<p>10:32 <i>And they were on the road heading up to Jerusalem; and Jesus was walking ahead of them- </i>This could refer to the uphill journey, but &lsquo;going up&rsquo; was a technical term used for going up to Jerusalem, particularly to keep a feast- Passover, in this case. They were going &quot;up&quot; from Jericho, Mt. 19:15. Hence they went &ldquo;up&rdquo;, uphill to Jerusalem. These small details all support the position that the Gospels were written by eye witnesses and were not created many years later by people who were not present. They were going the opposite direction of man in the parable of the Good Samaritan, who went&nbsp;<i>down</i>&nbsp;from Jerusalem to Jericho. We may be able to infer that the Lord intended us to read that man as one who was not going in the way of the cross, who was going away from Jerusalem rather than towards it- and who was still saved by the grace of the Samaritan / Jesus.&nbsp;</p><p><i>And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve aside- </i>The implication is that there were others travelling with them, and the Lord wished to explain the reality of the cross to the disciples alone.</p><p><i>He began to tell them what was to happen to him</i>- Tragically He so often sought to explain to the disciples about the cross; and yet always they met His efforts either with silence, or with irrelevant changing of the subject, or even protest, in Peter&rsquo;s case. The tragic mismatch between the Lord&rsquo;s cross and the mind of the disciples is brought out in Mk. 10:32-40. Having set His face to go up to Jerusalem, the Lord &ldquo;went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid&quot;. The words imply that He took the lead and walked forcefully a few paces ahead of them in a startling manner. &ldquo;If anything in the Gospels has the stamp of real and live recollection upon it, it is this&quot;. His mind was evidently dwelling in His forthcoming death, in which He may well have foreseen that He would be crucified with sinners on His right and left. But then two of the disciples respond to His prediction of the cross by asking that <i>they</i> should sit on His right and left hand in glory over the others. Here we see, on the Gospel writers own admission, the paucity of their effort to grasp the real message of the cross. May it not be so with us. May we at least strive to enter into His struggle, and be moved to a true and unpretended humility by it.</p><p>There was something in His body language during His last journey to Jerusalem which was nothing short of terrifying to the disciples: &quot;They were amazed; and as they followed Him, they were afraid&quot; (Mk. 10:32-34). All this came to a climax in His extreme sweating in Gethsemane as the great horror of darkness began to actually descend on Him (Mk. 14:33-42). Contrast this with the calmness of suicide bombers or other religiously persuaded zealots going to their death. The Lord- <i>our</i> Lord- was too sensitive to humanity, to <i>us</i>, to His <i>own</i> humanity, to His own sense of the possibility of failure which His humility pressed ever upon Him... than to be like that. See on Heb. 5:7,8.</p>