Religious leaders ask a question about divorce not because they want an answer but because they want a trap sprung either way it’s given. A rich, sincere, law-keeping young man asks the most important question anyone can ask and walks away sad, because the one thing he lacks is the one thing he won’t give. Two brothers ask for the best seats in the kingdom before Jesus has even finished telling them, for the third time, that the road ahead of Him runs through a cross. And outside the city, a blind beggar refuses to be silenced by the very crowd that just watched three separate men fail to ask Jesus for what actually mattered.
A study in Mark 10 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 25 min read
What God Hath Joined Together
The question is designed to fail no matter how it’s answered. Rabbinic schools of Jesus’s day were split over how easily a man could divorce his wife; whichever side Jesus picked, He would alienate half His audience.
“And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him. And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.”
Mark 10:2-5
Jesus doesn’t accept either side of the trap. He goes around it, back past Moses to the point before there was a need for Moses at all.
“But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”
Mark 10:6-9
The bill of divorcement was never the ideal — it was a concession to a hardened heart, a limit placed on damage that was already going to happen rather than an endorsement of the damage itself. Jesus is not softening Moses’s law. He is pointing past it, to a design that predates every legal accommodation human sin has ever required.
“And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.”
Mark 10:10-12
Mark’s own version of this teaching, unlike Matthew’s, states the wife’s side of it as plainly as the husband’s — a small but real difference, and one that fit Mark’s own first readers in Rome, where a wife divorcing her husband was a real, recognized possibility that Jewish law in Judea did not equally provide for.
Suffer The Little Children To Come Unto Me
“Jesus was ever a lover of children. He accepted their childish sympathy and their open, unaffected love. The grateful praise from their pure lips was music in His ears, and refreshed His spirit when oppressed by contact with crafty and hypocritical men.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 511
From a trap over marriage law to a crowd of toddlers in the space of one paragraph — Mark’s own habit of moving fast between scenes never lets a single mood settle for long.
“And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.”
Mark 10:13-14
“Among the Jews it was customary for children to be brought to some rabbi, that he might lay his hands upon them in blessing; but the Saviour’s disciples thought His work too important to be interrupted in this way. … But it was the disciples with whom He was displeased.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 511
Mark’s own word for what Jesus felt — translated “much displeased” — is a strong one, the same intensity of feeling this Gospel elsewhere reserves for demons and hypocrisy. The disciples thought they were protecting His time. They were, without meaning to, standing between Him and exactly the people He most wanted near.
“Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.”
Mark 10:15-16
“Let not your un-Christlike character misrepresent Jesus. Do not keep the little ones away from Him by your coldness and harshness. Never give them cause to feel that heaven will not be a pleasant place to them if you are there.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 517
One Thing Thou Lackest
This site’s own study of Matthew 19 already told this same encounter, and Mark’s account of it adds one detail Matthew’s own version doesn’t include.
“And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.”
Mark 10:17-20
“Christ looked into the face of the young man, as if reading his life and searching his character. He loved him, and He hungered to give him that peace and grace and joy which would materially change his character.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 519
Mark alone records that Jesus loved him — not tolerated him, not merely answered his question, but loved him, in the very same breath as the hard instruction that would send him away sorrowful. The rebuke and the love were never in tension. They were the same act.
“Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.”
Mark 10:21-22
“The ruler was quick to discern all that Christ’s words involved, and he became sad. … He wanted the heavenly treasure, but he wanted also the temporal advantages his riches would bring him.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 520
“And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.”
Mark 10:23-27
Peter, never one to let a hard teaching pass without checking his own standing against it, asks the obvious next question.
“Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.”
Mark 10:28-31
“With persecutions” is Mark’s own addition, found in none of the parallel accounts — a hundredfold reward promised in the very same sentence as the cost that comes with it. Peter had left everything and wanted assurance that it mattered. Jesus gives him assurance and a warning in the same answer, and does not pretend the second half away.
Not To Be Ministered Unto, But To Minister
“And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him, Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles: And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.”
Mark 10:32-34
This site’s own study of Matthew 20 already told what happens next in full. Two of the same men who just heard a third, more detailed prediction of the cross than either of the first two step forward with a request that shows how little of it had actually landed.
“John, the son of Zebedee, had been one of the first two disciples who had followed Jesus. He and his brother James had been among the first group who had left all for His service.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 548
“And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire. And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you? They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory. But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? And they said unto him, We can.”
Mark 10:35-39
“In the kingdom of God, position is not gained through favoritism. It is not earned, nor is it received through an arbitrary bestowal. It is the result of character.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 549
The other ten are no better than James and John — only slower to say it out loud.
“And when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John. But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Mark 10:41-45
A request for the two best seats becomes, in Jesus’s answer, a definition of greatness that has no seats in it at all — only a towel, a basin, and a cross still three chapters away.
What Wilt Thou That I Should Do Unto Thee
A rich young man walked away because he was asked to give up everything. Two disciples asked to be given the highest places without giving up anything at all. And now, on the road leading out of Jericho, comes a man who has nothing left to give up in the first place.
“And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimæus, the son of Timæus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.”
Mark 10:46-48
Mark alone gives this man a name, and his father’s name with it — the only person healed of blindness anywhere in the four Gospels who is identified rather than left anonymous. A crowd that has just watched a rich young ruler and two ambitious disciples fail, in their different ways, to ask Jesus for the one thing that mattered now tries to silence the one person in the whole chapter who actually gets his request right.
“And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.”
Mark 10:49-52
This site’s own study of Mark 8 already told of a blind man at Bethsaida healed in two careful stages, seeing dimly before he saw clearly. Bartimaeus is healed in a single sentence, the instant he answers Jesus’s own question honestly. The garment he throws off on his way to Jesus is very possibly the only thing he owns in the world, spread on the ground to catch the coins of passersby — and he leaves it behind without a second thought, the one man in this whole chapter who had nothing to lose and let go of it anyway.
