“And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry.”
Matthew 17:23 — Greek Interlinear
Church Fathers on Matthew 17:23
The Lord often foretold to His disciples the mysteries of His passion, in order that when they come to pass, they might be the lighter to them from having been known beforehand.
This seems to be so like a warning He had given above, that a man might easily say that the Lord now repeated what He had said before; yet is it not so; He had not before said that He must be betrayed, but we hear now not only that He must be betrayed, but that He must be 'betrayed into the hands of men.' The Son of Man indeed was 'delivered up' by God the Father according to the Apostle, [Rom 8:32] but different powers gave him up into the hands of men.
Thus does He ever mix the joyful and the grievous; if it grieves them that He is to be put to death, they ought to be gladdened when they hear, 'And shall rise again, the third day.'