A.T. Robertson Commentary Luke 9:51

"And it came to pass, when the days were well-nigh come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem," — Luke 9:51 (ASV)

When the days were well-nigh come (εν τω συμπληρουσθα τας ημερας). Luke's common idiom εν with the articular infinitive, "in the being fulfilled as to the days." This common compound occurs in the N.T. only here and Lu 8:23; Acts 2:1. The language here makes it plain that Jesus was fully conscious of the time of his death as near as already stated (Luke 9:22,27,31).

That he should be received up (της αναλημψεως αυτου). Literally, "of his taking up." It is an old word (from Hippocrates on), but here alone in the N.T. It is derived from αναλαμβανω (the verb used of the Ascension, Acts 1:2,11,22; 1 Timothy 3:16) and refers here to the Ascension of Jesus after His Resurrection. Not only in John's Gospel (John 17:5) does Jesus reveal a yearning for a return to the Father, but it is in the mind of Christ here as evidently at the Transfiguration (9:31) and later in Lu 12:49f.

He steadfastly set his face (αυτος το προσωπον εστηρισεν). Note emphatic αυτος,

he himself , with fixedness of purpose in the face of difficulty and danger. This look on Christ's face as he went to his doom is noted later in Mr 10:32. It is a Hebraistic idiom (nine times in Ezekiel), this use of face here, but the verb (effective aorist active) is an old one from στηριζω (from στηριγξ, a support), to set fast, to fix.

To go to Jerusalem (του πορευεσθα εις Ιερουσαλημ). Genitive infinitive of purpose. Luke three times mentions Christ making his way to Jerusalem (9:51; 13:22; 17:11) and John mentions three journeys to Jerusalem during the later ministry (John 7:10; John 11:17; John 12:1). It is natural to take these journeys to be the same in each of these Gospels. Luke does not make definite location of each incident and John merely supplements here and there. But in a broad general way they seem to correspond.