification, so prominent in the apostolic age, had gone into eclipse with oncoming Romanism, and had slumbered in oblivion more than a thousand years, God raised up these mighty men to rescue from oblivion, formulate, and elucidate the profound and majestic-truth of Christian perfection. These heroic saints of bygone ages have faithfully and courageously done their work, and are now resting in glory. While experience is substantially identical in all ages, not so with exegesis. The Bible is our text-book, and the Holy Ghost our Teacher; but some of us are very slow scholars. The Holy Ghost is leading us on, and teaching us as we are able to receive it. Wesley and his coadjutors profited by the work of Luther, as Wesley was actually converted while listening to the reading of Luther’s preface to the Pauline Epistles; but the labor of their lives was not on justification, but Christian perfection.
Our holiness brethren who would confine our investigations and elucidations to sanctification, make a great mistake. The Holy Spirit is still opening the Scriptures, and revealing them more and more, to the saints of God. If we should stop with sanctification, we would make no progress beyond our predecessors, whereas the school of Christ is the most progressive institution in all the world. The notable fact that the Holy Spirit is so wonderful opening the Scriptures revelatory of the Lord’s second coming, is to me an auspicious omen that the time is at hand. We are now living in the last century of the world’s six thousand years, the millennium being the seventh thousand. As the popular chronology is believed by the ablest critics to be too long, many authorities expiring the six thousand years already, we have many reasons to open our eyes to the incoming light shed by the blessed Holy Spirit on those numerous Scriptures revealing the return of Jesus to this world. During the last year I have traveled twenty thousand miles in America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. In all lands, and upon all seas, I met the Lord’s dear people, looking out for His coming, and believing Him to be very nigh. The Holy Spirit is wonderfully lighting up the Scriptures on the coming of the Lord, Divine healing, and woman’s ministry. We so much need the ministry of the sisterhood to help us carry the gospel to the ends of the earth, and expedite the return of our glorious King. It is very pertinent that we should all sit, meek and lowly, at the feet of Jesus, perfectly appreciative and acquiescent in the teaching of the Holy Ghost. If we refuse to move forward responsive to His leadership, we will certainly grieve Him.
Why did He not reveal the great doctrine of sanctification to Luther? Because he and his generation had enough to do to teach and establish justification. Why did He not lead out Wesley to elaborate the coming of the Lord? Because he had all he could do, in his long, laborious, and useful life, to expound and establish the great doctrine of entire sanctification. Now, with the full benefit of the proficiency achieved by our predecessors, shall we make no decisive process in the school of Christ? Shall we stand still, or go round like the blind horse in the treadmill? God’s commandment to Israel is, “Go forward.” This will be true indefinitely in the department of Biblical exegesis, which, like God its Author, is absolutely illimitable. We will not only learn during this life, but on through all eternity, and more rapidly after we get to heaven than ever before. God forbid that we should command Israel to stand still when He says, “Go forward!”
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On v31 J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CI. Foretelling His…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CI. Foretelling His Passion].
CI. FORETELLING HIS PASSION. REBUKING AMBITION. (Peræa, or Judæa, near the Jordan.) aMATT. XX. 17-28; bMARK X. 32-45; cLUKE XVIII. 31-34.
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b32 And they were on the way, going up to Jerusalem [Dean Mansel sees in these words an evidence that Jesus had just crossed the Jordan and was beginning the actual ascent up to Jerusalem. If so, he was in Judæa. But such a construction strains the language. Jesus had been going up to Jerusalem ever since he started in Galilee, and he may now have still be in Peræa. The parable of the vineyard which [553] closed the preceding section was likely to have been spoken before he crossed the Jordan, for Peræa abounded in vineyards]; and Jesus was going before them: and they were amazed; and they that followed were afraid. [When Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem, his disciples dropped behind and hung back. The outer circle of his disciples knew enough not to be fearful of the consequences, and the inner circle, fully acquainted with the dangers, were amazed that he should dare to go thither. A short while before this they had despaired of his life when he had proposed to go even into Judæa ( Joh_11:7-16), and his going at that time had not bettered the situation, but had, on the contrary, greatly increased the enmity and danger ( Joh_11:47-57). Notwithstanding all this, Jesus was now on his way to Jerusalem itself, and was speaking no reassuring word as he formerly had done-- Joh_11:9, Joh_11:10.] a17 And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took bagain cunto him athe twelve disciples apart [He separated them from the throng of pilgrims on the way to the Passover, and from the outer circle of the disciples, for it was not expedient that these should hear what he was about to reveal concerning his death. Such a revelation might have spurred his Galilæan friends to resist his arrest, and might have resulted in riot and bloodshed], band began to tell them the things that were to happen unto him, aand on the way he said unto them, 18 Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and bthe ascribes; and they shall condemn him to death, 19 and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify: b34 and they shall mock him, and shall spit upon, and shall scourge him, and shall kill him; and three days he shall rise again. aand the third day he shall be raised up. cand all the things that are written through the prophets shall be accomplished unto the Son of man. 32 For he shall be delivered up unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and shamefully treated, and spit upon: 33 and they shall scourge and kill him: [554] and the third day he shall rise again. [This was the third and by far the clearest and most circumstantial prophecy concerning his death. For the other two see Mat_26:66) and forced Pilate to confirm the sentence ( Luk_23:24). Since the evangelists honestly record an actual prediction, we may well pause to note how remarkable it is in that it gives seven details as follows: 1. Delivery or betrayal by Judas. 2. Condemnation. 3. Delivery to the Gentiles. 4. Mocking and the manner of it. 5. Scourging. 6. Death by crucifixion. 7. Resurrection on the third day. The announcement of these sufferings was made for the purpose of checking any materialistic hopes which the apostles might entertain as to the glories, honors, and offices of the Messianic reign. That such hopes were present is shown by the ambitious request which immediately follows. Moreover, to prepare them that they might not be crushed either by the announcement or the accomplishment of his death he gives them the clear promise of his resurrection.] 34 And they understood none of these things; and this saying was hid from them, and they perceived not the things that were said. [So fixed and ineradicable was their false conception of the Messianic reign that they could not believe that what Jesus said could be literally true ( Mat_16:22). Only later did the full significance of his saying dawn upon them-- Joh_16-14:26.] b35 And there a20 Then came bcome near unto him athe mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, bJames and John, aworshipping him, [giving him homage as a coming ruler, not worshiping him as a divine being], and asking a certain thing of him. bsaying unto him, Teacher, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall ask of thee. [Zebedee's wife was named was Salome. See note on 1Ki_2:19, 1Ki_2:20. They asked [555] through their mother, thinking that Jesus would be more likely to favor her than themselves.] a21 And he said unto her, bthem, aWhat wouldest thou? bWhat would ye that I should do for you? [Though Jesus knew what they wished, he required them to state it plainly and specifically, that their self-seeking might be clearly exposed and properly rebuked.] aShe saith unto him, Command that these my two sons may sit, one on thy right hand, and on on thy left hand, in thy kingdom. b37 And they said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and one on thy left hand, in thy glory. [In the previous section Jesus had spoken about the thrones to be occupied by the apostles. The sons of Zebedee, presuming on their high standing among the apostles, and their near relationship to Jesus, were emboldened to ask for special seats of honor among the promised thrones--the seats to the right and left of the sovereign being next to his in dignity and consideration; thus Josephus represents Saul as seated with Jonathan on his right hand and Abner on his left. The terms "kingdom" and "glory" are here used synonymously. Despite the fact that Jesus was now telling them plainly of his death, these apostles could not rid their minds of the delusion that he was about to ascend the earthly throne of David.] a22 But Jesus answered and said, bunto them, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I drink? athat I am about to drink? bor to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? [The word "cup" among the Hebrews meant a portion assigned ( Psa_16:5, Psa_23:5), whether of pleasure or of sorrow. But the idea of sorrow usually predominated ( Mat_26:39, Mat_26:42, Rev_14:10, Rev_16:19, Rev_18:6, Psa_75:8, Isa_51:17, Jer_25:15). To be baptized with suffering means to be overwhelmed with it, a metaphorical use of the word arising from the fact that it means an immersion. This metaphorical use of baptism aids us to understand the meaning of that word, for neither sprinkling nor pouring could have suggested the overpowering force which the metaphor implies. Alford distinguishes [556] between cup and baptism, making the former refer to inward spiritual suffering, and the latter to outer persecution and trial.] 39 And they said { asay unto him, We are able. bAnd Jesus said asaith unto them, My bThe cup that I drink aindeed ye shall drink: band with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized [They probably thought that Jesus referred to some battle or conflict which would attend the ushering in of the kingdom, and as they were not wanting in physical courage, they were ready enough to pledge themselves to endure it. They spoke with unwarranted self-confidence, but Jesus rebuked them very gently, as he foreknew what suffering they would indeed endure. James was the first apostolic martyr ( Act_12:2), and John's spirit was sorely troubled with the conflict of error, as his epistles show, and his last days were darkened by the shadow of persecution-- Rev_1:9]: 40 but to sit on my right hand or { aand on my left hand, is not mine to give; bbut it is for them for whom it hath been prepared. aof my Father. [Future rewards are indeed meted out by the hand of Christ ( 2Ti_4:8, Rev_2:10, Rev_2:17, Rev_2:26, Rev_2:28, Rev_3:12, Rev_3:21, et al.), but they are not distributed according to caprice or favoritism, but according to the will of the Father and the rules which he has established. Jesus proceeds to set forth the principles by which places of honor are obtained in his kingdom.] 24 And when the ten heard it, they were { bbegan to be amoved with indignation concerning the two brethren. bJames and John 42 And abut Jesus called them unto him, and said bsaith unto them, Ye know that they who are accounted to rule over athe rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority upon them. 26 Not so shall it be b43 But it is not so among you: but whosoever would become great among you, shall be your minister; 44 and whosoever would be first among you, ashall be your servant: bshall be servant of all. [The ten, sharing the same ambition as the two, jealously resented their efforts to take unfair advantage of [557] the Lord's known affection for them. To restore peace among them, and to correct their false views, he draws the distinction between the worldly greatness to which they aspired, and the spiritual greatness which they ought to have sought. In an earthly kingdom honor and authority measure greatness, but in Christ's kingdom it is measured by humility and service. Jesus added power to his rebuke by showing them that their spirit was not even Jewish, but altogether heathenish.] 45 For { a28 even as bthe Son of man also came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. [He enforces this lesson by his own example in that he came to serve men and not to have them serve him. Jesus could ever refer to himself as the best example of the virtues which he taught. Since honor consists in being like the King, the highest honor consists in being most like him. The closing words state the vicarious nature of Christ's suffering as plainly as language can express it. The ransom is offered for all ( 1Ti_2:6), and will be efficacious for as many as accept it. The words are nearly a reproduction of the words of Isaiah-- Isa_53:12.]
[FFG 553-558]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v31 Son of man
Son of man
(See Scofield "Mat 8:20").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v31 The Lord’s Third Prediction of His Passion.
The Lord’s Third Prediction of His Passion.
v. 31. Then He took unto Him the Twelve and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished.
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v. 32. For He shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on;
v. 33. and they shall scourge Him, and put Him to death; and the third day He shall rise again.
v. 34. And they understood none of these things, and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.
Twice the Lord had spoken very explicitly of His coming Passion, but the disciples had not understood the reference: Here He took the Twelve aside and placed Himself at their head as their Champion and intrepid Leader. Then He gave them a full prophecy concerning His Passion, enumerating the several outstanding features. To Jerusalem they were going, there the great tragedy was to take place. All the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the suffering and death of the Servant of the Lord, of the Messiah, would there be fulfilled; all things would happen to the Son of Man as written in the prophets: Delivered into the hands of the Gentiles, derided and mocked, treated with contempt, spat upon. But always, in the end, the definite assurance of His resurrection on the third day. In spite of the detailed account, however, the disciples understood none of these things, the entire matter being hidden from them, they had not the faintest idea what it was all really about. They merely huddled about Him, while amazement and an indefinable dread took hold of them, as of an impending disaster. "Notwithstanding all the information which Christ had given them concerning this awful subject, they could not as yet fully comprehend how the Messiah should suffer; or how their Master, whose power they knew was unlimited, should permit the Jews and Gentiles to torment and slay Him as He here intimates they would."
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv31, 34 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
This is the next event in this part of the story that began in Luke 17:20. Jesus is talking to his disciples alone.
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gathered the twelve to himself
Jesus took the twelve disciples to a place away from other people where they could be alone.
See
This indicates a significant change in the ministry of Jesus as he goes to Jerusalem for the final time.
that have been written by the prophets
This can be stated in active form. AT: "that the prophets have written" (See: Active or Passive)
the prophets
This refers to the Old Testament prophets.
Son of Man ... he ... him ... him ... he
Jesus speaks of himself as "the Son of Man." AT: "me, the Son of Man, ... I ... me ... me ... I" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
will be accomplished
This can be stated in active form. AT: "will happen" or "will occur" (See: Active or Passive)
For he will be given over to the Gentiles
This can be stated in active form. AT: "For the Jewish leaders will give him over to the Gentiles" (See: Active or Passive)
will be mocked, and shamefully treated, and spit upon
This can be stated in active form. AT: "they will mock him, treat him shamefully, and spit on him" (See: Active or Passive)
on the third day
This refers to the third day after his death. However, the disciples did not yet understand this, so it is best not to add this explanation when translating this verse. (See: Ordinal Numbers)
translationWords
the twelve
Jerusalem
written
prophet
Son of Man
Gentile
mock
shame
raise
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv31, 32, 34 18:31-34 This was Jesus’ last prediction of his suffering…
18:31-34 This was Jesus’ last prediction of his suffering and death before entering Jerusalem for his final week of ministry (see also 9:22, 44-45; 17:25).
18:31 Jesus’ death was in fulfillment of all the predictions of the prophets; it was God’s plan (24:25-26, 46; Acts 2:23; 3:18; 4:28). The primary prophecy about the suffering Messiah is Isa 52:13–53:12. Luke also refers to Ps 2 (Acts 4:25-26), Ps 16 (Acts 2:25-28), Ps 118:22 (Luke 20:17), and Isa 50:4-9 (Luke 18:32-33).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.