Mark 10:32-34: the cross and the resurrection, you can't have one without the other

Whether we are willing to acknowledge it or not, the person of Jesus of Nazareth demands a response from each and every one of us.  Whether we realize it or not, each of us responds to him by the way we live our life.  As we see from these three verses in Mark 10, Jesus’ very presence invokes amazements from some, and fear from others.  Both, in some combination, are probably appropriate responses for each of us.  Fear in the presence of the almighty, amazement at the idea of God becoming flesh.  The author of Hebrews would pick up on this response of fear and amazement, while also addressing Jesus’ prediction in these verses of the suffering he would endure:

“But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.  For it is fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.”          – Hebrews 2:9-10

And again, after recounting all of the heroes of faith we find in the pages of the Bible, the Hebrews’ writer seeks to spur on their own audience to similar feats of discipleship with the following words:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” – Hebrews 12:1-2

The epistle of Hebrews refers to the fact that Jesus’ “endured the cross, despising the shame”, and in so doing it readily acknowledges that Jesus did all of this knowing very well what he was getting himself into.  He did it “for the joy that was set before him.”  In other words, Jesus knew the long-term, permanent victory that would result from his near-term, temporary suffering.  If you wonder exactly how much he knew about what he was to endure, consider his following statements from this passage:

·         He states that the “Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes”, and in Mark 14:53 we see that “they led Jesus to the high priest.  And all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.”

·         He predicted “and they will condemn him to death”, which was proven to be correct in Mark 14:64 where the high priest says “’you have heard his blasphemy.  What is your decision?’  And they all condemned him as deserving of death.” 

·         Jesus knows that these same authorities who condemn him will “deliver him over to the Gentiles.”  It takes place in Mark 15:1, where we read that “as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council.  And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate.”  It’s a sign of the contempt they had for Jesus, that they would turn him over to the occupiers of their land, the oppressors of their people whom they also reviled. 

·         Jesus was well aware that “they will mock him and spit on him.”  The fulfillment is related in Mark 15:19 where we see that the guards “were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him.”   

·         It couldn’t have been easy for him to think about the fact that they would “flog him and kill him.”  We see it happen in Mark 15:24, “and they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take.” 

It’s not all bad news though.  As we saw in Hebrews, the promise of a happier ending is what enabled Jesus to endure, knowingly endure, all of the things just mentioned.  He did it “for the joy set before him.”  That joy is what he refers to at the very end of this passage, when he says that “after three days he will rise.”  It’s a story we are all familiar with, especially on the heels of Easter:

“And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.  And he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed.  You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He has risen; he is not here.  See the place where they laid him.’”
 - Mark 16:5-6

Some would say it’s bad form to write a post about Jesus’ suffering less than a week after Easter.  This is supposed to be the time when the church is joyful, when it revels in the victory that Jesus has won for us over sin and death.  And yet I wonder if the two can be separated so easily.  Can we truly embrace the resurrection without casting an eye back at the cross?  Can we truly endure the pain and suffering we find in this world without at least a hopeful glance into the future, where resurrection awaits?  If we are going to be disciples of Jesus, then we desperately need to understand what he understood, that the cross and the resurrection go together.  Our victory is not in the fact that the cross was abolished, but in the fact that Jesus has ensured for us that the cross never, ever, gets the final word.  Resurrection will always have the final say.