Today, we return to our study of Mark 10 where the Lord Jesus was leaving Galilee and leading His disciples toward Jerusalem where He would eventually be led to His crucifixion. Crucifixion, as may already know, was a method of capital punishment popularized by the Romans in which their victim was nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation.
In v.32 of today's passage we read, "They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him."
The disciples were "astonished," and, the others who were following them were "afraid." They held these dispositions because according to Luke's account, the Lord Jesus had "set his face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem" to face eventual death. The difference between the disposition of the disciples and the others was due to the fact that the others had less information than the disciples had, and, they did not understand what the disciples understood, so they were afraid. The word "afraid" refers to a kind of fear that is a baffling kind of fear. They were struggling with more confusion because they lacked understanding. Fear grows in the context where we lack information.
In 1 John 4:15-18 we read, "15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."
The pain and the frustrations of this life are not from God but from the one who rebelled against God. But, God has been known to use our pains and frustrations to mature our understanding of His committal love He has for us which frees us from our fears. And, when we have come to know the love of God, we are positioned to see things differently. The Apostle John tells us that we are completed by this mature grown up kind of love that only comes from God.
The word "complete" means lacking nothing or mature. And, the more we grow in our understanding of God's love for us, we will be less and less controlled by fear. Love is more cerebral than it is emotional. Love is a choice. Shakespeare once said, "Love is not love which alters when it alterations finds." That's a great quote which underscores that true love endures. True love is the type of love that makes someone stick with a person through thick and thin. This is the type of love that God has for us.
Even though the disciples and those following the Lord and His disciples were trained in Judaism, they lacked the ability to connect an accurate interpretation of Scripture with the realities of their lives. Under the influence of the religious leaders of Israel at that time and their bizarre understanding of God, this crowd did not really have a good understanding of God and His ways. This is why discipleship is so important.
It was almost Passover time, and, there were lots of pilgrims from around Israel going up on all the roads from all the villages to worship in Jerusalem. Long ago God had given the Jewish people three mandatory pilgrimage feasts: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. It was Passover, and since there were so many people, the Lord took His disciples aside from the crowd in order to give them an insiders understanding of the things that would go down in Jerusalem once they arrived there.
In v.33-34 of today's passage we read, "33 'We are going up to Jerusalem,' he said, 'and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.'"
Here, the Lord Jesus added three new details to the information He had already given the disciples: that they would mock Him, spit on Him, and flog Him. And then He reiterated "three days later he would rise." This statement, like the previous two times He had told them this went right over their heads of the disciples. The disciples did not expect the crucifixion, so, this idea about His resurrection made absolutely no sense to them.
The fact that the Lord Jesus had now told His disciple these details three times, including the way they would kill Him by crucifixion, proved this was a planned event. According to Revelation 13 the Lord Jesus was "the Lamb slain before the foundations of the earth." The Lord Jesus was not a victim of anything. His death was a planned event long before anything was created. The first words in the Gospels that ever came out of the Lord Jesus' mouth were, "I must be about my Father’s business." The last words ever to come out of His mouth before His death, "It is finished." He knew exactly why He came to this earth, and, He did it to provide for you and me and anyone who would believe in Him deliverance from the domain of darkness and to be transferred into the light of His incredible love.
