But wait a minute. What about that climactic conclusion in Mark 10:45, which states that “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many”? Does that metaphor of “ransom,” or redemption, not indicate substitutionary atonement? Possibly, if taken as an isolated saying, but certainly not in its Markan context of the journey from Caesarea Philippi to Jerusalem.
