Luke 18:31-34 "The Gospel According To Jesus"
There are a lot of things we think we understand before we actually experience them—but we didn’t really.
You might THINK you know what it’s going to be like to ride the Screaming Twirling Rollercoaster of Despair but until it leaves your stomach at the bottom of the first loopty-loop before you almost blackout in the spinny upside-down part—you didn’t really know, did you?
I thought I understood what it would be like to ride in a glider over the beautiful mountains of Hawaii when Kim and I went there in 2,000—when she was pregnant with Von. I thought it would be fun and beautiful and maybe a little terrifying. Well, Kim loved it—wanted to go again. I was sick to my stomach with a headache for the rest of the day. Here’s a little-known fact, at least I didn’t know: the way gliders stay in the air is by centrifugal force. Constant centrifugal force. You know that feeling on a rollercoaster when you’re going down the steep part really fast, and it’s kinda torture but you know it going to end in just a second? In gliding it never stops! I cut my ride short but it was supposed to be 15 to 20 minutes of astronaut-level vomit-inducing G-force. The guy operating the glider is yelling at me over the wind, “Mr Frank, look over there, do you see the whales? Isn’t that cool?” And I’m like, “Uh, sure. Whales. Don’t talk to me.”
I still had cold sweats a half hour later when Kim finally landed—correction, when Kim and unborn baby Von landed. Kim’s like, “What’s wrong with you? I’m the one who’s pregnant.” We tell Von she’s been hang-gliding in Hawaii but somehow she doesn’t remember it.
There are so many things in life that we think we understand and later find out we had no idea.
I had heard all my life that there’s nothing like that first moment when you hold your baby. I mean, I had held babies. Didn’t really do much for me to be honest. It’s part of why Kim and I waited sixteen years before we had a child—I wasn’t sure it was a good idea. I wasn’t sure if I would like my kids or if they would like me. I was absolutely sure I understood what it was going to be like.
Let me just say, I didn’t even have a category for what having a kid was going to do to me. The first time I held my baby girl—I mean, it’s such a cliche’—you either know or you don’t—but I was undone. I couldn’t speak. Holding that little glob of bloody mess. I didn’t put her down for a year. She slept on my chest. I could barely make myself work. It made no sense. I didn’t want to do anything except hold her and take care of her.
People had told me. I had read the books. I saw the movies. But I didn’t understand until it happened.
Then, two years later when Angel is on his way, I thought, “Fine. Lightning struck once but I’ll probably hate this kid.” Nope. Same thing. He melted me. So, now I’m worried about grandkids—because I never learn. Ha
I’ll bet you have moments like those, too. When you thought you understood something, knew everything you needed to know about it, until it happened. Then you find out you had no idea. Not really.
It’s definitely that way with a lot of Jesus things. We think we understand—theologically, logically, philosophically, theoretically—but then one day our eyes are opened to the depths and riches of what these things really mean. That’s why we’re here. That’s why we gather around God’s Word. We bring everything we think we know and hold it with open hands, listening for what He’s going to say to us that will rock us, undo us, and reshape us into the people He’s called us to be.
In chapter 9, Jesus had “set His face toward Jerusalem” and now they were almost there. He pulls the disciples aside and reminds them again about what’s going to happen when they get there. We’re going through the Gospel of Luke line by line, we’re in chapter 18…
VERSE 31:
And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. Luke 18:31
Jesus knew what was about to go down in Jerusalem but He only shared that information with the Twelve disciples.
When He said—”Everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished”—Oh, man! They would have gotten really excited. It’s about to go down! Jesus is going to kick some Roman booty! Peter and Simon would have looked at each other with big smiles—start thinking about sharpening their swords and knives.
They knew all the big things the prophets said about the Messiah. According to Genesis, He’s going to crush the serpent’s head. He’s going to set all the people, and every nation, free from oppression. He’ll be a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah—and throughout the Old Testament it was promised a descendant of King David was going to sit on the throne of Israel—and it was going to once again be the ruling superpower over all the other nations. It’s going to be an everlasting kingdom this time. They knew from Isaiah that He would be born of a virgin, called a Nazarene, named Jesus. They knew Jesus, this guy they were following, was the Messiah—it all fits, and now everything is clicking into place.
How much more exciting could this possibly be? But Jesus isn’t quite done talking about what’s going to happen in Jerusalem when they get there…
VERSE 32:
For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” Luke 18:32-33
Say what? Now they’re frowning. None of that sounds good. Why would the Messiah be delivered over to Gentiles? This is a bunch of nonsense. I’m sure Peter was getting ready to argue with Him. “No, Lord. I’ll never let those things happen.” That’s what he says in the other accounts. Luke leaves Peter off the hook. Jesus is very clear, these things HAVE to happen to fulfill Scripture.
There was a bunch of prophecy they had ignored. The same passage in Genesis that said He would crush the serpent’s head also said His heel would be bruised—I mean, a bruise doesn’t sound so bad, right? But they skipped over all the stuff about suffering and sacrifice. Psalm 22 describing a crucifixion and darkness and God forsaking Him to death. Psalm 31 talking about His followers running away and His dying words being “into Your hands I commit my spirit.” The mockery. The false witnesses. They missed the part in Isaiah where He would be hit in the face, humiliated, spit on, abused, rejected, that He would shed His blood as a sacrifice for mankind’s sin. That he would die for the sin of the world. Buried in a rich man’s grave. And would resurrect from the dead and live forever. They had skipped over a few important details.
There are over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament that Jesus fulfilled in the New Testament. A lot of them had to happen in a very narrow window of time. Certain things had to be in place for the Messiah to fulfill all the prophecies spoken about Him. Here’s a very important thing to realize from a theological and historical perspective: If Jesus wasn’t the Messiah then no one else can be. If Jesus wasn’t the Messiah then the entire Bible is a complete bunch of nothing. But all those ancient prophecies prove otherwise. His life and death and resurrection prove He truly is the Messiah. Everything checks out on every level. All the boxes are checked. He fulfilled all the prophesies the Messiah was supposed to fulfill when He came to earth the first time.
The confusion of the disciples was they didn’t understand Jesus was going to fulfill hundreds and hundreds of prophecies the first time He came and then He was going to ascend to heaven before coming back a second time to fulfill the rest of them.
Let me talk to the skeptic for a minute about all this Jesus stuff.
No one who takes history serious denies that a man named Jesus, from Nazareth, had a big following and was crucified by the Roman government because of accusations made against Him by the Jewish leaders. That’s as certain as history gets. No one denies that His followers claimed He came back from the dead and that His resurrection meant something for anyone who believes in Him.
Not everyone believes that part is true—it’s hard to believe that someone came back from the dead. There were hundreds of eyewitnesses but still, a lot of people think the followers of Jesus made up the story about the resurrection.
But why would they do that? It didn’t benefit them anything. It just got them persecuted and killed. But none of them recanted. None of them changed their tune. They held on to the idea that Jesus had died and come back from the dead all the way up to the bitter end. Why would they do that? Unless it was true. Unless they weren’t afraid of death anymore.
As we can see from this passage we’re looking at today, the followers of Jesus didn’t think His dying was any part of the plan. There’s no reason to think they were planning a hoax. As they’re walking into Jerusalem, they don’t get it.
VERSE 34:
But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. Luke 18:34
They understood the words He was saying. They weren’t stupid. They just didn’t have a category for what He was telling them. They couldn’t understand what it had to do with them. I know that seems strange to us—we have the luxury of being on this side of how it played out. We’re Christians, these ideas are all foundational to what we believe about everything.
As far as we’re concerned, what He told them was the Gospel. All the things Jesus did for us that we would never have been able to do for ourselves. He lived a sinless life for us, suffered for us, took all our sin upon Himself on the cross and died for us—He took your sin on Himself so the penalty for all that sin—death—so it would kill Him instead of killing you. Then He came back from the dead promising that if you believe in Him, if you trust in Him, cling to Him, rely on Him—if you have any faith in Him at all—you will also come back from the dead and live with Him forever.
So, first of all, duh disciples! This is Christianity 101. How can you not understand this?
But second, how many of you have heard all that Gospel stuff over and over and it never sank it? You hear it. You understand the words. You just don’t know what it has to do with you. Your sin is forgiven—so what? You’ll go to heaven when you die—so what? What does that have to do with anything? Just a bunch of religious nonsense, right?
Obviously, I don’t think so. Obviously, I’ve devoted my life to telling people like you about what Jesus has done for you. That your life will be so much more meaningful and enjoyable if you listen to His promise and start living your life the way He wants you to. Your life will be more purposeful, more enjoyable. But also He has a lot of ideas that will keep you from driving your life off the rails—messing everything up. The wisdom of God is the best way to live your life—that’s not even the Gospel part, that’s not the part that saves you—that’s just a bonus you get for following Him. Follow Jesus and your life will work better. Is there anyone else in the world who makes sense right now—if you follow what they say? No, the wisdom of God is the only sane thing in the world. And then, by trusting Jesus, also, you won’t go to hell when you die. It’s a good deal. Free is good, right?
Sometimes when people ask what I do for a living I say, “I tell people things that they will ignore.” I’m a professional “tell people things they will ignore” person. Then they say, “Oh, so you’re a pastor.”
The disciples were ignoring Jesus—they couldn’t hear Him. “This was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”
Hidden by who? Who was hiding the meaning from them?
In the Gospel of Luke, seeing or understanding is the same thing as salvation. They weren’t going to “see” these things until after the resurrection—then they were going to “get it.”
Preaching and teaching the Word of God is how our eyes are opened. That’s how faith is created. We don’t always get it at first—God reveals, unveils, the truth to us as we are ready to understand it—as we need to understand it.
It’s God that kept them from understanding.
They didn’t need to understand it before they got to Jerusalem, it probably would have only gotten in the way, they might have tried to stop Him. But later they were going to remember He said it—multiple times—and that was going to really build their faith. Jesus knew exactly what He was doing. All those things that were about to happen: What the Romans did to Him, what the Jewish leaders conspired, they didn’t mess up God’s plan—they executed it! The cross was a fulfillment of prophecy not a horrible accident. Jesus wasn’t only handed over to the Jewish leaders by Judas, He was also handed over by God Himself. These same disciples who didn’t understand what Jesus was telling them were going to be amazing leaders in the early church, they were going to explain all these same ideas to everyone else.
What Jesus was telling them wasn’t all bad news but they couldn’t hear the good part. On the third day, Jesus would raise from the dead—they couldn’t hear that because for Him to rise again, He was going to have to be dead. It’s the old “everyone wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die” problem.
What about us? What things do we hear over and over but don’t understand? In what ways do we struggle with God’s divine plan? Jesus said, “In this world, you’re going to have trouble.” Why are we surprised when we have trouble? Why do we pretend like it’s all Pollyanna, every cloud has a silver lining, God only gives super happy fun sunshine rainbow unicorns and warm fuzzy easy things in life? Why do we think that? It’s not what Jesus said. We’re just like the disciples. We’re not going to understand everything. We just don’t have categories for all the mysteries of God’s truth—especially dark things. Some things are just hidden from us—the secret things belong to the Lord.
But don’t settle for a glorious vision of Jesus that doesn’t include the cross. When Jesus prayed near the end of the Gospel of John, “Father the hour has come to glorify Your Son” a big part of the glory He was talking about was the actual cross. Sometimes we live like everything is just supposed to be glory without pain. That’s not what Jesus showed us.
When it comes to what’s happening in your life, what do you struggle to accept as God’s will for you? What’s He telling you to do that you don’t want to hear? Don’t want to do? Have trouble believing? What painful things in your life aren’t making any sense? Everyone who follows Jesus, follows Him to a cross. But everyone who follows Him to a cross follows Him to a resurrection. It’s a promise.
There are so many things we think we understand and later find out we had no idea. We might think we know what it means to trust God through difficult situations but like the disciples walking into Jerusalem, we probably don’t really have any idea, we’ll probably struggle until God has mercy and sees us through it. And He will. What do you currently think you understand but God’s ready to show you a whole other level? You can’t know what those things are. Only one way to find out.
Keep listening. Keep paying attention. New things will be revealed every time you listen to God’s Word. Your heart will be opened, your mind will be opened, you will see more of who Jesus is and what He has done for you—and you’ll never get to the end of it, it’s inexhaustible. The glorified Jesus retained His scars as visible signs of His love for you. Don’t turn your eyes away from the whole truth of what it means—what it cost—for Jesus to be our Lord and Savior. AMEN.