This saying was hidden from them.

Luke 18:31-34, 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. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

Jesus clearly laid out the plan, that he would die and rise from the grave. And yet those around him still did not understand, not because they were incapable of understanding, or because of their own preconceived ideas about him, but because this saying was hidden from them. Before, Jesus had walked right through an angry mob after preaching his first sermon, for it was not yet his time. He knew at this point that he was there for a purpose; a walk to the cross so difficult that he would pray for relief in the garden the night he was betrayed. He came to fulfill the only plan that would set us free from the power of sin and death. “All that the father gives me will come to me, and whoever come to me I will never cast out.” Are there still those today from whom these things are hidden? Are we praying that God would be pleased to open their eyes to the good news?

We pray that you will open the eyes of those that we know who do not know you that they might be saved!

ESV Lectionary