There is a significant pattern in the announcements that the Lord Jesus makes concerning His imminent suffering and death. In the first announcement, He says that He will be turned over to the elders, chief priests and scribes, Matthew 16:21. Here His focus is on the immediate perpetrators of the crime against Him. The second announcement widens the circle of those who are guilty, and includes the crowds who rose up so furiously against Him. Jesus says He was to be delivered into the hands of men, Matthew 17:22, by which we think of the Jews in general. In the final announcement, the circle of guilt is broadened even more. Jesus specifically outlines the kind of death he must undergo, and says that He will be delivered up to the Gentiles, for them to do with Him what they would.

In this final turn to Jerusalem, the disciples now hear of the incredible depths of the imminent sufferings of the Saviour. This could not but defy all their expectations. For the last thing that was to happen to the Messiah according to the expectations of the day was that He was to be delivered up to the will of the Gentiles. Indeed, people expected Him to deliver them from the Gentiles! He was to be a ruler over the nations, ruling them with a rod of iron.

Revealing this new dimension of His coming sufferings to the disciples only intensifies Christ's sufferings. They obviously did not understand the depth of what was about to take place. Yet they had to be instructed for Pentecost! And as they are instructed, successively wider dimensions of Christ's sufferings and victory come into view. The work He was about to do had significance for the Gentiles, too! Mentioning them to the disciples brings into focus the dramatic pattern of God's plan of salvation.

For Christ says that He was to be delivered up to the Gentiles as a specific group of people. The Gentiles incorporate all those who were not Jews, in Christ's day and in succeeding generations, until the day of His return. Now Christ announces that they are included in His condemnation. He will die as Jew, but only in the forum of the world. The Gentiles have their share in the guilt of His death. They will sanction and increase the cruelty of the Jews against the Messiah.

But what is the great salvation plan of God? When Christ includes the Gentiles here as accomplices in His death He also wants to instruct the disciples concerning the scope and value of His cross. Indeed, His salvation work is not only for the Jews, but for the Gentiles as well! And just as He was handed over to the Gentiles, so He was given up for the Gentiles, and on their behalf. As apostles after Easter, the disciples were called to be witnesses of His victory over sin and death, and bring the message of amnesty from guilt in the blood of the cross to the end of the earth.

Here the disciples learn that all will share the guilt of His death. We are included as well! We all share the guilt of the cross. But this forms the ground for the apostolic preaching! When God still proclaims amnesty even after this universal and unfathomable guilt, He shows the greatness of His mercy and longsuffering with the world! And in announcing to the Gentiles the guilt they had as accomplices in Christ's death, the apostles may also announce to them the way of escape from the immanent wrath of God, preaching God's grace for those who believe in the blood of the cross as the only way that sins can be remitted in the world.

We then see rays of Pentecost in the final announcement of Jesus concerning His imminent death. Hard as it was for Him, it represents our deliverance from sin and guilt! That the Gentiles are included in His death allows them to be included in His resurrection! The one who was delivered up to the Gentiles was also delivered up for the Gentiles. As Paul says,

He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, will He not also give us all things with Him?Romans 8:32

Although this was a difficult road of learning for Peter and the apostles, (Acts 10, Galatians 2), yet they learned that

God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him,Acts 10:34

The message of Pentecost is grounded in the reality of Christ's suffering and death, and is addressed equally to all the parties guilty of this sin.

This is the way the Messiah becomes the long-awaited King of the nations. He defeats the nations by being delivered up to them and for them! His triumph is made perfect in weakness! For in being delivered up to all, all share the guilt of sin. Yet in being delivered up to all, Christ bears the sin of all. Therefore, the Pentecost message may go out: amnesty and salvation for all who believe, both Jew and Gentile!

We also share the guilt of His death. Our own selfish and hostile nature is portrayed in what the Gentiles did. But by His mercy we have been permitted to hear and accept His grace. The message of the blessing of the cross may also come to us, along with the Spirit of holiness for the Gentiles. Who then cannot but praise God for His glorious gifts?