6. THE THIRD OF DEATH Mark 10:32-34 (Matthew 20:17-19; Luke 8:31-34) 32 And they were on the way, going up to Jerusalem;--Jesus is now on his last journey to Jerusalem. He was going there to die for the sins of the world. and Jesus was going before them: and they were amazed;--He was in advance of and leading his disciples, and they were amazed that he would go to the seat of his bitterest foes, when the Jews had sought to stone him (John 11:8), and the priests and Pharisees were counseling to put him to death. and they that followed were afraid.--Both for him and themselves. Mark does not give the cause of these feelings, but John incidentally does. Since leaving Galilee Jesus had already been to Jerusalem on a visit not recorded by Mark (John 7:1-10; John 10:22), and had encountered such opposition there that he retired beyond the Jordan. From this retirement he had been recalled by the sickness and death of Lazarus, and as he started in obedience to this call, the disciples had explained, "Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?" Thomas said "Let us also go, that we may die with him." (John 11:8; John 11:16.) And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them the things that were to happen unto him,--The time was drawing near when the great tragedy, upon which the foundation of the church depended, should occur and he sought to impress the minds of his disciples with these things. He wished to have them prepared for it when it came. 33 saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him unto the Gentiles:--Because they had no authority to inflict capital punishment, they would deliver him to those who have --the Roman authority. 34 and they shall mock him, and shall spit upon him, and shall scourge him, and shall kill him;--As explicit as this announcement was, "they understood none of these things; and this saying was hid from them, and they perceived not the things that were said." (Luke 18:34.) and after three days he shall rise again.--For the fulfillment of this see Matthew 28. Here, as on the two former announcements of his death, he foretells his resurrection. This was a gleam of light which shone up beyond the intervening darkness. Without his resurrection, his death would have been in vain. Jesus foretold for the third time (Matt. 16:21; 17:22; 30:17) what was coming, so that his disciples would not be taken unawares and be overwhelmed in a sudden storm of temptations. But Jesus gives them a vision of hope and faith, by assuring them that death was not the end. He would not perish, but rise again to a new and greater life.