John 20:31 says, “These have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” For years I was bothered by this verse. I could not understand why John 20:31 spoke not only of the Son of God but also of the Christ. I had been taught that Christ was God’s anointed One to carry out God’s commission to establish the kingdom. Why was it necessary to believe that Jesus is the Christ in order to have eternal life? I thought that as long as I believed in the Son of God, this was sufficient for having eternal life. John 20:31 is a strong verse telling us that we must believe in Christ in order to have eternal life. The New Testament says that we have eternal life by believing in the Son of God (John 3:16). Eventually, I came to understand that the Son of God refers to the Lord’s Person and that Christ refers to His commission. We need to believe that Jesus is the Son of God because His Person as the Son of God is a matter of eternal life. But in order for the Son of God to carry out His commission to impart Himself into us as life, He must be God’s anointed One. It is by being the Christ that the Lord Jesus imparts Himself into us as the Son of God so that we may have eternal life.
In the Gospel of Mark the Lord Jesus does not mainly train the disciples or teach them. Instead, He brings them with Him wherever He goes so that they may observe His living. They heard what the Lord said, and they saw what He did. They observed how He dealt with many different cases. At the time, the interpretation of these cases was not given. They were amazed when He went before them to Jerusalem: “Now they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid” (10:32).
Wherever the Lord Jesus went in the Gospel of Mark, He brought the disciples with Him. They were with Him when He entered Jerusalem, they were with Him when He cleansed the temple, they were with Him when He lodged in Bethany, they were with Him when He ate the Passover feast and established His table, and they were with Him when He was betrayed and arrested.
After the Lord’s death, resurrection, and ascension, the disciples came to understand the significance of all that had happened according to the record in the Gospel of Mark. In his first Epistle Peter says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3). This verse indicates that Peter’s eyes were opened and that he was full of understanding of what the Lord had done with him.
After the day of Pentecost, Peter’s earlier experiences with the Savior became understandable to him. Perhaps Peter said to himself, “Now I know why my Lord marched boldly to Jerusalem. Now I see that I was included when He was judged and crucified. When He was crucified and buried, I was crucified and buried with Him. When He was resurrected, I was resurrected with Him. Then He was carrying me; now I carry Him, for He is in me and I am in Him. From the time the Lord called me, He began to put me into Him and also to sow Himself into me. Praise the Lord that now He is in me and I am in Him! The Lord and I are one!”
Some may wonder how we know that Peter and the other disciples later came to have such an understanding of the events recorded in Mark. Our basis for saying this is what is written in the Epistles. The New Testament Epistles are the interpretation of the biography of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of Mark.
In the Gospel of Mark the Lord’s disciples were blind and did not understand. In 8:31 He taught them clearly concerning His death and resurrection: “And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise.” Although He spoke such a clear word, the disciples did not understand Him.
Because the Lord’s disciples did not receive the unveiling of His death and resurrection the first time, He spoke to them about it again in 9:31: “For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, The Son of Man is being delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He is killed, after three days, He will rise.” Verse 32 says that “they did not understand what He was saying, and they were afraid to question Him.”
In 9:33 and 34 we have a further indication of how blind the disciples were and how unable they were to understand His word concerning His death and resurrection. After the Lord and the disciples came into Capernaum, He questioned them, “What were you reasoning about on the road?” (v. 33). They were silent, “for they had argued with one another on the road who was greater.” How blind they were! The Lord had told them definitely that He was to be killed and then would rise after three days, but they did not understand a word. In fact, immediately after He unveiled His death and resurrection to them the second time, they argued with one another regarding who was greater.
In 10:32 the Lord Jesus went up to Jerusalem with His disciples. In 10:33 and 34 we have the third unveiling of the Lord’s death and resurrection: “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they shall mock Him and spit at Him, and shall scourge Him, and kill Him; and after three days He will rise.” Immediately after He spoke this clear word, James and John said to Him, “Teacher, we desire that whatever we ask You, You will do for us” (10:35). When He asked them what they wanted Him to do for them, they said, “Grant to us that we may sit, one on Your right, and one on Your left, in Your glory” (vv. 36-37). When the others heard this, “they began to be indignant about James and John” (v. 41). This indicates that the disciples were not able to understand the Lord’s unveiling of His death and resurrection.
Even though the disciples were so blind and lacking in understanding, the Lord Jesus would not swerve from His goal. It was His intention to bring the disciples with Him to the cross. He knew that when He was crucified, they would be crucified with Him.
The request of James and John to sit at the Lord’s right and left in His glory and the indignation of the ten proves that they all were blind and in need of healing. It is significant, therefore, that the very next section in Mark concerns the healing of blind Bartimaeus (10:46-52). Blind Bartimaeus represents all the disciples, including us. We also are blind and need the Lord’s healing. Proof of our blindness consists in the fact that we may listen to message after message without seeing anything. Instead of seeing the Lord’s revelation, we may continue to hold on to our concept. We may not know what it means to die with Christ and to participate in His resurrection. Surely we need to be brought to the cross.
Apparently, when the Lord Jesus was crucified, He was crucified alone. Actually, in the sight of God, all the disciples, including us, were crucified with Christ. We know this from what is revealed in the Epistles.
As we consider the disciples, we see that each one was peculiar. If we consider ourselves honestly, we shall realize that we all are peculiar and even abnormal. What shall we do about our situation? We do not need to do anything because the Lord has already done what was necessary. He has brought us into His death. He has crucified us all with Him.