Luke 9:43b-45 43But while they were all marveling at the things he was doing, he said to his disciples, 44 “Put these words into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of people.” 45 But they did not understand this saying, and it was hidden from them, so that they might not understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.
The previous story makes a shift in the next few verses. Jesus has an important lesson to teach his disciples but they have a hard time understanding it. They, like the crowds, wondered at all that Jesus had done. Had they understood the significance of it all? Did they understand and accept his identity as the Son of God and Messiah? Watching and marveling did not equate to faith and commitment. Discipleship calls for more than observation but submission. This verse function as a time out and check to see if the disciples were making the crucial connection between all of what Jesus had done and what he still needed to do.
He used an idiom to make sure they listened carefully to what he was about to say. The statement is introduced with emphasis meaning, “Pay careful attention to what I am about to say and let it sink into your minds and hearts because it is really important.” The saying focuses on Jesus’ upcoming suffering. He gives a second prediction of his upcoming suffering, the first being in verses 21-22. The word delivered (paradidosthai) can have a negative sense of betrayal, like what Judas did to Jesus (22:4, 22, 48). Luke is about to shift his narrative to focus on the journey to Jerusalem, where the religious leaders would look for ways to get rid of Jesus but were afraid of the crowds.
The disciples could not make the connection yet to how Messiah Jesus could or would suffer. They had their preconceived ideas about all that was happening. Luke does not emphasize the discples’ struggle as much as Mark, but this theme is still present because it was a historical fact that Luke picked up on as he did his careful research and consulted with eyewitnesses. The meaning was hidden from them, an idea repeated again in 18:34. The meaning of the passive verb used here is difficult to determine. Is this a divine passive with God as the cause for them not to understand, or is it idiomatic to indicate they were just struggling in themselves to put all these events together?
Later verses in 19:42 and 44 imply that the disciples were not innocent or passive but that their lack of understanding was due to a lack of faith and response. If they had fully committed themselves to following Jesus, the “eyes” of their minds would have been opened to understanding the call of the cross. They, like us, like to define Jesus in our own safe ways rather than to embrace his journey to the cross as our own. The call to take up one’s cross is the call to total commitment in submission to the will of God.
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