In 10:32 Mark draws our attention to the moment when they (Jesus and the disciples) were going to (the feast in) Jerusalem. The wording is circuitous: “And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them.” The breadth of the description suggests the importance of this voyage. It is notable that Jesus walks ahead. The others do not walk that fast. They are amazed that the Master is so free and unrestrained. They themselves, the followers, are afraid of what can happen in this town of hostile and “testing” Pharisees (see 7:1; 8:11; 8:34-38; 10:2), and their undefined fear is also fed by the instruction about suffering that they do not understand (9:32). Fearful followers are upset with their fearless leader.

The end of verse 32, depending on the reading chosen, must be translated as follows: “And they were amazed (for the disciples were afraid)” or “And they were amazed and they followed in fear” (resp. hoi de and kai).

Jesus takes the twelve now with him again. This means that he no longer goes ahead alone, but lets them join him. The word “again” cannot refer to an earlier announcement of suffering that would have been given to the twelve only. It is now for the first time that only the twelve from the circle of disciples hear an announcement of suffering. The word “again” (only with Mark, who is also the only one who goes into detail about Jesus’ walking ahead of the twelve) must therefore refer to his no longer walking ahead alone. Jesus again lets his disciples walk “in step” with the Messiah, on the way to his suffering. Not all the disciples must now be around him, only the twelve. The others follow at some distance.

Jesus is going to tell them what will happen to him (namely, in Jerusalem). By and large what follows is not new. The words to the twelve indicate, however, that what was said earlier will indeed happen; the time has now come. This becomes even clearer because Jesus is speaking in more detail about what lies ahead. The twelve have a special position within the group of followers. The Saviour helps them to soon support others when the time comes because they have received insight beforehand into details that no one else knows, so that they should be better able than anyone else to recognize without fear everything as the very plan of Jesus himself (because of their little faith the twelve did not until after Easter come to this comparing of what had been said and what happened; cf. John 18:31).

In 10:33 an indication of time is added to the earlier prediction that the Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men (9:31): “See, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will [now] be delivered”; the “being delivered” is also made concrete as consisting of two consecutive happenings (1. delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; 2. delivered to the Gentiles): he will suffer a twofold betrayal. The earlier announcement of his coming death (8:31; 9:31) is now shown to be a condemnation by the Sanhedrin and an execution by the Gentiles. A study of the course of events in the process against Jesus makes clear how the hinges of the process are here prophetically announced. And this happens in spite of the fact that a handing over to the Gentiles certainly was not according to the normal expectations. The Jews were able and allowed to condemn and kill Jesus (although not on the day of their choice). However, he knew before the Jews that they would not do it in this way.

In 10:34 there is a more complete picture of Jesus’ “suffering many things” as announced earlier (8:31). It is difficult to decide whether this verse deals with what the Gentiles will do or whether it speaks in more general terms about what will happen to Jesus (be it from the side of the Jews, the Gentiles, or both). The mocking takes place before Pilate (15:20), but also by the chief priests and scribes at the cross (15:31). The flogging happens before Pilate (John 19:1); the spitting both after the nightly meeting of the Sanhedrin (14:65) and before Pilate (15:19). The killing is an action not only of the Roman soldiers who crucify him, but also an event resulting from the activity of the Sanhedrin — it is not for nothing that Pilate gives Jesus once again over to the Jews (15:15)! Again, Jesus makes clear that his suffering and death are not an unavoidable fate but a task and mandate. After the completion of his work of suffering he will rise on the third day. About this he gives no details: he will be there himself again!

McKinnis¹ sees behind 10:33-34 an old six-line hymn about the suffering of the Christ. This eucharistic hymn would have led Mark in modelling a history of the suffering. Haenchen’s² suggestion is less fantastic, yet he calls this third announcement of Jesus’ suffering unhistorical, because the attitude of the disciples at the arrest and interrogation becomes incomprehensible if they had heard about it beforehand in so much detail. Here the power of unbelief remains unrestrained. How many people are there also today who ignore in unbelief much that in Scripture has been clearly foretold? The fact that all three evangelists mention the three announcements with a great deal of agreement cannot be explained if later on they were each adding (unhistorical) details to their story. It in fact shows how deeply these three announcements penetrated the disciples’ consciousness. And (though at first they ignored them) after Easter their hearts were opened, and then the memory speaks accurately and in the affirmative.