CRITICAL NOTES
Luke 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 Luke 18:30 and Luke 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 (John 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 Matthew 16:21; Matthew 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.”
Luke 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.
Luke 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.— Luke 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. Luke 19:11); the disciples were intent upon ambitious schemes for securing places of honour in that kingdom (Matthew 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 Luke 18:31-34
Luke 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.
Luke 18:31. “Written by the prophets.”—I.e., their predictions of the sufferings of the Christ (cf. Psalms 22; Isaiah 53; Zechariah 11; Zechariah 12:10.
Luke 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” (John 2:19); “The days will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken” (Matthew 9:15). These words of Christ have rather the air of historic record than of prophetic anticipation.
Luke 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.
Luke 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.