Matthew 17:22-23

F. The Church in its human weakness. Matthew 17:22-23

(Mark 9:30-32; Luke 9:43-45.)

22And, while they [again] abode27 in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed [is about to be given up, μέλλει παραδίδοσθαι] into the hands of men;23And they shall kill him [will put him to death], and the third day he shall be raised [rise] again.28 And they were exceeding sorry.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Matthew 17:22. The expression ἀναστρεφο μένων indicates that they had returned into Galilee. But as the former circumstances had not changed, the object of this visit must have been to prepare for the last journey of Jesus to Jerusalem.

The Lord was now ready, and His disciples were forewarned. Hence He returned to Galilee in order to commence the journey which was to bring Him to Golgotha. In all probability He did not pass over the sea, but went privately through Upper Galilee to His own country, as the expression παρεπορεύοντο in the Gospel of Mark seems to intimate, which has been understood by some as referring to bye-roads (Grotius). It was on this occasion that His brethren asked Him to attend the feast at Jerusalem—that He declined to go up with the company of pilgrims—that He privately went afterward, and unexpectedly made His appearance at the Feast of Tabernacles. Then followed the events connected with it, and His last visit to Capernaum, Matthew 17:24.

Jesus said unto them.—Not a mere repetition of what He had formerly intimated to the disciples; for the term παραδίδοσθαι conveyed an additional element of information,—viz., that He was to be given up and surrendered,—an intimation which was afterward more fully explained. Jesus passed privately through Galilee (Mark 9:30). On this secret journey He prepared His disciples, in the wider sense of the term, for the issue before Him. An analogous expression, only more comprehensive, occurs in Matthew 20:19.

Matthew 17:23. And they were exceeding sorry.—For further details, see the accounts in Mark and Luke. This communication, in its effects on the disciples, is not incompatible with the fact that Jesus had so clearly intimated His resurrection. Irrespective of its bearing upon them in their individual capacity, the announcement of Christ’s crucifixion implied what would affect their views about the future of the world. The death of Jesus on the cross involved the destruction of their whole scheme—of their hopes of a Messianic temporal kingdom, and of their expectation of a state of immediate glory in this life.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The young and newly-formed band of members of Christ’s Church now began to anticipate the immeasurable consequences of His course of suffering. Thus the transition from the Jewish to the Christian view of the relation between the first and second æon was preparing. A change such as this would necessarily be accompanied by manifold doubts, struggles, and conflicts.2. It may be regarded as an evidence of the work of Christ in the hearts of His disciples, that they endured this conflict; nor can we wonder that, notwithstanding all this preparation, they felt deeply perplexed during the solemn and awful interval between the last supper and the resurrection.3. Thus it seems as if, like a timorous fugitive, the Lord had to pass by mountain tracks and bye-roads through His native land, in order to prepare. His friends for His impending sufferings.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The journey of Jesus through Galilee, now and formerly.—How everything wears a different aspect as the end draws nigh!—The secret journey of Jesus through His native land, a comfort to persecuted believers at all times.—How faithfully and calmly the Lord foretold His end to His disciples!—The Church of Jesus in its first human sorrow about the divine sufferings of Jesus: 1. The nature of this grief, in distinction from the peculiar sorrow about Christ’s death: it was exalted, though not yet sacred. 2. Its form and expression. Contrast between the narrative in the gospel, and the festivals to commemorate the event, introduced by the mediæval Church. 3. Its ground: acquiescence in Christ’s sufferings, implying the surrender of all worldly views, hopes, and expectations.—Difference between human and divine sorrow in connection with the cross.—Heavenly wisdom and strength of the Lord Jesus.—The Lion of the tribe of Judah did not hesitate to assume the appearance of a fugitive.—Like a chased roe upon the mountains, and yet Himself, 1. the Lamb, 2. the Lion.

Starke:—Canstein: When the time of our departure draws nigh, we should prepare our friends for it.—Osiander: How salutary is the remembrance of the cross!

Gossner:—Christ could not find attentive hearers, when preaching on the subject of His approaching death.

Heubner:—In mercy, God often grants us foretokens of heavy trials to come.

Footnotes:

[27] Matthew 17:22.—Lachmann reads: συστρεφομένων [to turn about with, to gather together], with Cod. Vaticanus I. [and Cod. Sinaiticus], for ἀναστρεφομένων [to return, to move about, to sojourn]; Meyer regards it as a glass to prevent ἀναττρεφομένων from being understood of return into Galilee; hence in the interest of the tradition of Tabor as the locality of the transfiguration. [So also Alford.—P. S.]

[28] Matthew 17:23.—Lachmann, following Cod. B., etc., reads: ἀναστήσεται for ἐλερθήσεται. [But even if we read with Tischendorf and Alford: ἐγερθήσεται, it should be translated: he shall rise, as in Matthew 8:15; Matthew 8:26; Matthew 9:6; Matthew 16:21; Matthew 17:7; Matthew 25:7, etc. In the N. T., and with later Greek writers, verba media in the reflective or intransitive sense, prefer the passive form of the aorist to the middle form. Comp. Alex. Buttmann: Grammatik des neu-testament-lichen Sprachidioms, p. 45,19, and 165; also Robinson: Lexic, sub ἐγείρω, middle intransitive, to awake, to arise.—P. S.]