Luke 9:25 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Or be cast away?— This expression does not signify merely to lose life, which might be applied to a man, who accidentally met death in the pursuit of gain, (as a merchant, who should be lost in his voyage;) but it properly imports undergoing a capital punishment, which is an idea of much greater terror, as well as of stricter propriety in the present case; and it were to be wished that it might be seriously considered by every one in this aweful view. See on Mark 8:38. Our Lord frequently after this repeated the prediction of his sufferings. (See Luke 9:22 and compare Matthew 17:22; Matthew 20:18; Matthew 26:2.Luke 17:25; Luke 22:15.) But it is remarkable, that on none of those occasions was the prophesy delivered to any but the twelve, and a few select women, Ch. Luke 24:6-8 one instance excepted; namely, Ch. Luke 17:25 where it was expressed in terms somewhat obscure. The multitude of the disciples were never let into the secret, because it might have made them desert Christ; as they had not, like the apostles, raised expectations of peculiar preferments in his kingdom to bias their understandings, and hinder them from perceiving the meaning of the prediction. It is true, he foretold his resurrection from the dead more publicly; for oftener than once he appealed to it, as the principal proof of his mission, even in the presence of the priests, as is evident from Matthew 27:63.