Mark 10
CHAPTER 10
Mark 10:1-12 . FINAL DEPARTURE FROM GALILEE--DIVORCE. ( = Matthew 19:1-12 Luke 9:51 ).
Mark 10:13-19 . LITTLE CHILDREN BROUGHT TO CHRIST. ( = Matthew 19:13-15 Luke 18:15-17 ).
Mark 10:17-31 . THE RICH YOUNG RULER. ( = Matthew 19:16-30 Luke 18:18-30 ).
Mark 10:32-45 . THIRD EXPLICIT AND STILL FULLER ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS APPROACHING SUFFERINGS, DEATH, AND RESURRECTION--THE AMBITIOUS REQUEST OF JAMES AND JOHN, AND THE REPLY. ( = Matthew 20:17-28 Luke 18:31-34 ).
Third Announcement of His approaching Sufferings, Death, and Resurrection ( Mark 10:32-34 ).
32. And they were in the way--on the road.
going up to Jerusalem--in Perea, and probably somewhere between Ephraim and Jericho, on the farther side of the Jordan, and to the northeast of Jerusalem.
and Jesus went before them--as GROTIUS says, in the style of an intrepid Leader.
and they were amazed--or "struck with astonishment" at His courage in advancing to certain death.
and as they followed, they were afraid--for their own safety. These artless, lifelike touches--not only from an eye-witness, but one whom the noble carriage of the Master struck with wonder and awe--are peculiar to Mark, and give the second Gospel a charm all its own; making us feel as if we ourselves were in the midst of the scenes it describes. Well might the poet exclaim:
| "The Saviour, what a noble flame Was kindled in His breast, When, hasting to Jerusalem, He march'd before the rest!" COWPER |
And he took again the twelve--referring to His previous announcements on this sad subject.
and began to tell them what things should happen unto him--"were going to befall Him." The word expresses something already begun but not brought to a head, rather than something wholly future.
33. Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem--for the last time, and--"all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished" ( Luke 18:31 ).
the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles--This is the first express statement that the Gentiles would combine with the Jews in His death; the two grand divisions of the human race for whom He died thus taking part in crucifying the Lord of Glory, as WEBSTER and WILKINSON observe.
34. And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again--Singularly explicit as this announcement was, Luke ( Luke 18:34 ) says "they understood none of these things; and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken." The meaning of the words they could be at no loss to understand, but their import in relation to His Messianic kingdom they could not penetrate; the whole prediction being right in the teeth of their preconceived notions. That they should have clung so tenaciously to the popular notion of an "unsuffering" Messiah, may surprise us; but it gives inexpressible weight to their after-testimony to a suffering and dying Saviour.
Ambitious Request of James and John--The Reply ( Mark 10:35-45 ).