Mark noted that Jesus obtained the colt by supernatural knowledge (vv.2-3). In oriental cities it was very unusual to have an animal tethered outside, but Jesus knew from a distance that the animal was there. Jesus instructed His followers to use royal language to obtain the animal: “The Lord has need of it”(v.3). Notice, too, that Jesus takes care to assure the owners that He is not confiscating the colt; He will return it quickly.
Mark 10:43-45 must have been very dear to Mark, the servant and gospel writer. It summarizes all of Jesus’ person and mission. He wanted His disciples to understand that the ransom death He was about to die would be the climax of all He had said and done. Associating with the despised and rejected, enduring the contempt of the authorities, washing the disciples’ feet, going to the cross, dying in humiliation - this was Jesus’ path to greatness. It was for a life thus lived and a death thus died that “God highly exalted Him” (Phil.2:9).
We may ask ourselves what it means to follow Christ, to set our faces towards Jerusalem. Just as our Lord was bound to do the Father’s will by dying on the cross for us, so we have to have that same attitude of heart and mind: we must be just as determined to live for Him. Things may be disappointing, and experiences may be frustrating, but we are to do all things without grumbling or questioning (Phil.2: 14). Some things which we are called upon to do may not seem reasonable, but we are called to walk by faith, we are to be shining lights in a dark place. Our Jerusalem is the place of our testimony, where we live surrendered to the will of God.
The transfiguration was nothing more or less than the Lord God Almighty reaching out and lifting the curtain, saying, “Though the road just ahead will be hard, this is the way things are going to be at the Second Coming.” When God first sent Jesus here, He sent Him little, mean, despised, rejected. He did this on purpose. Jesus was called the stumbling stone (Isa. 8:14, 15); the stone which the builders rejected (1 Peter 2:7). God took Peter, James, and John and lifted the curtain and said, “Now you see what the stone really is.” There He was, and His face was glistening, and He was transfigured. His clothing was lightening white, and Moses and Elijah appeared and were talking with Jesus.
There is only one cross. We must never use the word to refer to the ordinary difficulties of life. When we take up the cross, we take the way that Christ walked, not, of course, as an atonement, but as a method of life that puts the Father’s will first. Alexander Maclearen puts it this was, “To slay the life of self is always pain, and there is no discipleship without crucifying “the old man.” Taking up my cross does not merely mean accepting meekly God-sent or men-inflicted sorrows, but persistently carrying on the special form of self-denial which my special type of character requires.
