Lange Commentary - Mark 10:32

Lange Commentary - Mark 10:32 - 10:34

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Lange Commentary - Mark 10:32 - 10:34

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FOURTH SECTION

THE ASSEMBLING OF THE DISCIPLES ON THE WAY TO THE CROSS

Mar_10:32-34

(Parallels: Mat_20:17-19; Luk_18:31-34; Joh_11:53-57.)

³² And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. And he took again³³ the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him, Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and 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; ³⁴And 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.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

See on the parallels of Matthew and Luke. Comp. also the observations in the Introduction to Mark.—Our Evangelist here brings into clear prominence a critical period in the history of our Lord, concerning which John has given us the most exact account. For there can be no doubt that the narrative has to do with the last retreat of the Redeemer into the town and desert of Ephraim. where He prepared Himself, and collected His disciples for the last journey to Jerusalem (see Joh_11:53 ; Leben Jesu, ii. 2). We hear their tone of mind expressed on the occasion of the departure of Jesus from Peræa in order to raise Lazarus. In the spring of the year 783 (p. u. c), Jesus went from Peræa to Bethany, and raised Lazarus from the, dead; He then, because the Sanhedrim had laid Him under excommunication, and decreed that He should die, retreated back into the desert of Ephraim. That desert, eastwards from Bethel, extends towards the desert of Quarantania, between Jerusalem and Jericho. (See for particulars, Robinson, ii. 353.) The last abode of Jesus in the wilderness, His last retreat in this world, forms a counterpart and contrast to His abode in the wilderness after His baptism. In the former, it was necessary for Him to decide on going amongst the people as it were without a name, in order that He might avoid the Messiahship, as it had become an idea grossly perverted into a mere watchword of deception; but now He must decide to yield Himself up to the people, according to the true and purified idea of the Messiah, which He had in the whole tenor of His holy life re-established amongst them. This was the great task that He now contemplated; and Matthew himself points to it also. He took His disciples êáô ̓ ἰäßáí ἐí ôø ͂ äòø ͂ ,and gave them the last and most express preannouncement of His passion. Luke gives the faintest record of the crisis: ðáñáëáâὼí — ἰäïὺ , ἀíáâáßíïìåí . But Mark describes, first, the great confusion and terror with which the disciples regarded the final catastrophe, and how they followed their Master not without much fear. This expression, ἀêïëïõèïῦíôåò ἐöïâïῦíôï , is stronger, in consequence of the seeming inversion of the participle and the Past tense. It indicates a wavering, and a danger of being scattered abroad, which Jesus prevented by the ðáñáëáâὼí ðÜëéí . We therefore understand it thus, that this morbid depression, which the Lord contended against, was followed by a new and more mighty impulse of excitement, that found its expression in the immediately following appeal of the two sons of Zebedee. Mark is most copious in the prediction of the passion, and presents it to us in simple active propositions in the Future. Matthew lays the main stress on Jesus’ being delivered over to the Gentiles: He is delivered up, betrayed to mockery, to scourging, and to crucifixion. Luke makes Christ’s person the central point, and records what He would suffer and encounter. Mark depicts the double betrayal in its vividly apprehended consequences; and the word of Matthew respecting the crucifixion he divides into two parts: they will spit upon Him, and they will kill Him. Luke gives prominence, moreover, to the fact, that Jesus declared at the beginning that the Scriptures must be fulfilled; and lays stress at the end on the circumstance, that the disciples could not and would not understand His prediction.

Mar_10:32. And as they followed, they were afraid.—Meyer prefers the reading, ïἱ äὲ ἀêïë . ἐöïâïῦíôï , which would give this meaning: The greater number of the disciples held back in astonishment and confusion; those who followed Jesus, who advanced before them, followed Him only with great fear. We agree with Meyer so far as this, that the crisis was a very special one; but his reading makes it too emphatic. It is a reading not sufficiently supported; and, moreover, we have no sign in John that at that time many of the disciples left the Lord. If any are disposed to think that about this time the thought of betraying the Lord entered the soul of Judas as a germ, yet it must be remembered that there was no development of it until the subsequent feast in Bethany, and that it was not a fixed decision until the Passover. An express contrast between those who now left the Lord, and those who followed Him in fear, would have been expressed in stronger terms: as, for instance, at that earlier crisis, after the declaration of Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum, Joh_6:66. The fact that the sentence of death was now uttered against our Lord (Joh_11:45), might indeed make some of those who reverenced Jesus waver and apostatize. But how decidedly His genuine disciples still put faith in Him and His cause, is proved by the subsequent palm-entry into Jerusalem, as well as by the circumstance, which Luke prominently mentions, that the disciples did not thoroughly lay to heart and believe the announcement which Jesus had made concerning His own death.—And He took again the Twelve.—See John’s statement, Joh_11:7 seq., and John 10:54.—And began.—The expression intimates that a series of new and decisive explanations took place (comp. Mar_8:31; Mar_9:22). These consisted in, 1. The decision of the time. He had first declared that He must suffer death generally ( ὅôé äåῖ ), and that it was near at hand ( ìÝëëåé in Matthew and Luke; in Mark expressed by the Present ðáñáäßäïôáé ): He now declares more expressly that all this would take place at the coming journey to the feast ( ἀíáâáßíïìåí , etc., êáὶ ä õἱüò ). 2. In the more precise statement of the form of suffering: a. the being rejected generally (Mar_8:31); b. the betrayal, and the delivering up by the Jews to the Gentiles (Mar_9:12; Mar_9:31); c. the great double betrayal,—the first betrayal, or the delivering up to the high priests, coming in our passage into marked prominence. 3. In the more precise definition of the critical elements of the passion, especially His execution by the hands of the Gentiles, Matthew expressly mentions the crucifixion, while in Mark and Luke it is plainly hinted at. Compare the Critical Notes on the parallel place in Matthew.

Mar_10:34. And they shall mock Him.—The text does not require us, with Meyer, to limit this verb and that which follows to the Gentiles. Why should they be omitted who were the original movers of the whole, and who gave it their continual aid? Compare Matthew and Luke.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. See on the parallel of Matthew.

2. Here again, as in many other passages, Mark goes beyond the other Synoptists, and decidedly approximates to John; and the account of the last Evangelist concerning the final abode of Jesus in the wilderness of Ephraim is made more plain by the circumstances given here by Mark. The amazement and hesitation of the Lord’s disciples was occasioned especially by His heroic and decisive bearing as He went before them. They saw in His majestic, resolute, solemn, and fixed deportment, that a most important crisis was impending. Since the astonishment and wavering of His disciples precedes the definite prediction of Christ concerning His now approaching passion and death, it can only refer to the obscure and anxious foreboding with which the thought of something unknown, but critical and decisive and fearful, filled their minds (De Wette). For all this they were as yet but little prepared; hence the Lord collected them together, and strengthened them in solitude. He foretold to them His whole passion, so far as He could do so (that is, without a premature disclosure of the traitor, who had not yet decided on his treachery); He repeated to them all the comforting promises of His resurrection, and thus prepared them for all, while waiting for the Galilæan-Peræan festival companies.

3. The abode of Jesus in the wilderness of Ephraim, in its connection with His abode in the wilderness of Quarantania, and in its contrast with that abode.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See on Matthew.—Jesus as going before His disciples in the way of sufferings: 1. His heroic spirit; 2. their despondency; 3. their invigoration in His strength.—Follow Me, saith Christ our Leader and Champion.—Jesus, go before us!—Christ, the Captain of our salvation, Heb_2:10.—The Lord in the midst of His disciples, before the coming of the hours (or days) of great and solemn crisis and decision.—The shuddering presentiment of the disciples, contemplating the unknown future; excited by, 1. beholding the holy and joyful solemnity of the Lord; 2. the journey to Jerusalem; 3. the consideration of the people’s disposition; 4. the consideration of their own frame of mind.—How the Lord seeks to deliver the disciples from an indefinite fear, by setting before them the clear idea of a fearful, but salutary and saving, certainty.—The trembling and wavering discipleship.—We must not tremble and be amazed in the uncertainty of the way of suffering, but be bold and dare in the certainty of it.—Morbid feelings must become cheerful; and feebleness must be invigorated by the thought of the glorious and final end.—The Lord’s assembly in solitude for His great and decisive encounter with the world. (See running title.)—The importance of stillness for the kingdom of God: 1. Into stillness; 2. in stillness; 3. out of stillness.—How the Lord collects His disciples for the conflict of suffering: 1. Every one to Him (with Christ); 2. every one into himself (in the inner life); 3. every one singly (to his companions).—The source of the suffering of Christ; or, the enmity of the world against Him.—The ever recurring cry from heaven, in the prospect of all Christ’s sufferings and His people’s: and [the cry] on the third day.—The Lord deals with His disciples in the spirit of heavenly simplicity and fidelity.—The plain disparity between the temper of the disciples and the feeling of our Lord: 1. Its meaning; 2. its signs; 3. itself a sign of the betrayal, the denial, and the forsaking Him in the night of His passion.

Starke:—Conversations in travelling should further us in the heavenly pilgrimage.—All the steps which are taken in suffering with Christ, are steps taken to glory, 2Th_3:5; 1Pe_4:1; Heb_12:2; Heb_12:8.—We should often remind ourselves of the cross.—Christ summons us to fellowship with Him, as often as we hear of His sufferings and death.—We should be of good heart (Luk_24:26), remembering in our sufferings the resurrection, and expecting our redemption in patient hope.—Lisco:—They were amazed and affrighted at the way which Jesus so boldly took into the very presence and power of His enemies.—Braune:—On account of their Master, they were amazed; for themselves, they feared.—Jesus going before them attracted them to follow.—A secret presentiment and longing of the spirit points to fellowship with Christ upon the cross; but the flesh grievously recoils.—We must train ourselves to endure sufferings.—Gossner:—All nature trembles when God leads man on the way of the cross.—Bauer:—The Master going before them, what remained but that they should follow?

Footnotes:

Mar_10:32.—Meyer adopts the reading ïἱ äὲ ἀêïëïèïῦíôåò , after B. and others. So Ewald. Cod. C. reads êáὶ ïὶ , which dentifies those “following” fas the disciples.

Mar_10:34 .—The spitting connected with the mocking in B., C., L., Ä ., [Lachamann, Tischendorf,] may be explained by exegetical motives. B., C., L., Ä . read ìåôὰ ôñåῖò ἡìÝñáò , Lachmann, Tischendorf. Probably this was introduced to conform it with Mar_8:31; Mar_9:31.