Charles Spurgeon Commentary Luke 18:31-34

"And he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written through the prophets shall be accomplished unto the Son of man. For he shall be delivered up unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and shamefully treated, and spit upon: and they shall scourge and kill him: and the third day he shall rise again. And they understood none of these things; and this saying was hid from them, and they perceived not the things that were said." — Luke 18:31-34 (ASV)

Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again. And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.

It would be hard to imagine our Lord speaking more plainly. He tells them of his sufferings in detail – describes exactly what happened. But their thoughts did not run that way; and when you are not expecting a thing, it matters little how very plainly you may be told of it. You are doting on something else, and, therefore, you do not readily perceive the meaning. You know how: when you are expecting to hear a thing said, you can hear it even at a great distance, or think you hear it, from the very motion of the man's lips. But if he should say something completely contrary to what you expect, then you do not so readily hear.

And these disciples of our Lord were looking to see him made a king, and they could not comprehend that the only crown he was to have would be one of thorns, and that the homage paid to him would be to be scourged and to be spat upon. They did not understand. And do you not think that the way our thoughts sometimes run may be so contrary to divine truth that we may not be able to understand some very plain things in the Bible, which are only difficult to us because our thoughts are not yet running that way? And when one day we shall be more completely cleansed from the grossness of this world, many a riddle will become plain enough to us.