And when he had thus spoken
When he had delivered the above parable, in order to remove the prejudices of his disciples, and the multitude, concerning a temporal kingdom, and to give them true notions of his own kingdom, and the case of the Jewish nation:
he went before;
his disciples: he was the foremost of them in the journey; he proceeded at the head of them, with great cheerfulness and eagerness:
ascending up to Jerusalem;
through the lower lands of Judea, to the city of Jerusalem, which was built on higher ground; where he was to eat his last passover, and suffer, and die, in the room, and stead, of his people; and this shows how willing, and greatly desirous he was to finish the work of redemption he came about.