Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be delivered up to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him up to the nations
On the road up to Jerusalem, Jesus takes the twelve disciples aside. He tells them in plain detail what waits for Him there: betrayal to the religious leaders, a death sentence, and a handover to the Roman rulers. Why does He walk straight into it? And why do the men following Him hear it all and still miss it?
He led the way. The fear of the men behind Him did not change His pace or His care for them.
They were astonished at how He could lead them on like this. He was walking straight to the very destruction He had announced... But the Lord went calmly and peacefully straight on. He knew why, and where, and to what end He was going. With patient determination of love and obedience, He set His face to go there. Seeing their terror and knowing their condition, the Lord speaks openly to them about it all. He does not leave them in their fright, but calmly explains everything that was coming.
Jerusalem was not a random destination. And notice that He does not say "I go up," but joins the twelve to Himself in the journey.
The Lord then goes on to Jerusalem, that fatal spot for the true prophet. The religious capital is the very place where the true witnesses of God's grace must die... And He took the twelve again, and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him, saying, "See, we are going up" (how gracious! not only "I," but "we," go up) "to Jerusalem."
He did not stumble into any of this. He listed each stage in advance, knowing what it would cost Him.
He takes the twelve aside to tell them again what He wanted them to grasp about Himself. None of it was unforeseen. It was the very thing He had come for, and had given Himself to. He knew every bitter ingredient in the cup He was going to drink. He knew the betrayal, and the condemnation by the leaders of the people — His own people. He knew their handing Him over to the Gentiles, the mockery, the scourging, the crucifixion.
The verse splits the guilt in two. Israel's own leaders pass the sentence; the Gentile power carries it out.
So ends the story of the Son of Man among men. His own people were the first to condemn Him. The Gentiles, by their indifference, were ready to complete the terrible act of the Saviour's rejection in this world. The people of God, the Jews, joined with sinful man to cast out the Son of God, who had come down here in grace.
Every part of it happened. The chief priests condemned Him, then passed Him on to Rome.
All was foreknown by Him. All that He said came, as we know, to pass. We have already read how part of this prediction came true. He had been betrayed to the chief priests and scribes. They had condemned Him to death. And now they handed Him over to the civil power to deal with, as one who opposed the rights of Caesar.
The cross was not only His own end. It was the one road by which anyone else can live.
If you and I are to live, Christ, the holy man, over whom death had no claim, must go into death. Here He explains it in the clearest possible way. There is no way into the glory of God except through His own death. There is no way to get eternal life but through His death. If we are to have eternal life, it is not by any doing on our part. It is by His dying.
They heard Him and still missed it. Two of the twelve heard this announcement and then asked Him for places of honour.
He speaks plainly to them, but still they do not understand: while He speaks of His shame, they speak of their glory. James and John make their request right at this point. It is a sad fact. We can think about a place of honour for ourselves while He has no place but humiliation and suffering.
- Known — He named the betrayal, the sentence and the handover before they happened. Nothing took Him by surprise.
- Chosen — He walked in front of frightened men, straight toward what He had described. He explained it instead of hiding it.
- Shared — He said "we go up," joining His disciples to the journey rather than leaving them behind.
- Universal — His own leaders condemned Him. The Gentile power carried out the sentence. Both had a hand in casting Him out.
- Necessary — This road was the only way into the glory of God. Eternal life comes by His dying, not by our doing.
and they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him; and after three days he shall rise again.
On the road up to Jerusalem, Jesus tells His twelve disciples what waits for Him there: insult, whipping, spitting, death. Then He adds one more item — after three days He will rise. Why did He walk toward all this with open eyes, and why did He want His followers to hear the list in advance?
Nothing on the list caught Him off guard. He named it all before it happened, because it was what He had come to do. The twelve heard Him, and took in none of it.
He takes the twelve aside to tell them again what He wants them to grasp about Him. This was nothing unexpected. It was the very thing He had come for, and had given Himself to. He knew every bitter ingredient in the cup He was about to drink. There was the betrayal. There was the condemnation by the leaders of His own people, and their handing Him over to the Gentiles. Then came the mockery, the flogging, the crucifixion. Of all this He speaks to them, adding the blessed comfort of His resurrection too, on the third day. Mark tells us of the fear that had already fallen on them along the way; Luke, that even so they understood none of these things, and that this saying was hidden from them. They were dazed and stunned by the dread of a great sorrow which they had no courage to face or take in.
The record of what actually happened reads like a checklist against His words.
Such was the forecast of events sketched out on the last journey to Jerusalem, while east of the Jordan, before He reached Jericho. All was foreknown by Him. All that He said came, as we know, to pass.
The mockery and the spitting fulfilled words a prophet had written long before. The Sufferer answered none of it.
The mock trial is over, and the holy One is condemned. Now the full tide of evil passion pours out unchecked. It had been the real motive all along. They offered Him every possible insult. In mockery they spit in His face. This fulfilled the words of the prophet: "I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting" (Isa. 50:6). No cry comes from the holy Sufferer — He is struck and beaten, and still answers not a word.
His lowliness became the very opening men used to abuse Him.
His humiliation should have made Him infinitely more precious, since it was the matchless proof of His love. Instead it gave man, under Satan's leading, the chance he wanted to insult Him to the very limit. And He did not answer back.
The ones who mock, flog and kill here are the Gentiles. The Jewish leaders handed Him over to them. The guilt is not confined to one side.
Mark 10:34 says of the Gentiles that "they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him." This shows that the Gentiles are guilty not only of insulting Him, but of His death.
He led the way, and the disciples followed in amazement and fear.
His calm facing of the danger astonished them. Just as strongly, they shrank from facing it themselves. They were still attached to life on earth, though they would have liked to spend it under Messiah's reign… To follow a path that led through persecution to death was still far from a privilege and an honour in their eyes. They knew even Christ in a merely human way; they had no sense yet of the glory of His death and resurrection.
Notice what He chose to tell them at that moment — not their future, but His.
The One who holds all authority and power was ahead of them on the road. The Lord will never let us take a step in this hostile world that He has not taken Himself… If He had told them what would happen to them, they might have run away. Instead He tells them what would happen to Him.
The closing words were the ones His followers could not take in. His enemies took them in.
He had spoken of His own resurrection several times… His enemies understood from His words that He was predicting the raising of His body. They asked Pilate for a guard to watch the tomb, in case His disciples came by night and stole Him away… The soldiers did guard the tomb, yet He rose.
The One spat on ends up in the highest place there is.
This is what fallen man, Jews and Gentiles, did to the One who was so perfect in God's sight. But He rose from the dead the third day, and God exalted Him to His throne. Men had rejected Him, yet Stephen saw the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
- Foreknown — He knew every item on the list in advance, and walked into it as the thing He had come to do.
- Foretold — A prophet had written of the mocking and spitting long before. He answered none of it.
- Shared — Jewish leaders handed Him over, Gentiles carried it out; the guilt covers both.
- Led — He went ahead on the road, and told His frightened followers what would happen to Him, not to them.
- Raised — Shame is not where it ends. After three days He rose, and God set Him at His right hand.