Mark uniquely emphasizes the unexpected nature of the Messiah’s suffering. For Mark, Jesus is the Suffering Servant and Son of Man who will bring new creation through his obedience, death, and resurrection. This message is the foundation that ties together each part of Mark’s story. In the first three chapters, the advent of the Messiah and “the time of fulfillment” (Mark 1:15) hit like a ton of bricks. Misunderstanding and rejection is the unifying theme in chapters 1–3. Nevertheless, Mark makes clear that in Jesus, the kingdom has come, and his power to bring life from death and to accomplish the new, ultimate Exodus is on display in chapter 4–8. The secret of the kingdom is clearly stated and illustrated in chapters 8–10: Jesus will bring the kingdom of God through suffering, dying, and rising from the dead. The disciples don’t want to hear this. They don’t like it or understand, but patiently Jesus walks with them, teaches them, confronts opposing forces of evil, and models his own words in chapters 10–13. He’s so kind and wise. Chapters 14–16 allow you, the reader of Mark, to behold the king in his glory, glory even more bright and beautiful than the Transfiguration. Readers watch as Jesus is exalted through his obedience and suffering. Finally, the seed of Eve has come who won’t listen to the snake. He can’t be charmed and tricked. He obeys the Father’s voice every step of the way to and through death.

Jesus’s Suffering in Mark’s Gospel

The following outline of Mark’s structure demonstrates how the book is structured around his portrait of Jesus of the suffering Servant and Son of Man.

A: 1–3: The Messiah is misunderstood and rejected.
B: 4–8: The Messiah explains and illustrates his way of bringing the kingdom.
C: 8–10: The Messiah is revealed: divine glory through suffering, death, and resurrection.
B′: 10–13: The Messiah teaches his disciples, confronts the powers, and models his own words.
A′: 14–16: The Messiah is exalted to glory through suffering.

A-A′ is connected by rejection and misunderstanding. B-B′ is connected by teaching and explanation. C is the heart of the Gospel of Mark, the apocalypse that makes sense of everything else. In these chapters, Jesus directly confronts his disciples’ misunderstanding by telling them clearly and repeatedly that he will bring the kingdom through death and suffering. He explains and illustrates the reality of the kingdom in the Transfiguration, and he begins the journey down the mountain, up to Jerusalem and the cross, as his disciples watch and wonder and try to understand. In these chapters the disciples begin the lifelong journey of understanding Jesus’s glory and the meaning of life.

Old Testament Background for a Suffering Messiah

Mark’s presentation of Jesus as the suffering Servant and Son of Man is informed by the entire Old Testament story, which points to (A) human rebellion as the core problem in the story (Genesis 1–11), (B) the need for a human being who won’t listen to the snake (Genesis 3:15) but will listen to God’s voice (e.g., Genesis 3:17; 22:18; Exodus 3:8; 4:8, 9; see the long list of verses in this post), (C) and the hope of God’s people that develops from Genesis 3:15, through the promises to Abraham, and David, eventually focusing on a figure known as God’s Anointed (1 Samuel 2, Psalm 2, etc.). Several Old Testament passages make clear that when God’s Messiah comes, he will save God’s people through suffering and death. This is what Jesus is getting at in Luke 24:25–27: The Old Testament points to one who will come and save God’s people through suffering and subsequent exaltation.

Isaiah’s Suffering Servant

Two Old Testament passages are especially clear about one who will suffer to save many and be exalted in the end: the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53 and the Son of Man in Daniel 7. Isaiah 53:4–5 and verse 12 describe the work of a figure called “the Servant” as an atoning sacrifice. 53:12 makes clear that his atoning sacrifice is “for many,” and verses 10–12 make clear that the Servant “will prolong his days.” Through his atoning death “he shall see and be satisfied,” pointing to his resurrection, a hope that runs throughout Isaiah (see Isaiah 26:19 and chapter 37). Earlier in Isaiah, the prophet makes clear that Israel is Yahweh’s servant, but in several places the image of the servant is singular. The Servant in Isaiah represents both the faithful remnant of God’s people and the singular figure of the Messiah. Isaiah 53 focuses on the atoning work of the singular Messiah for God’s faithful remnant.

You see a similar idea—the work of one for the many—in the way Isaiah uses tree language in chapter 6 and 11. In chapter 6, the faithful remnant is described as “the holy seed” and the stump of Judah. Judah is like a chopped down tree, but the faithful remnant is the stump. In chapter 11, the prophet picks up the imagery and describes a shoot/root rising from the faithful remnant. He explicitly describes the shoot/root as the promised son from the line of Jesse. This is the best way to understand the Servant in Isaiah: The Servant represents God’s people (Isaiah 41:8), but they are rebellious and blind (Isaiah 42:18ff.). From God’s people, the Servant, rises a faithful representative (Isaiah 42:1ff, 53, et al.).

Daniel’s Son of Man

Daniel 7 focuses the hope of God’s people on “one like a son of man,” who is exalted to the throne of God and receives an eternal kingdom. The Son of Man in Daniel is exalted only after the fourth beast “made war with the saints and prevailed over them” (Daniel 7:21) and “shall wear out the saints of the Most High” (Daniel 7:25). From the faithful remnant, what Isaiah calls the stump and the holy seed (Isaiah 6:13) arises the Son of Man (Daniel 7:13), the root/shoot from the stump of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1ff.). The prophets use different imagery but the imagery aligns in pointing to one who will rise from the suffering and judgment of God’s people, one who will inherit an eternal kingdom, the kingdom promised to David by Yahweh in 2 Samuel 7.

Suffering Servant and Son of Man in Mark

These Old Testament ideas from Isaiah and Daniel provide the background for Mark’s portrait of Jesus as the suffering Servant (Mark 9:35) and Son of Man (Mark 2:10, 28; 8:31, 38; 9:9, 12, 31; 10:33, 45; 13:26; 14:21, 41, 62). Fourteen times in Mark, Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man, including one especially noteworthy instance where he cites Daniel 7 and explicitly ties it to his identity as God’s Messiah. As he is standing trial and suffering, offering himself as the atoning sacrifice envisioned by Isaiah as the Suffering Servant, Jesus is asked, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus responds, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:61–62), a clear reference to Daniel 7:13–15. Jesus obeys the Father into and through death, and he rises as the first fruit of new creation (Mark 16).

Conclusion

In conclusion, and in reference to the outline of Mark provided above, Jesus’s exaltation through suffering is the heart of the misunderstanding in Mark (A). It’s the secret of the explanation of chapters 4–8 (B). Following Jesus in and through suffering is the call of discipleship (B′). Over half of Mark (chapters 8–16) is directly focused on the final week of his life. Jesus’s obedience in excruciating suffering is the glory we will praise him for forever (A′). No amount of misunderstanding or rejection can change the reality of God’s new creation power dwelling in and flowing through Jesus. As the angels say at the end: “Don’t be alarmed. You seek Jesus the Nazarene who was crucified. He was raised. He’s not here.” He goes before us. We will see him, and we will be like him. Hallelu-Yah.