But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.
53. He steadfastly set his face. By this expression Luke has informed us that Christ, when he had death before his eyes, rose above the fear of it, and went forward to meet it; but, at the same time, points out that he had a struggle, and that, having vanquished terror, “Estans victorieux par dessus ceste frayeur naturelle;” — “being victorious over that natural dread.”...
This passage of story we have not in any other of the evangelists, and it seems to come in here for the sake of its affinity with that next before, for in this also Christ rebuked his disciples, because they envied for his sake.
Commenting on Luke 9:51-56
For the son of man,.... Meaning himself, in his state of humiliation: is not come to destroy men's lives; the word "men's" is omitted in the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Persic versions: and both words, "men's lives", are left out in the Arabic version: but to save them; as they might easily observe, by his casting out devils from the bodies of men, and healing...