MARKAN MEDITATIONS

Meditations in the Gospel of St.Mark

St.Mark 10:32-34

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THE NIV gives titles to all the sections of a Gospel or Epistle, etc. These are usually quite helpful, but must never be thought of as part of the inspired text. This is important with regard to the title for this section, which to my mind seems to suggest that Jesus had come to expect that the Jewish authorities would kill him because of the increase of their enmity against him. This is not true. Jesus is not predicting his death, but in fact explaining what was God's purpose in his coming into the world. Jesus always knew he had come into the world to suffer a penal death. This was the wondrous loving purpose of God so that we might be ransomed from the consequences of our sins. This is one of the occasions Jesus sought to prepare the disciples for this awful and awesome event.

There is nothing that so powerfully attests the divine nature and work of Jesus than this fact of his coming to die. No human agency could have ever imagined such an action as for the Saviour and King to save his people by his death. This can be nothing less than the wisdom and power of God.

How the disciples needed to be prepared. The idea of a suffering Saviour was totally alien to them. They could not accept a suffering and dying Saviour. This is a fact that it takes a revolution in the human mind and heart to be able to accept and understand that it is by dying for us that Jesus saves us.

What we need to understand is that Jesus saves first and foremost in a Godward direction. We need to be reconciled to God. We need to be saved from the wrath of God because of our sins. We need to be brought near to God, and to become his dear children. There is no way that this can happen unless the problem of our sins has been dealt with effectively. Nothing but the complete satisfaction paid to the law and God's justice will suffice. Only Jesus could make complete and perfect satisfaction for our sins. He could do it because he was both God and man. His deity gave his work infinite value. His humanity meant that he could represent and be the substitute of sinful human beings. He was the only man who could live a perfectly holy life, and he could do this on the behalf of others because as God he had no obligation to keep the law, for he was perfectly holy already. He alone could suffer the penalty exacted against sin by divine justice, and meet it in full on behalf of his people. So Jesus was sent in the wisdom of God to live and die for us.

The Apostle Peter tells us concerning Jesus in his sermon in Acts 2 and verse 23 "This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge." Christ's death was an eternal purpose of God, and thus history fulfilled the purpose of God. Because the penal death of Jesus was the set purpose of God, all the events leading up to Christ's death were in the determined plan and counsel of God. This does not mean that those who crucified Jesus were not culpable and blame worthy. Even though they were fulfilling the purpose of God, they were still acting according to their own will and sinful desires. No one can escape responsibility for their actions by saying that they were predetermined by God. God does not cause anyone to sin. We sin because of our own sinful desires, even though our actions may be ultimately fulfilling the will of God. This is the source of our assurance and victory when we think of the power and malice of the evil one. Satan acts in evil to oppose and harm God, but he can't win because in the end all he does turns out to further the wonderful purpose of good in God.

Thus Jesus always knew he came to die. He always declared that he had come to give his life a ransom for many. The attitude of hate from the Jewish authorities was not the cause of Jesus' death, so Jesus was not deducing his death from their hate and then predicting it. Rather Jesus here was seeking to prepare his disciple for the certain death he had to die in the plan of God to redeem the world from their sin.

The amazing wisdom and love of God is seen in the death of Jesus. God's love always reached out to sinners, and he always had in mind to save. His wisdom is in this death of his Son because it answers the problem of how God could uphold his justice and law, and still pardon sinners. His love is seen that he gave his dearest to death and hell, his very self, so that sinners may not only be pardoned, but also may be brought into the arms of his love as his children.

The victory of this work of Jesus is plainly declared here. There was never any doubt that Jesus would make complete and perfect atonement for the sins of the world. This certainty is seen here in verse 34 where Jesus speaks of the certainty of his resurrection. The resurrection was never in doubt. So Christ's victory over death, the penalty for sin, was never in doubt. Jesus declared to his disciples that his death was not forever. The resurrection of Jesus is the declaration by God the Father, that Jesus had completed his atoning work and finished it. If he had not completed exhausting the punishment Jesus would have had to remain in the tomb, and death would have had the victory. Jesus rose from the dead, and so in him by faith we have overcome death, as our sins have been atoned for by Christ's death for us.

There is one further thought which is useful to note. We read in verse 32 that the disciples were afraid when they heard of Christ's death. If the Jews were so against their master then this same hate would be likely to rub off on those who were the friends of Jesus. This is always a truth about vital Christianity. Jesus warns his disciples of it in John 15:18ff. The world hates Christ. By the world we understand the world as it is ruled and influenced by Satan. Those who are disciples of Jesus will also come under the same hate and persecution. The disciples here saw that if the life of Jesus was threatened then the likelihood was that their lives could be threatened too. This hate of the world which Christians have to take up and carry in this life. Some suffer from it more than others, but all who are faithful and active for Christ will know some persecution. We are fortunate in England that this hate of the world is muted.