32Now they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed. And as they followed they were afraid. Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him: 33"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; 34and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again."
This is now the third time Jesus tells his disciples of what will happen. The first time was in Mark 8:31-33, as Jesus was first trying to get His disciples to understand who He was. He was asking them who they say He is. He is the Son of Man who must fulfill this destiny. At the time, the disciples wanted to deny what must happen.
The second time was in Mark 9:30-32 shortly after the transfiguration. They are starting to see God's plan in action. Their reaction that time seeemed to be to figure out what they can get for themselves. They were asking "Who is the greatest?" and "How do I enter the kingdom of God?"
But now as they are on their way to Jerusalem, I think reality is starting to sink in for the disciples. God's plan of what must happen is not something way off in the future that they would rather not worry about yet, but it is something that is just down the road. They are amazed, probably that Jesus would be able to lead the way to his own death. They are afraid, probably because they were afraid for Jesus, and probably because they were worried for their own safety.
Sometimes when we are afraid it is because of the unknown. In those times it helps to be told what will happen. Making the unknown known will often remove fear. I wonder if that is why Jesus pulled them aside to explain all that will happen. Yes, Jesus will be condemned to death, he will be abused and killed, but on the third day he will rise again.
I wonder if the disciples even heard the line about rising again. It would be tough to remove your focus from all the bleakness that was to happen first. They do not want the first part to happen. And they can't understand what rising again would mean. But it looks like they plan to stand beside Jesus, regardless how they feel about it now.
Is this a lesson for me? Do I sometimes get so caught up focusing on what I don't like to have happening that I don't hear the good things? If so, like the disciples, I would be missing the best part.