Luke 18:31-34
Let’s remember to pray for Jim and Marty.
“Notice what you notice.” Jesus had already predicted His death and resurrection at least three times (Luke 9:22-27; Matthew 17:22-23; Mark 9:30-32), but this time His prediction follows His raising Lazarus from the dead. I would think that, having heard it so many times and now seeing Lazarus’ resurrection, that the twelve would have had more understanding. Yet verse 34 says that …they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. My guess is that inwardly they were denying His death and accordingly could not fathom His resurrection to any comprehensible degree. Even today very few people would deny that Jesus was crucified and died, but are unwilling to accept the compelling evidence that He rose from the dead. Today it’s a matter of faith (or lack thereof); presumably it was the same back in the 1st century.
Jesus pinpoints details about His death in our readings from the past three days, much more than He had in His prior death predictions. The accuracy of His predictions strengthens the faith of believers, but also provides fodder for His antagonists to suggest that the Gospel writers wrote what they wanted well after the fact, so as to make Jesus’ words and those of the Old Testament prophets coincide with actual outcomes. Same comment I closed with in the first paragraph above – it’s a matter of faith (or lack thereof)!!
Slava Bohu!