Mark 14:33 Commentary and Bible Study

Peter and James and John – the privileged three. They are going to be with him and to be supporters, as it were. They won’t fully understand it, but they will be there. ‘And began to be sore amazed and very heavy’, sore amazed. The Greek indicates that he is going to be overwhelmingly shocked and surprised. To use an old-fashioned word, but it's a good one, he is going to be overwhelmingly ‘dumbfounded’, taken aback, aghast. In his humanhood, he will be overwhelmed, even by the foretaste of what awaited him on Calvary. It wasn't the suffering itself, which would reach deeply into his soul. The unseen sufferings of the soul of Christ on Calvary were infinitely greater, infinitely greater, than the piercing of the nails through his hands and feet, and the sores from his flogging, his scourging till the blood ran, and the crown of thorns, and the hanging in the sun. The inner sufferings, far, far outweighed the outer sufferings. And here is a glimpse, a sense of those sufferings, and it was almost crushed him even before the real thing. ‘Sore amazed’ – you could translate it ‘terrified’. The Saviour terrified? Yes, but don’t forget he is God Man. He is not only God; he also has human nature, and human nature now is given a glimpse of what is to happen, that he who is pure will be made sin for us, that he is to have the punishment due to a multitude which no man can number, laid upon him, and he is terrified. Such a pall of deep, deep sorrow comes upon him.