We’re Marching to Zion and It Won’t Be Pretty: Daily Thoughts from Mark (Mark 10:32-34)

I have often wondered how I would respond if put in a situation of severe persecution, where perhaps I was told to reject Christ or die.  Would I fold or would I bravely trust my God?  Many middle eastern believers had to face that very prospect when ISIS launched, and for a while succeeded at, their attempt to restore the caliphate.

Jesus and his disciples are facing the same thing.  And Jesus is deliberately marching toward his own death.  He has the promise that he will be resurrected after, but first, of course, he has to die.

And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.” (Mark 10:32-34, ESV)

Jesus had to explain to his followers over and over what was facing him.  They had a hard time conceiving of the Messiah being killed by his own people.  And the idea of resurrection seemed too unbelievable.

What was even more amazing and fearful to them was that Jesus was deliberately going to the place where he predicted this was going to happen, to Jerusalem, where they knew there was extreme hostility toward their master.

We see Paul doing the same thing in Acts despite several prophetic warnings that bondage awaits him (Acts 21).  We don’t always need to march directly into harm’s way.  There were times when Jesus sought to avoid persecution (John 7), as did Paul and others (Acts 17,19).  But when they had a direct leading from God to go toward persecution they obeyed.

We are certain of heaven and the resurrection should we pay the ultimate price for our faith.  All our instincts for personal preservation will tell us to move away from such a fate.  Despite the promise of eternal life the prospect of temporal suffering is still frightening.  But God may lead us in this direction, or it may happen to us despite our best efforts to avoid it.  It must be settled in our hearts that Jesus is the only way and that following him may result in his same fate.