Connect360: Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection

• Lesson Eight in the Connect360 unit “God Fulfills His Promises” focuses on Luke 11:29-32; 18:31-34.

Luke told his readers Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem” (9:51).

As the time of his passion drew nearer, Jesus became less vague as he talked with his disciples about what would happen to him.

This moment in Chapter 18 is another step in that reality.

Speaking to just the 12 disciples, Jesus warned them when they arrived in the city, prophecies concerning the Messiah would be fulfilled (18:31).

He’d never hidden from them that he acted in accordance with God’s directives and to fulfill the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17), but his explanations weren’t always as blatantly descriptive.

Here, he again used the term “Son of Man” to describe himself, as if emphasizing his humanity and the agony he would experience.

Although his words may have confused the disciples, perhaps it was less painful to discuss the events of his passion in the third person.

Fulfilling prophecies found in Isaiah 53 (among others), he would be handed over to Gentiles who would mock, insult, and spit upon him (18:32).

These demeaning acts were callous and undeserved.

Although he didn’t mention in this passage who would deliver him to them; he did in 9:22: “the elders, chief priests, and scribes.”

By including the Jewish leaders in 9:22 and “the Gentiles” in 11:32, ultimately, no one was absolved of guilt for his death.

The Jewish leaders would collaborate with their Roman enemy—violating their own principles—and relinquish Jesus, because they didn’t understand his mission.

Jesus wasn’t calling people away from God or his law.

Rather, he was reshaping the understanding of the purpose for the law’s directives concerning things like the Sabbath and sacrifices.

He was calling the people to something more than rote exercises. He was calling them to worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).

Then, Jesus declared, the Gentiles would flog him, a cruel and violent act, and finally, kill him.

This surely was too much for the disciples to believe or understand.

The long-awaited Messiah, in their minds, could not possibly die and still fulfill his purpose. Despite all this agony, he didn’t leave them hopeless.

He would rise “on the third day” (18:33). Having seen the widow’s son raised in Nain (7:11–17), it seems this verbiage should have been clear to the disciples.

The ambiguity of the “sign of Jonah” was gone. They’d seen him demonstrate his power over death.

In the luxury of our hindsight, this passage distinctly describes the events that would transpire following the Last Supper. So, if they were truly listening, we are surprised the disciples didn’t believe or couldn’t rationalize what Jesus was saying.

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