Sermon Synopsis
This sermon walks through Mark 10:32–52, showing Jesus on the road to Jerusalem as the suffering Son of Man who fully knows and predicts His own death and resurrection. In His suffering, we see disloyalty, rejection, injustice, ridicule, pain, and execution—yet all under God’s sovereign control and culminating in hope through the resurrection. The request of James and John exposes our tendency toward self-centered ambitions, while Jesus redefines greatness as humble, self-giving service and calls us to submit fully to God’s will. Finally, the healing of blind Bartimaeus highlights persistent faith, the need to cast off whatever holds us back, and the courage to follow Christ despite opposition. Together, these three scenes call us to trust God in suffering, serve others in humility, and pursue Jesus with bold, resilient faith.
Please note: This transcript is provided as close to verbatim record of the sermon.
Opening Prayer
Father in heaven, we give thanks for this time we can come before You.
We give thanks for the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus as the atonement of sin for all.
We ask for the leading of the Holy Spirit as we glean truths from Your word, praying always for wisdom and guidance as we open Your word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction: The Gospel of Mark and the Way of the Cross
Today I will speak about Mark.
The Gospel of Mark is a fast-paced gospel, and it’s written by John Mark. It is the first gospel to be written, between AD 60 and 70. And you’ll notice that as you read it, it’s expansive and rapid in its coverage. One moment Jesus is here, and the next moment He’s performing a miracle elsewhere.
But the overarching theme in Mark is where Jesus is headed to, which is the cross. The Gospel of Mark portrays Christ as a suffering servant who came and gave His life as an atonement. It is a practical gospel, more about action and deed than theory.
Likewise, it is my hope that studying Mark, we are not just hearers of the word but doers of the word of God.
Today’s passage is broadly divided into three parts:
Reading from verse 32:
“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.”
Jerusalem is the end destination on Christ’s journey of sacrifice. And on this journey, Jesus was leading the way.
While they were amazed at His teachings and miracles and His lordship, they were also aware that the religious leaders in Jerusalem were bent on His death.
But perhaps there is another lesson to be gleaned in following Christ. Following the Lord is likewise not just an acknowledgement of His power, but also a healthy fear — a profound respect and awe for God’s power, holiness, and righteous judgment.
As Proverbs 9:10 reads, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It is only when we balance this fear with awe that we can be balanced on the path with God.
Continuing on in verse 32:
“And taking the Twelve again, He began to tell them what was to happen to Him.”
Now, we see this is what Jesus said to His disciples on the road to Jerusalem. Jesus knew the disciples were about to face things that would leave them afraid and confused. But because He cared so much for them, He wanted to prepare them as best as possible for what was coming.
So what does Jesus do? First, He takes the twelve disciples aside. He has a conversation that’s for them, just for them, despite the crowds following.
Even if they didn’t fully grasp the importance at that moment—mind you, this was not the first nor the second, but actually the third time in Mark up to this point that Jesus was describing His imminent death—yet we see in Luke 18:34 that the disciples understood very little, if not nothing, of these things at that time.
We see in verse 33:
“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.”
Jesus began describing everything that was going to happen to Him. He talked about His betrayal, arrest, trials, crucifixion, and death. And He knew that they would struggle to cope with all of this. But by giving them this warning, Jesus made sure that when these terrible things happened, the disciples would remember: none of this was out of God’s control.
Everything was unfolding exactly as Jesus had said and predicted.
And this lesson isn’t just for the disciples. It is also true for us today. There will be times in our lives when Jesus pulls us aside—maybe through a verse someone has read, something heard in a podcast, or a wise word from a friend. When God catches our attention like that, we have to be aware: He’s preparing us for what’s ahead.
So let’s listen when He speaks, trusting that even in the hardest of times, God is in control and He is with us.
Jesus describes Himself here as “Son of Man.” This is a messianic title from Daniel 7:13–14, emphasizing His incarnation. And this is Jesus’ most common description of Himself, used about 81 times in the gospels.
The nature of His suffering as a man may be examined in six categories in this passage:
In verse 33, Jesus said He would be “delivered,” and some translations use the word betrayed. That betrayal and delivery would happen at the hand of Judas. Judas would betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver and would identify Jesus to His captors with a kiss on the cheek.
He was rejected by religious leaders, including priests and teachers of the religious law, also known as scribes, who were experts in the Old Testament. Despite their knowledge and allegedly key role in recognizing the coming Messiah, they did not recognize Jesus when He arrived and rejected Him.
He was also rejected by the general public. As Jesus stood before Pilate and the crowd of people, they yelled out, “Crucify Him!” (Matthew 27:22).
He was rejected by His own disciples. Even the men closest to Him temporarily abandoned Him. We are told that after Jesus was arrested, “all the disciples left Him and fled” (Matthew 26:56).
And in Matthew 27:46, Jesus expressed the feeling of abandonment while on the cross, saying, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Jesus took on the sins of humanity and experienced separation from God as part of atonement. Jesus exchanging sin for righteousness is key to our acceptance by God for believers.
After a series of illegal, unjust, and in a way mock trials, the religious leaders would sentence Him to die and hand Him over to the Romans.
After another series of trials before Roman rulers Pilate and Herod, Jesus—despite being repeatedly declared not guilty by them—would still be sentenced to death. The holy, just, and righteous Son of God was falsely accused of sin, treason, insurrection, and blasphemy.
These trials were clear demonstrations of injustice at every point. For example, the trial by Annas and Caiaphas had no proper witnesses, and both Pilate and Herod found no fault in Jesus at their trials but still upheld the death sentence.
In verse 34, Jesus said they would “mock Him and spit on Him.” Jesus, who was fully man and also fully God, was mocked, mistreated, and spat upon by those holding Him in custody during the trials. The ridicule continued even while He was on the cross.
Luke tells us the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.” The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.” Even one of those crucified alongside Him was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us.”
The ridicule and abuse that He faced throughout His ministry just intensified at His death.
In verse 34, Jesus states that people would flog Him with a whip. Jesus was beaten multiple times while in custody. Shortly before crucifixion, the Romans would brutally flog Him with a whip. This whip had multiple leather strips, and at the end of each one was broken glass, bone, rock, or metal. This allowed the whip to grab hold of the skin and muscle on the back of the person and either rip it off or tear it open.
These floggings were so severe that many died from them, and their purpose in crucifixion was actually to ensure that the crucified did not last too long on the cross.
Jesus would be executed in the most horribly cruel manner imaginable in that day. Crucifixion involved multiple layers of pain and discomfort. The person crucified could expect to experience dizziness, exhaustion, thirst, and pain. The unnatural position on the cross made every movement painful, and it was difficult even to take a breath. In fact, the main mechanism of death by crucifixion is thought to be a slow asphyxiation, or suffocation.
Crucifixion was designed to be an agonizing and humiliating way to die.
Yet the suffering of Christ produces hope. Jesus concludes this summary of what was about to happen to Him by saying, “After three days He will rise again.”
It is worth noting that every time Jesus predicted His death—in Mark 8:31 and Mark 9:30–31, as well as in this passage—He always ended by stating that He would rise three days later.
Despite all the suffering and taking on the sin of the world, Jesus demonstrated His authority, His power, and His lordship by rising again on the third day. He died exactly how He said He would, and He rose exactly how He said He would.
So what do we make of this?
The resurrection of Jesus reminds us of three important truths:
For this next segment, let me begin with an illustration.
When the Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar visited the Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on May 14th this year, he was asked who the three thrones installed at St. Andrew’s Hall in the Kremlin were for. The center was for Tsar Nicholas; the second was for his wife. But who was the third throne for?
The quick-thinking Malaysian prime minister said, “For his second wife.”
Clearly, there would be big trouble on the throne!
The correct answer is: the third throne was for the Tsar’s mother, with the Tsar sitting in the middle, his wife and his mother, the Empress. I’m not sure if that is any better, but you can see from this illustration that people want to be near the center of power—to be either in a position of influence or to reflect their noble status.
The next part, the request of James and John, appears almost frivolous but bears valuable lessons for us.
In the interest of time, I will not read the whole passage, but summarize it in one line: James and John ask Jesus to sit on His left and right, and they get short shrift from Jesus—and the rest of the disciples get angry with them. One line.
It is easy to ridicule the two disciples for their request, for not seeming to pay attention to what Jesus was saying before about His fate in Jerusalem in the verses before, but thinking: when Jesus gets there, He’s going to overthrow the establishment, be king, and when that happens, for sticking with Him, you want the two best seats in the house.
Jesus was asking them whether they were able to drink His cup, referring to His suffering, and to share His baptism, referring to His death. And they professed to be able. And He said they were right: both disciples were persecuted like Jesus for their faith, and they would suffer for their loyalty to Him. James would be martyred as described in Acts 12:2.
The irony is, however, that when Jesus was actually crucified, neither James nor John—nor, for that matter, the remaining ten disciples—were at that time ready for the cup of suffering and death.
Bear in mind that from their perspective, James and John were perhaps great listeners and followers of Jesus. In Matthew 7:7, Jesus says, “Ask, and it shall be given to you.” And in John 14:13, Jesus says, “I will do whatever you ask in My name.” So it’s perhaps understandable that the disciples bring a request directly to Jesus.
And what did they ask for? From what they understood, Jesus was supposed to go to Jerusalem to set up the kingdom of God. So they thought this meant putting an end to Roman rule and bringing back the temple’s importance in Judaism.
They were expecting big political and religious conflict, and because of that, they thought it would make sense that there would be rewards for them when all this happened for sticking with Jesus.
While it is easy to criticize them for their self-interest, perhaps we should also reflect on our asks in our prayer life. Are we praying for our own self-centric needs or for the furtherance of the kingdom of God?
And when the ten disciples were upset with them, do you think their motivations for being upset were any better? Was it out of disgust, or was it from being “pipped” to the pole position by these two disciples—the biblical equivalent of being kiasu?
Against this background, Jesus is not exactly rebuking them, but using this as a learning opportunity—in what parents would call a “teachable moment”—to highlight what is really important in the kingdom of God.
We see here the contrast between the Gentile leaders and Christian leaders:
So what can we learn from this passage?
Firstly, to be a Christian means to totally submit ourselves to the will of God. Sometimes we may have spent a long time being faithful to God or spent much in ministries that we devote our energies to, like James and John, and we feel that we deserve a bit of reward from God. And then when the reward doesn’t come, or when life gets tough, we maybe grow bitter or angry toward God and we think, “I’ve given so much or put in so much effort or spent and devoted so much money. Why don’t I get any recognition?”
But this is not the way of Christian discipleship. That’s not how it works. As Christians, we are called to submit ourselves totally to the will of God. Maybe good things will come our way, or maybe they won’t. But our role is to submit and follow without seeking a reward.
Secondly, Christian leadership is about serving others. In verse 43, Jesus says:
“Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”
Now this is a countercultural idea, as much as it was 2,000 years ago as it is today. Lordship and authority are shown through servanthood, not by claiming power over people. As Jesus says in verse 45:
“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.”
And if we want to be faithful Christians, then we too must constantly seek ways that we can serve others and put others above ourselves at all times.
As the famous line from Spider-Man goes, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
For the third segment of today’s passage, we turn to a somewhat familiar story of healing—that of blind Bartimaeus.
Verse 46:
“And they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside.”
The story starts with Jesus on His final journey from Capernaum to Jerusalem, as illustrated on the map, and He was passing through Jericho, which is near the final stretch. You can see it’s about 25 kilometers from Jerusalem, or estimated about a day’s walk.
He was not only with His disciples, but had attracted quite a crowd of people, which is described as a great crowd. This would have made it very challenging to get near to Jesus at that time—somewhat like trying to shake the hand of the president during the National Day Parade.
Not much is known about Bartimaeus. The name Bartimaeus literally means “son of Timaeus.” Yet if you think about all the miracles that Jesus performed, not many of the recipients were actually named. Indeed, of the five described instances of Jesus healing the blind, only one—in this instance, Bartimaeus—is named. So he is unique in this, to be named specifically in the word of God.
Yet at that time he was by the roadside, and because of his disability was begging as his livelihood.
Verse 47:
“And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’”
From his calling of Jesus, it is clear that he had heard stories of Jesus. Likely, the news of Jesus healing the ill would have spread far and wide. We can also see how he addresses Jesus as the Son of David, which is the Jewish term for the Messiah. He knows and acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah—the King of the Jews who is from the Davidic line, come to save them as the Old Testament predicted.
Verse 48:
“And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’”
Clearly, the crowds around him—the crowds of people following Jesus—were annoyed at his yelling and told him to be silent. But this did not discourage him. In fact, he persisted in calling for Jesus.
Unable to see and hence unable to move easily to Jesus, calling out was his only recourse. And even that was a long shot because of the massive crowds.
Verse 49–50:
“And Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart. Get up; He is calling you.’ And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.”
Despite the crowds and the distance, Jesus understood the needs of Bartimaeus and called for him. We also see Bartimaeus’ response, which was immediately to throw off his cloak and go to Jesus.
As a poor beggar, the cloak was one of the few essential possessions he had. It was required to keep him warm on cool days, but also perhaps for collecting alms. It is likely the cloak was spread out in front of him to catch coins tossed his way at his feet.
Without his cloak, he would have great difficulty collecting alms and earning his living. But when Jesus called, we do not see any hesitation. He immediately threw off the cloak and went.
This is a reminder for us: when we come to Jesus, it is essential that we leave behind our old identity and nature. Bartimaeus willingly gave up what he had to go to Jesus.
This contrasts with the rich young man, described earlier in the same chapter last week, where Jesus told him to sell all he had and follow Him. The young man, unlike Bartimaeus, couldn’t let go of earthly possessions to follow Jesus.
Verse 51–52:
“And Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ And the blind man said to Him, ‘Rabbi, let me recover my sight.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Go your way; your faith has made you well.’ And immediately he recovered his sight and followed Him on the way.”
Even though Jesus knows exactly what we need, He still requires us to ask: “What do you want Me to do for you?” He asks.
While some followers saw Jesus as the means to glory, thrones, prestige, and position, Bartimaeus sees Jesus as the Son of David who brings mercy, healing, and—in his case—sight.
By saying, “Your faith has made you well,” Jesus emphasizes the need for persistent faith. Also note that in this case, unlike the description of the healing of the blind man in the earlier passage two weeks ago, which was a two-stage process, the healing was instantaneous and complete for Bartimaeus.
We also see finally what Bartimaeus did as soon as he got his sight. Having abandoned his cloak and hence his old livelihood, we see that he immediately continued to follow Christ.
So what reflections do we have for this passage that we can apply to our daily lives? I’ve listed three.
Firstly, we have to be persistent in our faith.
It appears that Jesus encountered Bartimaeus by chance and he got healed—or rather, the other way around: Bartimaeus encountered Jesus by chance and got healed. But the reality is that he probably wasn’t just sitting there passively waiting for things to happen. He was already prepared.
Having heard about the Messiah and His acts of healing, he was already actively waiting for this opportunity. Luke 18:36–37 further describes this:
Verse 36: “And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant.”
Verse 37: “They told him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.’”
His active surveillance and his boldness in asking questions were the very reason he found out Jesus was passing through. As soon as he heard who it was, Bartimaeus knew that this was his chance. He didn’t hesitate. He knew he couldn’t get to Jesus, and there was no way he could find Him in the crowd. So he cried out as loud as he could, and he kept shouting until he got Jesus’ attention.
He was persistent in the pursuit of Jesus, because Bartimaeus knew that Jesus was his only hope.
How are we pursuing Jesus in our lives?
Secondly, we have to get rid of everything holding us back from following Christ.
When Bartimaeus realized Jesus had stopped and called for him, he threw off his cloak. In Mark 10:50, the cloak Bartimaeus was wearing would have been heavy and would slow him down on his way to Jesus. Or perhaps it was bulky and he didn’t want it to hinder him from passing through the crowds of people.
But the cloak also symbolizes his old way, and he cast it aside. It reflects complete faith in Jesus—that he would have a new life moving forward and would not need this cloak anymore.
We have to learn from such “blind” faith and cast aside all worldly hindrances to the gospel and boldly come in faith to Jesus, that we may have eternal life in Him.
Thirdly, we don’t have to worry about what others think in the matters of Christ. In other words, we have to become “thick-skinned” Christians.
There are two kinds of skin. While most normal skin is thin, about 0.15 mm thick, those lining the palms and the soles of the feet are about ten times thicker, about 1.5 mm. This extra thickness allows extra abrasion, like when we walk barefoot.
Likewise, as Christians, when we come into contact with the world, there will always be tension and points of stress as the values differ. And just as Bartimaeus was not stopped by those who were rebuking him, asking him to be silent, we have to keep our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, and stand firm even when the going gets tough.
So in summary, here are some of the reflections from each of the three parts of the passage discussed today.
When Jesus foretells His death, we are reminded that:
When James and John request to sit on the left and right of Jesus, we are reminded that:
In the final part, about blind Bartimaeus, we are reminded:
Shall we come to the Lord in prayer?
Father God, we thank You for this time we can reflect upon Your word and Your precious word that’s been so graciously given to us. We pray that we can fully submit to the will of God and serve others, esteeming the needs of others above our own.
We pray for persistence and boldness in Christ, that we will be able to be ambassadors of Christ to the world through word and deed. We ask and pray these things in the matchless and precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Thank you.