The Grammar of the Cross: A Deliberate Ascent Text: Matthew 20:17-19
Introduction: The Upward Call to Die
We live in a world that is allergic to unpleasantness. Our entire culture is geared toward the avoidance of pain, the postponement of difficulty, and the denial of death. We want our crowns without any crosses. We want the resurrection without the inconvenience of a crucifixion. We want a gospel of glory, but not a gospel of suffering. This is the natural religion of fallen man. It is the religion of self-preservation, self-esteem, and self-fulfillment. It is the theology of glory, and it is a damnable lie.
The Lord Jesus Christ, in His earthly ministry, was constantly at war with this kind of thinking, not only among the Pharisees but especially among His own disciples. They were looking for a political Messiah who would overthrow Rome and set up an earthly kingdom where they would all get cabinet positions. They were jockeying for position, arguing about who would be the greatest, and dreaming of thrones and glory. And into this thick-headed ambition, Jesus speaks with a brutal and glorious clarity. He pulls them aside, away from the crowds, for a private, stark, and absolutely essential lesson in the grammar of redemption.
This is the third time Matthew records Jesus explicitly predicting His passion. He did so in Matthew 16, right after Peter's great confession, and again in Matthew 17, after the transfiguration. Each time, the disciples react with a kind of bewildered incomprehension. They hear the words, but they cannot process the meaning. It is like trying to explain calculus to a toddler. Their minds are so saturated with the world's definition of victory that Christ's definition sounds like utter defeat.
But we must not be too hard on them, for we are made of the same clay. We also want a Christianity that works for us, that makes us comfortable, that solves our problems without requiring us to die. But the path to glory is, and has always been, the path of the cross. The way up is the way down. To live, you must first die. This is not a bug in the system; it is the central feature of our salvation. What Jesus lays out for His disciples here is not a tragic accident or a political miscalculation. It is the divinely ordained, meticulously planned, sovereignly executed mission of God to save the world. It is the business He is about, and He is heading to Jerusalem to get it done.
The Text
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, “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, 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.”
(Matthew 20:17-19 LSB)
The Deliberate Journey (v. 17)
The scene is set with a sense of deliberate purpose and solemn intention.
"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," (Matthew 20:17)
Notice the direction: "up to Jerusalem." This is geographically true, as Jerusalem sits on a mountain, but it is theologically profound. Jesus is ascending to the place of sacrifice. He is going up to the altar. This is not a retreat; it is an advance. He is not being dragged to His fate; He has set His face like flint toward Jerusalem (Luke 9:51). This is the sovereign march of the King to His coronation, and His throne will be a Roman cross. This is an act of breathtaking courage and unwavering resolve.
He takes the twelve "aside by themselves." This is not a public proclamation for the crowds. This is an intimate, private briefing for His inner circle, His officers. He is telling them the battle plan. The crowds were following Him for the miracles, the healings, the free food. They were caught up in the excitement of a celebrity rabbi. But the twelve were being trained for leadership in the coming kingdom, and they needed to understand that the kingdom would be established not by earthly power, but by a bloody sacrifice.
This is a lesson for us. The deeper truths of the Christian life, the truths about the cost of discipleship and the necessity of suffering, are often learned "aside," away from the noise and distraction of the crowd. God pulls us aside in trials, in quiet moments of reflection, in the study of His Word, to teach us the things we would otherwise be unable to hear. The world shouts a message of comfort and ease. Christ whispers a message of the cross.
The Divine Blueprint of Betrayal and Condemnation (v. 18)
Jesus then lays out the grim, specific details of what is to come.
"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," (Matthew 20:18 LSB)
He begins with "Behold," an attention-grabbing word. "Look here. Pay attention. This is important." He is forcing them to confront a reality they would rather ignore. He identifies Himself as the "Son of Man," His favorite self-designation, taken from Daniel 7. It is a title of both humility and glorious, eschatological authority. The Son of Man is the one who will receive an everlasting dominion from the Ancient of Days. But before He receives that dominion, He must suffer.
The first step in the process is betrayal. He will be handed over, not by His enemies initially, but by one of His own. This speaks to the deep, personal pain of the cross. But more than that, it reveals the absolute sovereignty of God. This betrayal is not a surprise to Jesus. He knows who will do it, and He knows it is part of the plan. Acts 2:23 tells us that Jesus was "delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God." Judas is not a rogue agent thwarting God's will; he is a pawn, a wicked tool, fulfilling it. He is morally responsible for his monstrous sin, yet God in His sovereignty uses that very sin to accomplish our redemption. This is the mystery of providence. God ordains whatsoever comes to pass, yet in such a way that the liberty of the creature is established and God is not the author of sin.
He will be betrayed "to the chief priests and scribes." The religious establishment, the very men who should have been waiting for Him, who studied the prophecies about Him, will be the ones to orchestrate His death. This is a profound indictment of dead religion. They had the Scriptures, the temple, the rituals, but they did not have God. Their religion was a tool for their own power and prestige, and when the true King showed up, He was a threat to their entire system. They will "condemn Him to death." This was a legal travesty, a kangaroo court, but it was a condemnation nonetheless. The leaders of God's chosen people will formally reject and sentence their own Messiah.
The Gentile Cross and the Guaranteed Resurrection (v. 19)
The horror is then compounded. The Jewish leaders, lacking the authority to execute, will outsource the dirty work to the pagans.
"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." (Matthew 20:19 LSB)
He will be handed over to the Gentiles, the Romans. This detail is crucial. It shows that the sin of the cross is a universal human sin. Both Jew and Gentile, the religious and the irreligious, conspired together to kill the Son of God. We were all there, in our representatives. Your sin and my sin held Him there. We cannot point the finger at the Jews or the Romans; we must point it at ourselves.
And what will the Gentiles do? They will "mock and flog and crucify Him." Jesus does not soften the language. Mocking involved spitting, ridicule, the crown of thorns, the purple robe. It was psychological torture. Flogging was a brutal whipping with a cat-o'-nine-tails, designed to rip the flesh from a man's back, often a death sentence in itself. And crucifixion was the most shameful, agonizing form of execution ever devised by the depraved mind of man. It was reserved for the lowest criminals. Jesus is telling His disciples plainly: I am going to Jerusalem to be shamed, tortured, and executed like a cursed slave. This is the furthest thing from their triumphalistic dreams.
But the sentence does not end with a period. It ends with a comma, and the most glorious clause in human history: "and on the third day He will be raised up." This is the non-negotiable center of the gospel. The cross is not the final word. Death is not the victor. The betrayal, the condemnation, the mocking, the flogging, the crucifixion, they are all penultimate. The ultimate reality is the resurrection. Without the resurrection, the crucifixion is just a tragic martyrdom. But with the resurrection, the crucifixion is revealed for what it truly is: the wisdom and power of God, the defeat of Satan, the payment for sin, and the inauguration of the new creation.
He states it as a fact. He "will be raised up." It is as certain as the rising of the sun. This is not wishful thinking; it is a divine decree. This is the Father's vindication of the Son. And it is the guarantee of our own justification and future resurrection. Because He was raised, we who are in Him will be raised also (Romans 6:5).
Conclusion: The Inverted Kingdom
What is the takeaway for us? This passage forces us to recalibrate our entire understanding of the Christian life. We are followers of a crucified King. Therefore, we should not be surprised when our path also involves a cross. Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).
The world's economy is about getting, gaining, and achieving. God's economy is about giving, losing, and dying. The world measures greatness by how many people serve you. Jesus measures greatness by how many people you serve. The world seeks to save its life. Jesus calls us to lose our life for His sake, so that we might truly find it.
This deliberate, detailed prediction of His own death shows us that the cross was not an accident. It was an appointment. It was the plan from before the foundation of the world. God was not wringing His hands in heaven, surprised by the wickedness of men. He was orchestrating the wickedness of men to accomplish the greatest good imaginable: the salvation of His people. This is our comfort and our confidence. The God who turned the greatest crime in history into the greatest act of love is able to work all things, even the betrayals, the injustices, and the sufferings in our own lives, together for our good.
Therefore, let us not be like the disciples, slow of heart to believe. Let us see the cross not as a tragedy to be avoided, but as the wisdom of God to be embraced. It is the place where our sin is cancelled, where our pride is executed, and where our new life begins. It is the only path to the empty tomb. And the empty tomb is the only hope for this dying world.