Now from the little town of Ephraim, about twelve miles north of Jerusalem, Jesus left the crowds and started toward Jerusalem. As He marched ahead of them, the disciples no doubt were thinking in their hearts, “Not that road, Lord! That road leads to Jerusalem and death!” But His stride becomes longer and more rapid. There is tremendous purpose in His step; there is urgency and haste. In this moment, I think, Jesus fulfilled the prophecy made in Isaiah 50:7: “For the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been confounded; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.” Jesus has become the inflexible Christ. At least four times in the gospels He had said, “My hour has not yet come.” But now His hour has come, and as Luke 9:51 says, “When the days drew near for Him to be received up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem.”

 

During Jesus’ ministry as we have seen it thus far in Mark’s Gospel, whenever Jesus appeared in public, there was always a tremendous crowd around Him. Mark 7:24 says that Jesus “could not be hid.” Once, when He went into a home for an hour’s rest from the noonday heat, a Syrophoenician woman came and begged Him to heal her daughter. On another occasion, the crowd was so great that a woman could get near enough only to touch the hem of His garment. In Jericho, little Zaccheus had to climb a tree in order to see the Lord Jesus. Once, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, the crowds were so great that He got into a boat and pushed out from shore to create a moat between Him and the multitude. Many times Jesus could not even enter a town, but had to stay out in the desert places because of the crowds.