Mark 10:32-34 – Great resoluteness

In these verses, we come to the third time that he Lord talked about the divine drama of His suffering and death. The first is found in Mark 8:31 and the second 9:31. Notice on all three occasions, the Lord also talked about the certainty of His resurrection. The drama of the passion of Christ is not complete without His resurrection.

So we read in verses 32-34 that “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, saying, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him, and three days later He will rise again.”

On this third occasion, Mark tells us that Jesus and His disciples were now on the road heading for Jerusalem and winding down to this historic event. He was walking ahead of the pack. We are told particularly that it was a very tense moment. Here we find Jesus walking alone, ahead, calm and composed, resolute and determined. He was followed by the disciples who were amazed and some-what bewildered. Then there was the crowd that followed. They were said to be fearful and afraid.

Why were the disciples amazed and the crowd afraid? Undoubtedly it was the attitude and the manner Jesus approached the upcoming event. Luke in His gospel said that the Lord “set His face like a flint” toward Jerusalem. There was a sense of all impending doom, a foreboding of a sinister crisis. So there was great tension in the air.

Taking the 12 disciples aside, Jesus told them explicitly and with increasing details how he would suffer and die but also would rise again. He knew He would be delivered into the hands of the chief priests and the scribes who would eventually hand Him to the Gentiles. He told them also that the enemies would mock, spit and scourge and finally kill Him.  And it was Luke who revealed that Jesus knew all these from the Scriptures. So we find the Lord saying in Luke 18:31, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.”  It shows us that the Lord was well aware of the prediction made about Him in both the prophetical and poetical books, such as Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22.

Our Lord faced His final hour with resoluteness and determination. Haven’t we wondered how could one, who is fully apprised of the magnitude of His impending suffering yet faced it so gallantly? What was the secret to His composure and great resoluteness? It must surely be His love for the Father and His commitment to fulfill the will of the One who had sent Him. He left us an example to follow - to love the Father and be committed to fulfill His will, easy or tough!