Mark 10:33 – saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles (ESV).
In this passage from Mark’s Gospel, Jesus and His disciples are “going up to Jerusalem” (10:32). Along the way, Jesus continues to teach and train His disciples to carry on the ministry of serving others while they spread the message of salvation. In verse 33, Jesus begins explaining what will happen to Him once they reach Jerusalem.
Son of Man
When Jesus talks about Himself in the third person using the phrase “Son of Man,” He is harkening back to the prophecy in Daniel 7:13-14 where the son of man is “given dominion / and glory and a kingdom, / that all peoples, nations, and languages / should serve him; / his dominion is an everlasting dominion, / which shall not pass away, / and his kingdom one / that shall not be destroyed. His use of the “Son of Man” phrase makes it clear that He is calling Himself Messiah.
The remainder of verse 33 is a prophecy of how the Jewish religious leaders, who should recognize the Messiah, will deny Jesus as God in the flesh and instead seek to kill Him. The religious leaders should have recognized Jesus by the fruit He produced during His ministry (Matt 7:15-20). Jesus’ fruit fulfilled the Messianic prophecies in Isaiah 29:18, 35:5-6, and 61:1, all speaking to the Messiah as a healer and uplifter to the poor.
The disconnect the religious leaders had with Jesus as Messiah has to do with aspects of His “Son of Man” reference. What nation Israel was longing for in the Messiah was the conquering king, earthly ruler who would reestablish the nation. Old Testament prophecies about Messiah as servant were not what the people wanted. So, they overlooked those Messianic prophecies.
Servant
The disciples of John the Baptist once asked Jesus if He was the Messiah. Jesus told them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them” (Luke 7:22, ESV). Instead of telling John’s disciples, “Yes, I am the Messiah,” Jesus quoted Isaiah’s servant-related prophecies.
When Jesus tells His disciples the religious leaders will wrongly condemn Him, He is reinforcing the aspect of service to Christ that most people don’t want to understand. As followers of Jesus, we should seek to serve others, not rule over them. Because this premise is contrary to the world’s desire for power, most people will not understand our service to others. Like Jesus, we will not find man’s favor. But the Spirit who lives in us will be pleased (1 Corinthians 3:16).