Bird's-eye view
In this brief but dense passage, Jesus provides His disciples with the third and most detailed prophecy of His passion. As He sets His face toward Jerusalem, the place of the skull, He pulls the twelve aside for a private briefing on the divine necessity of what is to come. This is not a vague premonition of trouble; it is a precise, itemized itinerary of His impending suffering and triumph. He lays out the whole sequence: the journey to the capital, the betrayal into the hands of the Jewish leadership, their condemnation, the handover to the pagan Romans, the mockery, the scourging, the crucifixion, and, climactically, the resurrection on the third day. Every detail is freighted with theological significance. This is the sovereign Lord of history announcing, in advance, how He intends to conquer sin, death, and the devil, not through overwhelming force, but through calculated weakness, submission, and sacrifice. The disciples, as the context reveals, are still deaf to the central reality of a suffering Messiah, but Jesus is patiently catechizing them in the grammar of the gospel. The cross is not an accident or a tragedy; it is an appointment, the central appointment in the history of the world.
The passage reveals the interplay of divine sovereignty and human culpability. The Son of Man "will be betrayed," a divine passive, indicating God's ordination. Yet, the chief priests, scribes, and Gentiles are not absolved; they act according to their wicked natures to condemn and kill Him. This is the mystery of providence: God ordains the end and the means, yet the human actors are fully responsible for their sin. The whole sordid affair, from the Jewish rejection to the Roman execution, is part of the plan. And the plan does not end at the cross. The final word is resurrection. The third day is not an afterthought; it is the vindication of the Son and the seal of our salvation.
Outline
- 1. The Private Briefing on the Way to the Cross (Matt 20:17-19)
- a. The Setting: The Final Ascent to Jerusalem (Matt 20:17a)
- b. The Audience: The Twelve Taken Aside (Matt 20:17b)
- c. The Itinerary of Redemption (Matt 20:18-19)
- i. The Betrayal and Condemnation by the Jews (Matt 20:18)
- ii. The Handover and Execution by the Gentiles (Matt 20:19a)
- iii. The Promised Vindication: Resurrection (Matt 20:19b)
Context In Matthew
This passage is the third formal passion prediction in Matthew's Gospel, with the previous ones in Matthew 16:21 and 17:22-23. Each prediction has become progressively more detailed. The first mentioned suffering, death, and resurrection. The second added the element of betrayal. This third prediction now specifies the roles of both the Jewish leaders and the Gentiles, and names the precise method of execution: crucifixion. This increasing clarity comes as Jesus' public ministry closes and He heads inexorably toward Jerusalem for the final confrontation. The prediction is strategically placed immediately before the misguided request of James and John for seats of honor in the kingdom (Matt 20:20-28). Their ambition for glory stands in stark contrast to the path of suffering and service Jesus has just laid out. It demonstrates just how profoundly the disciples misunderstood the nature of His messiahship. They were thinking about crowns and thrones; He was talking about a cross and a tomb. This section, therefore, serves as a crucial corrective to their worldly expectations and sets the stage for the final week of Jesus' life, which begins with the triumphal entry in chapter 21.
Key Issues
- Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility
- The Identity of the "Son of Man"
- The Collaboration of Jews and Gentiles in the Crucifixion
- The Necessity of the Atonement
- The Significance of Crucifixion as a Method of Death
- The Centrality of the Third-Day Resurrection
- The Disciples' Continued Misunderstanding
The Necessary Road to Glory
There is a profound difference between a prediction and a plan. A weatherman predicts the weather, but he doesn't control it. When Jesus "predicts" His death, He is not making an educated guess about the future. He is announcing the unalterable plan of God, a plan in which He is the central and willing participant. The language is full of divine necessity. The Son of Man "will be" betrayed, they "will condemn" Him, they "will deliver" Him over. This is the language of certainty. This is the way it must be for salvation to be accomplished.
The disciples, and many of us, want a gospel of glory without a gospel of suffering. We want the crown without the cross. But Jesus here makes it abundantly clear that the road to the resurrection runs straight through Golgotha. The path to enthronement is the path of execution. This is the great paradox of the Christian faith. Our King conquers by dying. He wins by losing. He is exalted through humiliation. This private conversation on the road to Jerusalem is Jesus preparing His inner circle for this reality. He is telling them that the apparent disaster that is about to unfold is actually the calculated triumph of God. He is teaching them to see the cross not as a defeat, but as the designated place of victory.
Verse by Verse Commentary
17 And as Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them,
The geography is the theology. "Going up to Jerusalem" was more than just a change in elevation; it was the ascent to the place of sacrifice, the city that killed the prophets (Matt 23:37). This was a deliberate, purposeful journey. Jesus is not being swept along by events; He is initiating them. The fact that He takes the twelve "aside by themselves" is significant. This is not a public proclamation but an intimate preparation for His closest followers. They are to be the foundational witnesses of these events, and He is giving them the interpretive key in advance. What is about to happen in public has a private, divine meaning that they must grasp, however dimly at this stage. The setting is "on the way," which is a picture of the entire Christian life. We are pilgrims on the way, and our Master instructs us as we go.
18 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death,
He begins with "Behold," a call to pay close attention. This is of first importance. He identifies Himself with His favorite title, "the Son of Man," which connects Him both to the prophet Daniel's vision of a heavenly figure who receives an eternal kingdom (Dan 7:13-14) and to the prophet Ezekiel's common self-reference, emphasizing His true humanity. The divine King will come into His kingdom through the suffering of a true man. The first act in the drama is betrayal. He will be handed over, delivered up. And to whom? To the religious establishment, the "chief priests and scribes." These were the men who should have been the first to recognize and welcome their Messiah. Instead, they will be the architects of His destruction. Their role is judicial: "they will condemn Him to death." This was a formal, though utterly corrupt, legal sentence. The irony is staggering; the guardians of God's law use their position to condemn the Lawgiver.
19 and will deliver Him over to the Gentiles to mock and flog and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.”
The Jewish leaders, having passed their sentence, lack the legal authority under Roman occupation to carry it out. So the plan requires a second "delivering over," this time to the Gentiles, specifically the Romans. This detail is crucial. It shows that the sin of Christ's death is shared by all mankind, Jew and Gentile alike. Everyone is implicated. The Gentiles' role is described with three brutal verbs: mock, flog, and crucify. Mockery was the psychological torment, attacking His claim to kingship. Flogging was the physical torture, a horrific scourging that often preceded crucifixion. And crucifixion was the ultimate shame, a death reserved for slaves and rebels, a cursed death according to the Old Testament law (Deut 21:23). Jesus details the depths of His humiliation. But the sentence does not end there. The final clause changes everything: "and on the third day He will be raised up." This is the non-negotiable conclusion. The betrayal, the condemnation, the mocking, the flogging, the crucifixion, they all have an expiration date. Three days. Death will have Him for the weekend, but that is all. The resurrection is not just a happy ending tacked on to a sad story. It is the point of the whole story. It is the Father's "Amen" to the Son's "It is finished." It is the victory.
Application
This passage forces us to confront the cost of our salvation and the nature of true discipleship. First, we must see the deliberate, sovereign love of Christ. He walked this road to Jerusalem with open eyes, knowing every lash, every jeer, and every nail that awaited Him. He did this for us. The cross was not a surprise to Him, and our salvation is no accident. This should fill us with profound gratitude and awe. God's plan to save us was not a haphazard affair; it was a precise operation, planned from eternity and executed in time with unflinching resolve.
Second, we must recognize the pattern of the Christian life. The path to glory is the path of the cross. Jesus tells His disciples this, and then they immediately start jockeying for position. We do the same thing. We want the benefits of the kingdom without the cost of discipleship. We want influence, comfort, and success. Jesus calls us to service, humility, and a willingness to suffer for His name's sake. We must constantly ask ourselves if we are following the Christ of the Bible, who went to a cross, or a Christ of our own making, who promises us a life of ease. The call to follow Jesus is a call to take up our cross, to die to our own ambitions, and to find our life in losing it for His sake. The good news is that this path, though it leads through a valley of shadows, ends, just as His did, in resurrection.