Jesus' passion announcements to His disciples constitute important structural markers in Mark's Gospel. Luke and Matthew did not use them this way. The incident before us was the third passion announcement that Jesus gave beside other allusions to His death that He made (cf. 5:35; 12:50; 13:32; 17:25).
Luke presented this announcement as part of his travel motif that records Jesus moving from Galilee to Jerusalem (9:51-19:27). He played down the amazement and fear of the disciples that Mark stressed here. Instead he focused the reader's attention on the disciples' failure to understand what was going to happen in Jerusalem. There is a continuation of the theme of responding to Jesus' words that precedes. The rich young ruler failed to respond to the good news that Jesus proclaimed. Similarly the disciples, though believing the gospel, failed to respond to the bad news He told them. There is also a continuation of the theme of entering the kingdom. The disciples would enter because they believed in Jesus, but they would have to go through trials and tribulations, as Jesus would, before they did. The death of Jesus provided the basis for God's gracious dealings with believers through His Son (vv. 26-27).
18:31 Luke alone recorded that the things that would happen to Jesus in Jerusalem would be a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies (cf. 12:50; 22:37; Acts 13:29). Luke apparently stressed the fact that Jesus' ministry fulfilled prophecy so his readers would have greater confidence in Him (cf. 2:25-38; 22:37).
The Hellenistic mind resisted the idea that a God-man could be truly human. The ancient Greek concept of the gods visiting humankind lay behind this difficulty. Consequently Luke presented much evidence for his Greek readers throughout his Gospel that Jesus was a real man. The Jews on the other hand had difficulty accepting the fact that Jesus was truly God. This accounts for Matthew's stress on Jesus' deity. Throughout church history there have been those who like the Greeks had trouble accepting Jesus' full humanity and others like the Jews who have resisted His full deity.
18:32-33 This was Jesus' first reference to the Gentiles' role in His trial and death. Luke's inclusion of this detail suggests that he did not want his Gentile readers to miss the guilt of Gentiles for Jesus' death. The passive construction pictures Jesus as the victim of Gentile wrath.
"Not one prophet ever said all this, but the prophets together did say all this. Hence, this is a summation."414
18:34 Luke alone repeated three times that the disciples failed to comprehend Jesus' words. He strongly suggested that their failure was due to God's withholding this understanding from them (cf. 24:16, 25-26). The illumination of believers is a necessary work of God's Spirit that is supernatural. The Twelve probably would not believe that such a fate would befall Jesus.
"The failure of the disciples to understand the necessity of Jesus' suffering and rejection involves the following interrelated defects: (1) a failure to understand God's plan as announced in Scripture, including God's way of working by using human opposition to fulfill the divine purpose; (2) a failure to accept rejection and suffering as a necessary part of discipleship; (3) a failure to reckon with the rejection of Jesus, resulting in premature, overly optimistic expectations for the immediate enjoyment of the messianic salvation; (4) rivalry over rank because of a failure to recognize that only those who devote their lives as servants can be great as Jesus is great."415
