Mark 10:32-34
Jesus Foretells His Death a Third Time
And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”
Although this post will show up on the blog one week after Easter, I am reading it on Easter Saturday. Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem and would soon have His triumphant entry on a donkey. That would, of course, be followed by the scene in the garden and then the temple court and then the king's court and then the hill of Golgotha. Imagine how these disciples must have felt about Jesus' many statements about his future death and "resurrection." The above passage was the third time in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus had predicted his death and resurrection (see Mark 9:9, 30-32). They had to be getting excited about the momentum that was building around Jesus' reputation. They had, on two occasions, even begun to discuss future positions in the Kingdom. They were looking forward to reigning and, yet, Jesus was continuing to talk about suffering and defeat. The disciples could not, or would not, accept or understand this concept of death, burial and resurrection. Would we? Imagine having never, ever thought of the concept of someone dying and then coming back to life, having someone you hoped would lead a revolution, discuss it openly! The Christina message is so unusual and different than any other faith based belief system. No other system even claims of a risen Savior who gave His life for HIs followers. All of them want the followers to give their life for the "god" or "king" or "prophet." But, only in Christianity does the paradigm get turned upside down and the King gives His life for the followers. And, to top it off, defeats death and rises from the dead to become King for eternity. Only in Christianity is this truth taught. Other faiths are man-made and they can't imagine the concept of a resurrection, as even a possibility. Not only did Jesus die and raise from the dead, He predicted it. Even today, if someone came and talked in such a way we would discount him/her immediately. Yet, Jesus came to fulfill all the prophets words about their Savior and those words did include suffering (Isaiah 53). The truth is that Jesus came to die, rise from the dead and provide salvation to use all by defeating death and giving us life, forevermore. That was the point of the resurrection.
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