In this section, Jesus the Son of Man suffers, is rejected by Jewish authorities, and is killed, just as he prophesied (8:31; 9:31; 10:32–34). At this point in the narrative, the Markan audience is well prepared to accept the shocking motif of the tormented and executed messiah, since Jesus’s words have been proved to be reliable and are supported by the scriptural prophecies woven into the account (see Marcus 1992b, 153–98; Ahearne-Kroll 2007). Nonetheless, these events are under