Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man will be delivered up to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death;
Jesus is on His last journey to Jerusalem, and He takes His twelve disciples aside to tell them what the city will do to Him. In two verses He names betrayal, a religious trial, a death sentence, handover to Pilate, and resurrection. Why does He walk toward it with open eyes?
He has said this before. The words are brief, but He leaves almost nothing out.
Jesus was now on His way to Jerusalem for the last time. Once more He pressed on His disciples His coming death and resurrection. In this Gospel, this is the fourth time He did so since His great prediction about building His Church, in Matthew 16. Here there is a wealth of detail in few words. He predicts His betrayal by Judas and His condemnation by the Jewish council. He predicts that they hand Him over to Pilate and his soldiers, then the mocking, the scourging, the crucifixion, and at last His resurrection — all within two verses.
Some suggest the cross came into focus for Jesus only slowly.
And as He spoke these solemn words, His soul knew all that it meant for Him and the bitter cup He was to drink to the very last drop. Some have taught and still teach that it dawned on Him gradually and that He was not conscious of all that was before Him. But He knew everything that would happen to Him in Jerusalem. His own Spirit had already revealed these sufferings in the prophets (1 Peter 1:11). ... In Luke's Gospel the Holy Spirit gives more information: "But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said" (Luke 18:34). He alone knew the meaning of all that lay before Him.
He does not say "I am going up." He speaks of the journey as theirs together, as He often did.
The Lord had chosen the twelve so that they might be "with Him." They were His personal attendants, and He linked them with Himself in His service... During His travels He often included them with Himself, in grace, when He spoke of His plans. For example: "Let us go to Judea again" (John 11:7); "Let us go across to the other side" (Mark 4:35); "See, we are going up to Jerusalem" (Matthew 20:18).
Their reaction was fear, and He answered it by telling them more, not less.
This very courage led straight on to the oppression and disaster He had predicted, and it frightened and terrified them... But the Lord led calmly and peaceably straight on. He knew why, and where, and to what end He was going. In patient determination of love and obedience, He set His face to go there. He saw their terror and knew their condition, and He spoke openly to them about it all. He did not leave them in their fright, but calmly explained all that was coming. His soul was at peace, caring for them and relieving them by talking about it as a clear and settled purpose.
The verse names the chief priests and scribes — Israel's own religious leaders. They pass the sentence first, then hand Him on to others.
He would be given into the hands of the priests and condemned. Then He would be handed to the Gentiles, who would treat Him with the greatest disgrace and put Him to death. But on the third day He would rise again. 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.
He does not say "the Christ" here. Commentators trace that choice back to His rejection as Israel's King.
Psalm 2 introduces God's Anointed and God's King, and He is God's Son. Rejection then follows as a picture in the history of David and his experiences. When we reach Psalm 8 we read, "What is man that you are mindful of him, and the SON OF MAN that you care for Him?" That is, when Christ is rejected as the Messiah, He takes up the wider title of the Son of Man. It is under Him in this character that all things will be put under His feet.
The announcement is not only about what men would do to Him. It is about the only road to life.
If you and I are to live, Christ must go into death. He was the holy man, and death had no claims on Him. Here He shows, in the plainest way, that 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.
- Foreknown. He knew every detail of Jerusalem before He entered it; nothing took Him by surprise.
- Chosen. Knowing it, He still went — leading the way calmly while the twelve followed in fear.
- Shared. "We are going up" is His word; He joined His disciples to Himself even on the road to His death.
- Refused. His own leaders condemn Him, and outsiders kill Him. Rejected on every side, He takes the wider title Son of Man.
- Opened. His death is the one road into the glory of God and into eternal life — not by our doing, but by His dying.
and they will deliver him up to the nations to mock and to scourge and to crucify, and the third day he shall rise again.
On His last journey up to Jerusalem, Jesus takes His twelve disciples aside. Step by step He tells them what waits for Him there. It ends with a cross — and then with a third day. Why did He spell it out in advance? And why did the men who heard it take in so little?
This is the third time in Matthew that Jesus tells His disciples He will die. One writer compares the three announcements:
I think in Matthew 16:21 the Lord speaks of His earthly people, the Jews — "Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem," and so on. In Matthew 17:22, however, it is clearly the Gentiles who are in view: "The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men." In Matthew 20:18-19 He combines the two. So you see we have the Jews, then the Gentiles, and then the two combined.
One writer adds that Jesus saw all of this coming, and did not turn His face away from it:
Jesus knew that Jerusalem would give Him up to the Gentiles to crucify, and He told the twelve disciples so… So we see that the Gentiles crucified Jesus. The Jews gave Him up to them for this purpose, and the Gentiles did it. And the blessed Lord foresaw it all. But He did not hide His face from those who spat at Him, or His cheek from those who pulled out His hair.
Some have taught that the cross only dawned on Jesus slowly. One writer answers that claim directly:
And as He spoke these solemn words, His soul knew all that it meant for Him and the bitter cup He was to drink to the very last drop. Some have taught and still teach that it dawned on Him gradually and that He was not conscious of all that was before Him. But He knew everything that would happen to Him in Jerusalem, for His own Spirit had revealed these sufferings in the prophets (1 Peter 1:11). What awe and silence must have rested on the disciples as He told them the path He was to go!
The word Jesus chooses names a death His own nation could not carry out, and a death that carried lasting shame:
To crucify was to put a person to a death of unending shame and dishonour. The Jews could not crucify: stoning was their way of execution according to the law. Nor could the Romans crucify a Roman citizen. This way of executing people was for slaves and foreign criminals. That is the deep meaning of that cry, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." Not only must He die. His death must also carry disgrace, cursing and shame. As far as man was concerned, that shame could never be lifted.
Another writer gives the spiritual reason why Gentile hands had to do it:
There was a spiritual reason governing everything here. The curse of the law was to be on Him. The public, open sign of that curse was hanging on a tree (Deuteronomy 21:23). But if the Jews had carried this out as their own penalty, the hanging would have come after death, and that would have changed its meaning. Only in the hands of the Gentiles would crucifixion serve its purpose.
The verse does not end at the cross. Its last promise was the one they failed to take in:
In serious, plain language He tells them what is coming. He, the Son of Man, would be betrayed at Jerusalem into the hands of the chief priests and scribes, and they would condemn Him to death… But He adds something even more striking: the third day He would rise again. They knew He was completely dependable and always spoke pure truth. Yet, clear as His words were, it seems they missed their force completely. Have we not also too often missed the force of His plain words in Scripture? Perhaps they thought His words could not be true in a literal sense. Perhaps they thought there was some spiritual meaning they did not grasp.
The very next scene in the chapter sets their thoughts against His:
He speaks plainly to them, but still they do not understand: while He speaks of His shame, they speak of their glory. The request of James and John comes right at this point. Sad fact, that we can think of a place of honour while He has no place but one of humiliation and suffering.
- Foreseen — nothing in Jerusalem surprised Him. His own Spirit had already revealed these sufferings through the prophets.
- Foretold — He announced His death three times. First the Jewish leaders, then the Gentiles, and here both together.
- Handed over — the Jews gave Him up for this purpose; the Gentiles carried it out. The verse names both.
- Crucified — not stoning but a slave's death. Hanging on a tree was the open sign of the curse, and only Gentile hands could hang Him there alive.
- Raised — the promise they missed was the plainest one. The road that led to a cross ended on the third day.