He teaches about marriage and divorce
10
📚 And then he got up and went into the region of Judea by the other side of the Jordan, and the people gathered around him again. And, as his custom was, he taught them again. 2 📚And the Pharisees came to him and asked him, testing him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
3 📚And he answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?”
4 📚And they said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her”.
5 📚And Jesus answered and said to them, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. 6 📚But from the beginning of the creation ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 📚‘For this cause a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8 📚and the two will become one flesh.’ So then they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 📚Therefore what God has joined together, let man not divide”.
10 📚And in the house his disciples asked him again about the same matter.
11 📚And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, is committing adultery against her. 12 📚And if a woman divorces her husband and gets married to another, she is committing adultery”.
He blesses little children
13 📚And they brought young children to him, so that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked those who brought them.
14 📚But when Jesus saw it, he was very displeased, and said to them, “Permit the little children to come unto me, and do not stop them, for to such as these the kingdom of God belongs. 15 📚Truly I say to you, whoever will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child, will not enter it”.
16 📚And he took them up in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.
10:1-16 See Matt 19:1-15.⚜
He talks with the rich young ruler
17 📚 📖And when he was going out on the road, one came running and knelt in front of him and asked him, “Good teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
18 📚And Jesus said to him, “Why are you calling me good? God alone is good, no one else. 19 📚You know the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honour your father and mother”.
20 📚And he answered and said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these from my boyhood”.
21 📚Then Jesus looking at him loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross and follow me”.
10:21 Jesus now put a very severe test to this young man, but He did so because His divine love flooded His heart and He desired the man’s highest good. We may be sure that when the Lord asks us to do something hard and painful to us, it is because He loves us, and because we very much need to do that thing.⚜
22 📚And he was sad at these words, and went away grieving, for he had great wealth.
10:22 It is clear that this man put a higher value on what he had than on Christ and eternal life. Why should God give to anyone something they value so little? Compare Prov 4:7; Luke 14:33.⚜
He promises rewards to faithful disciples
23 📚And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 📚And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, 📖 how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! 25 📚It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”.
26 📚And they were astonished beyond measure, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?”
27 📚And Jesus, looking at them, said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God. For with God all things are possible”.
28 📚Then Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and have followed you”.
29 📚And Jesus answered and said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 📚who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions, and in the world to come, eternal life.
10:30 Persecutions too will follow those who follow Christ – Matt 24:9; Luke 11:29; 21:12; John 15:20; Acts 7:52; 1 Thess 3:4; 2 Tim 3:12. But they are not worthy to be compared to the glory they will receive – Rom 8:18; 2 Cor 4:17.⚜
31 📚But many who are first will be last, and the last first”.
10:17-31 See the notes at Matt 19:16-30.⚜
He speaks of His death and resurrection
32 📚 📖And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going in front of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And again he took the Twelve aside, and began to tell them what was going to happen to him,
33 📚“Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man will be handed over to the chief priests, and to the scribes. And they will condemn him to death, and will hand him over to the Gentiles. 34 📚And they will mock him and whip him and spit on him and kill him. And the third day he will rise again”.
He teaches again about true greatness
35 📚And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him, saying, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask”.
10:35 Their mother was with them, and both she and they made this request (Matt 20:20-21).⚜
36 📚And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”
37 📚They said to him, “Grant us that in your glory we may sit one at your right hand and the other at your left hand”.
38 📚But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink of the cup from which I drink? And be submerged in the baptism in which I am submerged?”
10:38 Like the word “cup”, baptism here is used figuratively, as a symbol. Jesus is not referring to water baptism, but being immersed in trials and sufferings. Compare Luke 12:50.⚜
39 📚And they said to him, “We can”. And Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink of the cup from which I drink, and be submerged in the baptism in which I am submerged. 40 📚But to sit at my right hand and at my left hand is not mine to give, but will be given to those for whom it has been prepared”.
41 📚And when the remaining ten disciples heard this, they began to be very displeased with James and John.
42 📚But Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that those who are counted as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 📚But it must not be so among you, but whoever wants to be great among you, shall be your servant, 44 and whoever of you wants to be first must be the slave of all. 45 📚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”.
He heals a blind man in Jericho
46 📚And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. 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”.
48 📚And many rebuked him so that he would keep silent, but he cried out even more, “Son of David, have mercy on me”.
49 📚And Jesus stood still and ordered him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart! Get up. He is calling you”. 50 📚And he, throwing aside his cloak, got up and came to Jesus.
51 📚And Jesus answered and said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “Rabbi, I want to receive my sight”.
10:51 The Hebrew word “Rabbi” means “my teacher” or “my guru”.⚜
52 📚And Jesus said to him, “Go, your faith has healed you”. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus on the road.
10:46-52 Matt 20:29-34. Matthew says two blind men were healed at this time. Mark singles out one of them for special notice (compare Mark 5:1-2).⚜