Matthew 20:17-19 - Homiletics

Predictions of the Passion.

I. JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM .

1 . The Lord . He was going up now for the last time to the holy city. His work in Galilee, in Peraea, was over; it seemed to have ended in disappointment, His popularity was not what it had been; his enemies had to a large extent succeeded (or seemed to have succeeded) in undermining his influence. He was "a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." A few days of thankless labour awaited him at Jerusalem, and then the awful cross. He knew it all. We cannot discern the secrets of the future; God has mercifully shrouded them in darkness. The shadow of the cross fell along the whole life of the Lord. And now he knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father. The thought gave an awful dignity to his mien, a Divine majesty to his figure, a strange stateliness to every gesture ( Mark 10:32 ). He was going to meet his death. He saw it plain before him in all its circumstances of shame and anguish; but he shrank not. He went forwards with a sweet and holy calmness, with a more than heroic courage, which shone through his features and illumined those clear holy eyes with a light that spoke of heaven.

2 . The disciples . The Lord went before them, leading them to the fearful conflict. They followed in silent awe; they watched the Lord's demeanour; they had never before seen such a strange high glory of steadfast resolve even on that blessed face, and they were amazed, terror-stricken. They regarded him with the deepest reverence—reverence not diminished by familiar intercourse, but constantly increasing; and now, it seems, they feared to intrude upon his meditations; but they were troubled and anxious. They felt that some momentous crisis was at hand. The Lord cared for them. He was not so absorbed in the intense contemplation of his coming sufferings as to forget his followers. He is our great Example. We think that the excitement caused by the expectation of great joy or great sorrow is an excuse for the neglect of our ordinary duties. It was not so with Christ our Lord. "Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end." He took them apart in the way. He would in his loving tenderness prepare them for the dreadful trial. Twice already he had predicted his death, but they seemed unable to take it into their minds; he would tell them a third time, more plainly now, in greater detail. And so he took them apart. Perhaps the roads were crowded; there were multitudes going up to the Passover. He would not tell them the dreadful secret within the reach of unsympathizing cars; they would best hear it alone, where none were present save those most deeply concerned the blessed Master, and the little company who so dearly loved him. Mark the tender delicacy of his dealings with them.

II. WHAT WAS TO BE EXPECTED .

1 . The betrayal . "Behold, we go up to Jerusalem," the Lord said. It was a glad thought commonly. "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem." And they were now going up to the Passover. It may be that the disciples, like other Jews, were looking forward to that great festival with feelings of joy; and very probably they were cherishing the hope that their Master would then manifest himself openly as the Messiah, that he would be welcomed as the great King, the Deliverer that was to come. He was to be manifested, but upon the cross; he was to reign, but from the tree. He told them calmly of the double betrayal that was coming, He should be betrayed (he did not say by whom; they could not bear yet to hear that) unto the chief priests and scribes. They would not acknowledge him as the Christ (as perhaps the disciples were hoping); they would condemn him to death, and betray him to the Gentiles. His own disciple would betray him to the priests; his own nation, nay, the priests, who knew where the Christ should be born ( Matthew 2:4 ), one of whom "prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation" ( John 11:51 ), would betray him to the Gentiles.

2 . The manner of his death . He told them very plainly now. It would be the act of the Gentiles, but the guilt would rest mainly with the Jews ( John 19:11 ). He predicted the harrowing details of his Passion; he would be mocked, scourged, crucified, he had mentioned the cross already ( Matthew 10:38 ; Matthew 16:24 ), but it was in figurative language; the spiritual cross of self-denial was to be the test of his true disciples. Now he told them plainly what it was that was to give a new meaning to the hated word, and make it another name for the holiest and loftiest self-sacrifice. He himself was to die upon the cross, not in figure, but in reality, he, the Christ, the Son of the living God, he whom the three chosen apostles had seen glorious with the radiance of heaven, he was to die that death which hitherto had been regarded as of all things horrible the most horrible, of all things ignominious the most intensely shameful. Yet the future was not all dark; he was to rise again the third day. He had raised others already from the dead: he himself would rise, for he is the Resurrection and the Life; it was not possible that he could be holden of the grave. It was now the third warning; yet, St. Luke tells us, the apostles "understood none of these things; and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken." It seems strange; but is it not much the same now? In spite of warnings, men will not understand that their own death is at hand; they think all men mortal but themselves; they will not speak of death; they carefully avoid the subject. Christ teaches us a different lesson. We should often think of death, we should often speak of it, of our own coming death, and that calmly, with the Christian's hope of a blessed resurrection.

LESSONS .

1 . Mark the awe and reverence with which the apostles regarded the Lord, though they loved him so well. Reverence becomes the true Christian.

2 . How often, when we look for joy, there comes great sorrow! Let us be prepared.

3 . Think much of the cross of the Lord Jesus; it cannot be too much in the Christian's thoughts.