“The prediction of Jesus’ passion conceals a great irony, for the suffering and death of the Son of Man will not come, as we would expect, at the hands of godless and wicked people. The suffering of the Son of Man comes rather at the hands of ‘the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law.’ It is not humanity at its worst that will crucify the Son of God but humanity at its absolute best (emphasis mine). The death of Jesus will not be the result of a momentary lapse or aberration of human nature, but rather the result of careful deliberations from respected religious leaders who will justify their actions by the highest standard of law and morality, even believing them to render service to God (John 16:2). Jesus will not be lynched by an enraged mob or beaten to death in a criminal act. He will be arrested with official warrants, and tried and executed by the world’s envy of jurisprudence – the Jewish Sanhedrin and the principia iuris Romanorum.”
James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 254.
In Anticipation 