Matthew 20:17-19 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Jesus took the twelve disciples apart in the way See note on Mark 10:32-34. And said, The Son of man shall be betrayed, &c. This is the sixth time that Jesus foretold his own sufferings; see John 2:19; John 2:21; Matthew 16:21; Matthew 17:12; Matthew 17:22-23; Luke 17:25; and the fifth time that he foretold his resurrection. And the particular manner in which he signifies how he should suffer; that the Jews should mock him, as if he were a fool; scourge him, as if he were a knave; spit upon him, (Mark 10:34,) to express their abhorrence of him as a blasphemer; and crucify him as a criminal slave, is a “remarkable proof of the extraordinary measure of the prophetic spirit which dwelt in him. For, humanly speaking, it was much more probable that he should have been privately assassinated, or stoned, as was before attempted, by some zealous transport of popular fury, than that he should have been thus solemnly condemned, and delivered up to crucifixion; a Roman punishment, with which we do not find that he had ever been threatened. Indeed, when the Jews condemned him for blasphemy, for which the punishment appointed in the law was stoning; and Pilate, at last, gave them a general permission to take him, and judge him according to their own law, (John 18:31; and John 19:7,) it is wonderful they did not choose to stone him; but all this was done that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.” Doddridge.