The Son of Man came to serve: Jesus on the road to Jerusalem

Mark 10 belongs to the Gospel of Mark, which tradition ascribes to John Mark, the companion of Peter, Paul and Barnabas (Acts 12:12; 1 Peter 5:13). The oldest witness, Papias, as quoted by Eusebius, says that Mark wrote down Peter's teaching accurately but not in order. Mark himself is never named in the text. Many scholars accept the tradition, and some doubt the Petrine link and see a more anonymous community tradition. The usual date is the late 60s, near the Jewish war with Rome, with a minority arguing for the 50s or for just after AD 70. The tradition of a Roman origin fits the book's Latin loanwords and its explanation of Jewish customs. On the synoptic problem, most scholars think Matthew and Luke used Mark, while a minority hold that Mark abridged Matthew.

Mark's purpose is to show that Jesus is the Christ and Son of God (1:1) and that his identity is understood only by way of the cross. Chapter 10 completes the central section of the book (8:22-10:52), which Mark frames with two healings of blind men and fills with teaching 'on the way'. The word 'way' (hodos) is used repeatedly here, and the road is the road to Jerusalem. Along it Jesus predicts his death three times and corrects what the disciples think of greatness, wealth, family and power.

The setting in this chapter is the last stage of the journey. Jesus leaves Galilee and goes to the region of Judea and across the Jordan (10:1), then climbs from the Jordan valley through Jericho toward Jerusalem about fifteen miles away. Matthew 19:1-20:34 and Luke 18:15-19:1 give parallels, with differences that are noted below. Mark alone says that Jesus looked at the rich man and loved him (10:21), and that those who follow will receive a hundredfold 'with persecutions' (10:30).

Mark 10 is Gospel narrative made of short scenes, most of them a question followed by an answer from Jesus and sometimes a private explanation to the disciples (10:10, 23, 41). Mark groups the scenes by themes the reader is meant to see together: marriage, children, possessions and power. They are the areas in which the people of that world held status, and Jesus overturns each of them. The chapter must be read as a whole, with the third prediction of the passion (10:32-34) as its centre.

Several rules apply.

• First, Jesus' sayings are often stated in the sharp, absolute style of Jewish teaching, and the Gospels sometimes give the same saying in different forms. Mark 10:11-12 on divorce and Matthew 19:9 do not read the same, and a reader should take both into account before drawing a rule.
• Second, the command to the rich man is a call addressed to a particular man, and it should not be turned into a general law without noting what Jesus says about the impossible and the possible with God (10:27).
• Third, Mark 10:45 must be read with the Old Testament in mind, especially Isaiah 53, because Jesus is the one explaining his death.

Finally, the chapter shows Mark's usual method of irony. The disciples, who are closest to Jesus, show the least understanding, and the outsider, a blind beggar, sees most clearly who Jesus is.

Verses 1–9

Pharisees test Jesus by asking whether it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife. Jesus asks what Moses commanded. They answer that Moses allowed a certificate of divorce (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). Jesus says Moses wrote that because of their hardness of heart, and then goes back past Moses to creation, to Genesis 1:27 ('male and female He created them') and Genesis 2:24 ('the two shall become one flesh'). His conclusion is that what God has joined together, man must not separate. The Pharisees of the time argued over the grounds for divorce, and the schools of Hillel and Shammai differed on how broad Deuteronomy 24 was. Jesus does not choose a side but appeals to God's purpose in creation.

Verses 10–12

In the house the disciples ask again. Jesus says whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and the same if a woman divorces her husband and marries another. The second clause suits a Roman setting, where a wife could initiate divorce. Matthew 19:9 adds an exception for porneia, a word for sexual immorality, and Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:10-16 speaks of separation and of a believer abandoned by an unbelieving spouse.

Verses 13–16

People bring children for Jesus to touch, and the disciples rebuke them. Jesus is indignant, the only place where Mark uses this word of him. He says the kingdom of God belongs to such as these and that whoever does not receive the kingdom like a child will not enter it. He takes the children in his arms and blesses them. The point is dependence: a child receives, and cannot earn.

Verses 17–22

A man runs up, kneels and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asks why he calls him good when no one is good but God alone. The question does not deny that Jesus is good. It tests whether the man understands who is speaking. Jesus lists commandments of the second table of the Ten, adding 'do not defraud', and the man says he has kept them from his youth. Then Mark says Jesus looked at him and loved him. 'One thing you lack: go, sell what you have, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, then come, follow me.' The man's face falls and he goes away grieving, for he had great possessions.

Verses 23–27

Jesus tells the disciples how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom, and then that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter. Attempts to soften this by a narrow gate called the 'needle's eye' or by an alternative word for rope have no firm support. It is a deliberate exaggeration for the impossible. The disciples are astonished: who then can be saved? Jesus says it is impossible for men but not for God, for all things are possible with God.

Verses 28–31

Peter says they have left everything. Jesus promises that whoever leaves home and family for him and the gospel will receive a hundredfold now, 'with persecutions', and eternal life in the age to come. Many who are first will be last.

Verses 32–34

Jesus walks ahead, the disciples are amazed and the followers afraid. He tells the Twelve for the third time, and in the most detail, what will be done: he will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, condemned to death, handed to the Gentiles, mocked, spat on, flogged and killed, and after three days he will rise.

Verses 35–45

At once James and John ask to sit at his right and left in his glory. Matthew 20:20 says their mother made the request. Jesus asks if they can drink the cup he drinks and be baptised with his baptism, both pictures of suffering and judgment. They say they can, and he says they will, but that the places are given to those for whom they are prepared. The other ten are angry. Jesus says that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over their people, 'but it shall not be so among you'. Whoever would be great must be servant, and whoever would be first must be slave of all, 'for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many'.

Verses 46–52

At Jericho a blind beggar, Bartimaeus ('son of Timaeus'), cries out to 'Jesus, Son of David'. He is rebuked but cries louder. Jesus stops and calls him. Bartimaeus throws off his cloak, springs up and asks to see. Jesus says, 'Go, your faith has healed you', and at once he receives sight and follows Jesus on the way. Matthew 20:30 has two blind men, and Luke 18:35 places the healing as Jesus approaches Jericho. Harmonisations include two Jerichos, the old and new city, and Mark's focus on the one man who was named.

The chapter teaches several doctrines. The first is marriage as part of God's creation. Jesus appeals to Genesis 1 and 2 to show that marriage is one flesh, joined by God, and that the concession in Deuteronomy 24 reflects the fall and not God's design. Christians have drawn different conclusions about what follows: some hold that marriage cannot be dissolved; others that divorce is permitted in certain cases; but all begin from Jesus' appeal to creation.

• The second is the kingdom as a gift. Children receive, and the rich man cannot buy what he asks for. Jesus' reply that salvation is impossible for people and possible with God anticipates the New Testament teaching that salvation is by grace (Ephesians 2:8-9).
• The third is that wealth is a spiritual danger. It is not wrong in itself, but it can hold a person so that the call to follow cannot be heard. The same warning runs through Proverbs, the Prophets, and Paul's words in 1 Timothy 6:9-10.

• The fourth is atonement. Mark 10:45 states in a single sentence what the New Testament later develops: the Son of Man gives his life as a ransom, a substitute, for many (compare 1 Timothy 2:5-6; 1 Peter 1:18-19; Romans 3:24).
• The fifth is the pattern of leadership. Greatness in God's kingdom is measured by service, because the king himself serves.

Chapter 10 shows Jesus as a teacher with authority above Moses, a king and a servant. When he sets the creation account above the Mosaic provision he speaks with an authority that reaches behind the Law to the Lawgiver's intention. When the man calls him good, he points beyond himself to God, and in the context of the whole Gospel the reader is invited to see that the one who speaks is God's Son.

The third prediction and 10:45 are direct claims about his work. Jesus tells the Twelve exactly what will happen, and Mark 14 to 16 narrates it. In 10:45 he describes his death as a ransom for many. The words echo Isaiah 53:10-12, where the Servant gives his life as an offering and bears the sin of many. Many scholars hear that passage here, while others, such as Morna Hooker, doubt a direct allusion; the case rests on the shared language of service, life given and 'many'. Combined with 14:24, where he calls his blood 'poured out for many', it is a strong connection.

Bartimaeus calls him 'Son of David', the title tied to the promise of an everlasting king in 2 Samuel 7:12-16 and expected in passages like Isaiah 11:1-10. Jesus does not silence him, unlike earlier scenes where he told demons and others to be quiet. As Jesus nears Jerusalem the secret is no longer kept. The healing of a blind man also fulfils the promises that the Lord would open blind eyes (Isaiah 35:5; 42:7).