The Necessary Death and the Dense Disciples Text: Mark 9:30-32
Introduction: The Curriculum of the Cross
We come now to a central lesson in the disciples' education, a lesson they repeatedly failed to grasp. And we must not be too quick to look down our noses at them. The central fact of all history, the hinge upon which the cosmos turns, is the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this central fact is also the central offense. It is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. And as we see here, it was a profound bewilderment to the Lord’s own chosen men.
Jesus is not simply wandering through Galilee. He is on a mission, and that mission has a very sharp, bloody point to it. He is headed for Jerusalem. He is headed for the cross. But He is also a teacher, a master educator, and His disciples are His students. The curriculum is not an easy one. The final exam will be held in a garden, on a cross, and before an empty tomb. Here, in the relative quiet of a private journey through Galilee, Jesus drills them on the foundational truth of His entire ministry. He is laying out the syllabus for redemption.
What we find is a stark contrast. On the one hand, we have the absolute clarity and determination of Jesus. He knows exactly what is going to happen, why it must happen, and what the glorious outcome will be. On the other hand, we have the thick-headed, fearful confusion of the disciples. They are like men trying to read a book in a language they do not know, in a room that is growing steadily darker. Their minds are still cluttered with visions of earthly glory, political power, and a Messiah who will throw off the Roman yoke. They want a crown, but Jesus keeps talking about a cross. They want to get to the coronation, but Jesus insists on walking them through the execution.
This passage is a bucket of cold water on all forms of triumphalism that are not first rooted in the triumph of the cross. It is a necessary corrective to our own tendencies to want a Christianity without suffering, a crown without a cross, and a resurrection without a death. The disciples' failure to understand is not just a historical footnote; it is a standing warning to the church in every age.
The Text
From there they went out and were going through Galilee, and He was not wanting anyone to know about it. For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise again three days later.” But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him.
(Mark 9:30-32 LSB)
The Private Tutorial (v. 30)
We begin with the setting for this crucial lesson.
"From there they went out and were going through Galilee, and He was not wanting anyone to know about it." (Mark 9:30)
This is what some have called the "messianic secret" in Mark's gospel. Jesus repeatedly tells people not to broadcast His miracles or His identity. But we must understand the reason for this. This is not some sort of divine coyness. Jesus is not trying to hide His identity from those who are genuinely seeking. Rather, He is controlling the narrative. He is preventing a premature and misguided popular uprising. The crowds were more than ready for a political Messiah, a wonder-worker who would lead a glorious rebellion against Rome. They wanted a bread king. They wanted a military conqueror. Had Jesus allowed this popular sentiment to boil over, it would have been an attempt to seize the crown without the cross.
But the cross was the entire point. The path to the throne of the universe ran directly through Golgotha. So Jesus pulls His disciples aside. He withdraws from the clamoring crowds to conduct a private seminar. He is not interested in mass appeal at this point; He is focused on the intensive training of the twelve men who will form the foundation of His church. The crowds needed to be managed, but the disciples needed to be taught. And the subject matter was too important, too scandalous, to be shouted from the rooftops just yet. The time for that would come, but only after the events themselves had transpired.
There is a lesson for us here. The most important truths are often learned not in the midst of the noisy crowd, but in the quiet moments of focused instruction from the Lord. The world wants a spectacle. God is building a kingdom, and He does so by teaching His people the deep truths of the gospel, often away from the spotlight.
The Unmistakable Prophecy (v. 31)
Having secured their privacy, Jesus lays out the divine plan with shocking clarity.
"For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, 'The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise again three days later.'" (Mark 9:31 LSB)
Notice the structure of this teaching. It is a four-part syllabus of redemption. First, betrayal: "The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men." The word for "delivered" is paradidomi, the same word used for Judas's betrayal. This is not an accident. This is a divine passive; it is God's plan. The Son of Man will be handed over. This is the language of covenant justice. He is being handed over as a substitute.
Second, execution: "and they will kill Him." This is blunt. There is no poetry here, no softening of the blow. The Messiah, the Son of Man, will be murdered by the very men He came to save. This was unthinkable. In their minds, the Messiah was the one who did the killing, not the one who got killed. Jesus is systematically dismantling their entire theological framework.
Third, resurrection: "and when He has been killed, He will rise again three days later." This is the crucial third point, the part that makes the first two parts gospel instead of just tragedy. Without the resurrection, the story ends with a dead martyr. But with the resurrection, the story becomes about a victorious King. The cross is not a defeat; it is the path to victory. Death itself will be killed. This is the promise that should have ignited their hearts, but as we will see, it was the part they seemed to hear the least.
Jesus refers to Himself as "the Son of Man." This is His favorite self-designation, and it is freighted with meaning from the Old Testament, particularly Daniel 7. The Son of Man is the one who comes on the clouds of heaven and is given an everlasting dominion and a kingdom that will not be destroyed. By using this title, Jesus is saying, "Yes, I am that glorious, conquering King from Daniel's vision. But the path to that throne is through betrayal and death." He is weaving together the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 with the glorious Son of Man of Daniel 7. This was the connection the disciples simply could not make.
The Willful Ignorance (v. 32)
The disciples' reaction is a mixture of incomprehension and fear.
"But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him." (Mark 9:32 LSB)
How could they not understand? Jesus was not speaking in riddles. He was using simple, direct language. The problem was not in their intellect; it was in their worldview. Their grid for understanding the world had no category for a crucified Messiah. It was a contradiction in terms. It was like saying "a defeated conqueror" or "a dead king." The statement was so contrary to their deeply held presuppositions that their minds simply could not process it. It was cognitive dissonance on a cosmic scale.
Their misunderstanding was not innocent. It was a culpable ignorance, born of pride and worldly ambition. Just a few verses later, what are they doing? They are arguing about which one of them is the greatest. While Jesus is preparing them for His sacrificial death, they are jockeying for cabinet positions in a kingdom they have completely misconstrued. Their ears were stopped up with the wax of their own expectations.
And their ignorance was compounded by fear. "They were afraid to ask Him." Why? Perhaps they were afraid of looking stupid. Perhaps they were afraid of the answer. If they asked for clarification, they might have to confront the terrifying reality of what He was saying. It is easier to remain in a comfortable, confusing fog than to face a hard, clear truth. This is a profound spiritual diagnostic. We often remain ignorant of God's will not because it is obscure, but because we are afraid of what it will require of us. We don't want to know, because if we knew, we would have to obey. Their fear was a form of rebellion, a refusal to submit their minds and their ambitions to the clear word of their Master.
Conclusion: The Only Story That Matters
This short passage is a microcosm of the gospel. It contains the central plot points of all of history: the betrayal, the death, and the resurrection of the Son of Man. This is the story. There is no other story that ultimately matters.
And it also reveals the central problem of the human heart. Like the disciples, we are naturally dense. We are slow to believe the hard truths of the gospel. We prefer our own narratives. We want a God who conforms to our expectations, who will help us build our little kingdoms. We want a Messiah who will make us great, not one who calls us to die.
The disciples' journey from density to clarity was a long one. It took the brutal reality of the crucifixion and the stunning glory of the resurrection to finally shatter their old worldview and rebuild it around the cross. Peter, the one who rebuked Jesus for talking this way, would later write that we are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or spot (1 Peter 1:19). He finally got the lesson.
The grace of God is demonstrated in His patience with these men. He did not give up on them. He kept teaching, kept pressing the point, kept leading them toward the truth they were so afraid to see. And He does the same with us. He patiently dismantles our false hopes and worldly ambitions. He continually brings us back to the central curriculum of the cross. He teaches us, again and again, that the only way up is down. The only way to live is to die. The only way to glory is through suffering. And the only way to the crown is by way of the cross.
Our task is to be better students than the disciples were in this moment. When the Lord speaks a hard word to us, a word that contradicts our ambitions or frightens us with its implications, we must not shrink back in fearful silence. We must have the courage to ask, the humility to listen, and the faith to believe that His story, the story of a death and a resurrection, is the only story that can truly save.