The trouble with questions is that, once heard, they do not leave the hearers alone. They are asked of anyone who hears them, whether their subject is properly their business or not. Questions in a narrative are therefore extremely important for the reader of the narrative as well as for the original hearers. As we read this account, the disciples’ questions become our questions. Once these questions are asked, we too want to hear the answers. And since these questions are asked within the narrative, we, the readers, expect to find the answers as the narrative continues. In this way, these questions structures our reading experience, for, as we read on into the next section of Mark’s story, we are looking for the answers to these three questions.
-Peter Bolt, The Cross From a Distance: Atonement in Mark’s Gospel (p. 32)