This passage comes in a section of Mark I like to call, “Exasperated Jesus.” Seriously. First the disciples are arguing about who’s the greatest, then a rich man chases him around asking him what he has to do, then James and John want to “sit beside Jesus in glory,” and the whole while, Jesus cannot believe the stuff he’s dealing with. Jesus spends like three chapters walking around Judea, bouncing between Jerusalem and Jericho, like a mother with three kids under five. One says he’s hungry even though he’s got a snack catcher of Cheerios IN HIS HAND, another has just fallen and is wailing over the lightest of skinned knees, the other one has somehow inserted most of a toy car in their left nostril, and here’s Jesus, raising his eyes to the heavens, asking what could possibly happen next.
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