‘But they understood not this saying, and it was concealed from them, that they should not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.'
But the disciples were still blinded by their own ideas. They could not believe that men would treat badly One Who did such good. Were not the crowds with Him, marvelling at His doings?
‘It was concealed from them, that they should not perceive it.' The passive verb would normally suggest that, as with the last verse, the One spoken of is God. The idea then is that God has a purpose for not letting the truth about Jesus' coming suffering dawn on them. Perhaps His purpose was simply in order to make them ask Jesus about it. There is no reason why they should not have done so. But seemingly they were afraid to ask Him. And God would not help them to understand it until they did.
Others consider that we must see here the hand of the Evil One. He does not want them to catch on to what is happening.
Either way their situation shows a sad lack of confidence in Him. We have already seen them condemned as unbelieving, now they fail to demonstrate an openness with Jesus. There was still much that needed doing in their hearts.
The Pride Of The Disciples Needs to be Humbled (Luke 9:46-48).
We might have expected that the news that Jesus was to suffer at the hands of the authorities would have given the disciples a great deal to discuss and to talk about, and have been very humbling But the little heed that they took of that comes out in the fact that their discussion turned rather on which of them was the greatest. Each wanted to be top dog. Having left all to follow Him they wanted to establish their own order of merit. And each thought that they should be at or near the top.
The question of who was the greatest occurs a number of times among the disciples in a number of ways (Luke 18:14-17; Luke 22:24-27; Matthew 18:1-4; Matthew 20:20-28 (Mark 10:35-45); Luke 23:11-12; Mark 9:34-37). It was the natural question that men ask, for all natural men want to be great. (These arguments incidentally count against the idea that they saw Peter as their leader even when they allowed him to be their spokesman). But they had to learn that such thoughts were quite out of place for Christian disciples. To be thinking like that at all was to be in the wrong. Jesus says that the Christian disciple seeks rather to be the least, for then he becomes great in God's eyes, and that this is especially true when it comes to dealing with little children.
Analysis.
a There arose a reasoning among them, which of them was the greatest (Luke 9:46).
b When Jesus saw the reasoning of their heart, He took a little child, and set him by His side, and said to them, “Whoever shall receive this little child in My name receives Me, and whoever shall receive Me receives Him who sent me (Luke 9:47-48 a).
a For he who is least among you all, the same is great (Luke 9:48 b).
Note that in ‘a' the question is, who is the greatest, and in the parallel we receive the reply. But central to the whole in ‘b' is Jesus comment about the little child.