Mark 10:32-34

Jesus is now heading to Jerusalem. The disciples are astonished, it says. They are lagging behind. Have you ever been part of a group when your leader started to take you in a direction that you thought foolhardy?

But these disciples know they are heading straight into danger. Yet they go anyway. They love and respect this man very much. Their minds tell them this is crazy. Yet they do it. Is it courage? Is it faith?

Jesus tells his disciples the unvarnished truth. We see this in verse 10:32 - "Jesus takes his disciples aside." Remember they are walking. Jesus separates himself a little from the larger group, with his disciples, to tell them something private.

They are perhaps walking on one of those great Roman roads that will still have remains of today. Many highways in Europe still follow those Roman ways.

The disciples know the danger in Jerusalem. That is where the leaders of his opposition live. They are powerful. They mean to kill him.

So Jesus takes them aside openly and tells them again that they are going to Jerusalem. And he is telling them what will happen there. He will be delivered over to thes priests and scribes, condemned and turned over to the gentiles (for execution). Only the Romans can administer crucifixion. And before they do it they will mock and scourge. Jesus tells them this because, awful as it sounds, he is in control of these events. He knows what will happen and he enters into it willingly. How can anyone understand this? Can we imagine doing this for the whole world? The disciples cannot understand. It makes no sense at all.

But Jesus adds, after he is dead, in three days he will rise again. There is nothing recorded about the response of the disciples. Surely there was at least a time silence before anything else. Probably the disciples discussed this amongst themselves as they continued the journey. It gave them a lot to think about.

Here in Mark this is the third time Jesus has told them what will happen to them. So by now they have had time to work on their reaction. Their reaction has been wrung out of them by now.

Jesus leads them resolutely to his death. He knows who he is, the power of God, and what he is called to do. He is obedient to his father in heaven.

The disciples are scared, probably mostly for themselves, and hang back. They wish somehow they can stop all this. But they are not in control, Jesus is. Yet they choose to be with Jesus and take what happens.

This is a great example for us. We do not know what the future will bring. Yet we follow Jesus because this is better than anything else.