Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 20:19

"and shall deliver him unto the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify: and the third day he shall be raised up." — Matthew 20:19 (ASV)

And the third day he will rise again — As before, this followed the prediction that seemed so terrible. The Master looked beyond the suffering to the victory over death, but the disciples could not grasp the meaning of the words that spoke of it.

Indeed, St. Luke (as if he had gathered from some of those who heard them what their state of feeling was at the time) reports that they understood none of these things, and this saying was hid from them, neither understood they the things that were spoken (Luke 18:34). To them, it was all like a dark and dim dream, a cloud on their Master’s soul which, they imagined, time would disperse.