Luke 18.18-34

Today is Easter Sunday! If you’re here for the first time, we’re thrilled to have you with us. Our church is unapologetic about what we do here week after week: we celebrate the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for us.

Christians often run into a kind of problem when they begin their Christian lives. They hear the gospel—which we’ll get into—and they accept the gospel, they believe the gospel is telling the truth. So they begin living their lives as Christians.

But then they start reading their Bibles, and they start seeing all these things the Bible calls them to do. The Bible says that if you’re being a Christian doesn’t just mean adhering to a certain doctrine; it means admitting that God is the One who created you, and he knows better how he created you to live. And there are certain things we do without even thinking about it that aren’t good for us, and that don’t glorify God. So being a Christian is more than adhering to a certain system of belief; it’s living in a way that glorifies God.

And Christians sometimes get stuck here, because some of the things that the Bible calls us to do, in order to glorify God, are not easy to do. They cost. And sometimes they cost a good deal.

Often on Easter Sunday churches will take time out of what they usually do in order to focus on the death and resurrection of Christ: because that’s what Easter is all about. But we’re not going to do that—we’re not going to stop what we’re doing. And the reason is that for a good while now, we have been preaching through the gospel of Luke, and in the next text in our series, Jesus explicitly talks about his death and resurrection. So it’s perfect for Easter.

So while we aren’t going to do anything truly out of the ordinary just because it’s Easter, we are going to change things up a little bit. Today’s text is . We’re going to read verses 31 to 34 first, and then we’ll backtrack to the passage that comes before—and hopefully it will make sense why we’re doing that by the time we finish.

In today’s text, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, where he will be wrongly accused of blasphemy, put on trial, and crucified. And along the way, all kinds of people are coming to him, wanting to hear him speak, so he’s making the most of those opportunities to talk to people on the way.

So that’s where we’ll be. And while we aren’t going to do anything truly out of the ordinary just because it’s Easter, we are going to change things up a little bit. Today’s text is . We’re going to read verses 31 to 34 first, and then we’ll backtrack to the passage that comes before—and hopefully it will make sense why we’re doing that by the time we finish.

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.

So Jesus has already said this before, but it bears repeating. Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem—it’s the last leg of a journey that has taken him all over the place. And he is going to Jerusalem for a reason.

The Passover was coming up soon. Passover is one of the biggest feasts in Judaism to this day; and on this day people who lived near often made pilgrimages to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover there. And that’s exactly what Jesus will do. But that’s not the only reason he’s going to Jerusalem.

He is going, he says, so that everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.

“The Son of Man,” as we’ve seen before, was Jesus’s favorite way of referring to himself. The prophets had long since prophecied that one day, God would send a Messiah: a heroic Savior who would liberate the Jews from oppression. The Jews imagined that this would be a political, militaristic figure: someone who would come in and shake up the established political order. And orthodox Jews are still waiting for this political Messiah to this day.

But there is one thing they missed. In —part of the Jewish Bible, or the Christian Old Testament—Isaiah prophecies a suffering Messiah, someone who would come in and, to rescue the people, would take their place and suffer their pain. Isaiah says ():

4  Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

5  But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.

6  All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

So what Jesus is saying here is, “I am that guy. I am that suffering servant. I am this Messiah Isaiah spoke of.” And next, he tells his disciples—these twelve guys following him and learning from him—exactly how that would happen: he tells them exactly how he would “bear their griefs and carry their sorrows,” how he would be “pierced for their transgressions,” and “crushed for their iniquities.”

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

V. 32:

32 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

34 But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. 24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” 28 And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” 29 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Jesus Foretells His Death a Third Time

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. 32 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” 34 But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

Two parts:

v. 18-30: The rich young ruler: we sacrifice nothing.

v. 18-30: The rich young ruler: we sacrifice nothing.

v. 31-34: Jesus’s death foretold: he sacrifices everything.