Bird's-eye view
In this brief but potent passage, we find the Lord Jesus Christ on His final ascent to Jerusalem, the place of sacrifice. For the third time in Mark’s gospel, He explicitly foretells His impending passion, death, and resurrection. But this is not a morbid prediction of a tragic victim; it is the resolute announcement of a sovereign King detailing His battle plan. The atmosphere is thick with a mixture of divine determination and human confusion. Jesus strides ahead, a man on a mission, while His disciples follow in a state of bewildered fear. He pulls them aside to give them, once again, the divine commentary on the events that are about to unfold. He will be betrayed by His own, condemned by the religious establishment, and handed over to the pagans for the ultimate humiliation and execution. Yet, the entire grim sequence is capped with the triumphant, non-negotiable promise: "and three days later He will rise again." This is the gospel in miniature: the divinely ordained, substitutionary death of the Son of Man, followed by His glorious, world-altering resurrection.
This passage serves as a crucial hinge in Mark's narrative. It underscores the absolute necessity and divine orchestration of the cross. Every detail, from the betrayal by the Jewish leaders to the execution by the Gentiles, is part of God's predetermined plan. It also highlights the persistent blindness of the disciples, who, despite the clarity of Jesus' words, are still operating on a completely different wavelength, as the very next story about James and John will demonstrate. Their fear and amazement reveal a dawning awareness that they are caught up in something far bigger and more dangerous than they had imagined, yet they still cannot grasp that the path to glory is a path that leads directly through the grave.
Outline
- 1. The Final Ascent to the Cross (Mark 10:32-34)
- a. The Determined King and His Fearful Followers (Mark 10:32a)
- b. The Third Passion Prediction (Mark 10:32b-34)
- i. The Divine Necessity of the Passion (Mark 10:32b)
- ii. The Human Agencies of the Passion (Mark 10:33)
- iii. The Humiliating Details of the Passion (Mark 10:34a)
- iv. The Triumphant Conclusion of the Passion (Mark 10:34b)
Context In Mark
This is the third and most detailed of Jesus' passion predictions in Mark's Gospel (cf. Mark 8:31; 9:31). Each prediction follows a significant moment of revelation about Jesus' identity and is immediately followed by a demonstration of the disciples' profound misunderstanding of His mission. After the first prediction, Peter rebuked Jesus. After the second, the disciples argued about who was the greatest. Here, immediately following this third, starkest prediction, James and John will ask for the seats of honor in His kingdom. Mark masterfully uses this pattern to contrast the Lord's clear-eyed, resolute march to the cross with the disciples' self-centered and earth-bound ambitions. The journey "up to Jerusalem" is the geographical and theological climax of Jesus' ministry. Everything has been leading to this. This section, therefore, sets the stage for the final confrontation in Jerusalem, the Triumphal Entry, the cleansing of the Temple, and the events of Passion Week.
Key Issues
- The Sovereignty of God in Christ's Death
- The Role of Jewish and Gentile Authorities
- The Disciples' Fear and Misunderstanding
- The Centrality of the Resurrection
- The Meaning of "Going Up to Jerusalem"
The Determined Ascent
There is a certain kind of grim resolve that attends the actions of a man who knows what he must do, and who has set his face to do it. This is what we see in the Lord Jesus here. He is not being dragged to Jerusalem. He is not a victim of circumstance, being swept along by historical currents. He is the one making the currents. He is "walking on ahead of them," leading the way to His own execution. This is the gait of a king marching to His coronation, even though that coronation will be accomplished by means of a cross.
The disciples pick up on this. They are "amazed" and "fearful." Why? Because they can sense the shift in the spiritual atmosphere. The tension is ratcheting up. They are leaving the relative safety of Galilee and heading into the viper's nest of Jerusalem, the seat of the very powers who want Jesus dead. Their fear is natural. But their amazement is likely tied to Jesus' demeanor. He is not furtive or hesitant. He is striding out in front, leading the charge. This is not the behavior of a man trying to avoid trouble. This is the behavior of a man intent on provoking a confrontation. They are amazed at His courage, His resolve, His sheer audacity. They are following a man who has set His face like flint toward the place of His own death, and this is both terrifying and awe-inspiring.
Verse by Verse Commentary
32 And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful. And again He took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him:
The geography here is theology. One always goes "up to Jerusalem," not just because of its elevation, but because it is the place of God's throne, the location of the Temple. For Jesus, this ascent is His final journey to the cosmic center, where the great transaction of the ages will be accomplished. Luke tells us that Moses and Elijah spoke with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration about His "exodus, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem" (Luke 9:31). This is that exodus. He is leading a new Israel out of bondage, and He is doing it by going "on ahead of them." He is the forerunner, the pioneer of our salvation.
Their reaction is a mixture of awe and dread. Amazed and fearful. They are beginning to realize that the stakes are higher than they ever imagined. The talk of suffering and death is not metaphorical. So Jesus, in His pastoral patience, pulls the twelve aside. He does not broadcast this to the wider crowd. This is inside information for his chosen officers. He is going to give them the battle plan one more time, hoping that this time, it might begin to sink in.
33 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will deliver Him over to the Gentiles.
"Behold" is a call to pay close attention. Stop looking at the dust on the road and listen to what is actually happening. The title "Son of Man" is Jesus' favored self-designation, drawn from Daniel 7. It is a title of ultimate authority and judgment, which makes its use here deeply ironic. The one who is to judge the world will first submit to a corrupt human judgment. The process is laid out with divine precision. First, betrayal. This will come from within the covenant community. Second, condemnation by the "chief priests and the scribes," the religious authorities of Israel. They, who should have recognized their Messiah, will be the ones to sentence Him. Third, they will "deliver Him over to the Gentiles." The Jewish leadership, in their zeal to maintain their ceremonial purity, will outsource the dirty work of the actual execution to the unclean pagans, the Romans. This is a picture of total human depravity and covenantal failure. The insider betrays, the clergy condemns, and the state executes. Every level of human authority, both religious and secular, Jew and Gentile, will conspire together in this act, and in so doing, they will unwittingly fulfill what God's hand and plan had decided beforehand should happen (Acts 4:27-28).
34 And they will mock Him and spit on Him, and flog Him and kill Him, and three days later He will rise again.”
Jesus does not spare them the ugly details. The Gentiles will not just kill him; they will subject him to the deepest forms of humiliation. Mocking: the King of the Jews will be treated as a clown. Spitting: an act of ultimate contempt. Flogging: the brutal Roman scourging that tore flesh from bone. And finally, they will kill Him. This is the full measure of human hatred and rebellion against God, poured out upon His Son. Jesus is spelling out the cost of our redemption. It is not a clean, sterile, religious transaction. It is bloody, shameful, and agonizing. He is going into the heart of human sin and taking its full force upon Himself.
But the sentence does not end with a period. It ends with a comma and a promise that changes everything. "and three days later He will rise again." This is not an afterthought; it is the whole point. The betrayal, the condemnation, the mocking, the spitting, the flogging, the killing, all of it is the necessary prelude to the resurrection. Death will have its moment, but life will have the last word. The cross is the means, but the resurrection is the vindication and the victory. This is the declaration that God is going to take the very worst that humanity can do and turn it into the very best that He can give. The disciples hear the first part of the verse and are filled with fear. Jesus speaks the last part of the verse as the foundation of all future hope.
Application
This passage forces us to confront the nature of true discipleship. The disciples were following Jesus, but they were fearful and amazed because they wanted a kingdom of glory without a cross. We are often the same. We want the benefits of salvation without the cost of discipleship. We want the crown without the thorns. Jesus makes it clear that the path to life is through death. His death, first and foremost, but also our death to self, sin, and worldly ambition.
Jesus walked ahead of His disciples, determined to go to the cross for them. He walks ahead of us as well, and He calls us to follow. This means we must embrace the fact that the Christian life is a journey "up to Jerusalem." It is a journey into hostile territory, where the world, the flesh, and the devil will mock, spit, and seek to kill our faith. But we follow a leader who has been there before us and has conquered. He did not just predict His resurrection; He accomplished it. Because He did, we can face the "little deaths" of our own Christian walk with courage, knowing that they are but a prelude to our own resurrection in Him.
Finally, we must take to heart the clarity of Jesus' words and the disciples' deafness. How often does God speak plainly in His word about the need for holiness, the reality of judgment, or the cost of following Him, and we, like the disciples, immediately change the subject to our own plans for promotion? We must ask the Spirit to unplug our ears, to take away our fear of the cross, and to fix our eyes on the certainty of the resurrection. For it is only when we grasp the whole story, the brutal death and the glorious rising, that we can truly understand the gospel and faithfully follow the King.