Mar 8:31-38 | KingComments | STEP | Instead of joining the confession of Peter, the Lord is going to teach them something completely different. Peter means by his confession that he sees in Him the Messiah of Israel, the people who will be made head of the nations, and that He will reign. That will certainly be so, but Peter is forgetting something. That is why the Lord tells plainly what will happen to Him. He speaks about His death for the first time. His rejection will be complete. But He also speaks of His rising again. In this context, He calls Himself “the Son of Man”. This means that He is truly Man, Someone of the human race. He Who is the eternal God has become Man. By this He connects Himself with all mankind and not only with Israel. He also became the Son of Man so that He could die and then bring in a great harvest in His resurrection ( ).

‏ Mark 8:31-38

First Announcement of Suffering

Instead of joining the confession of Peter, the Lord is going to teach them something completely different. Peter means by his confession that he sees in Him the Messiah of Israel, the people who will be made head of the nations, and that He will reign. That will certainly be so, but Peter is forgetting something. That is why the Lord tells plainly what will happen to Him. He speaks about His death for the first time. His rejection will be complete. But He also speaks of His rising again.

In this context, He calls Himself “the Son of Man”. This means that He is truly Man, Someone of the human race. He Who is the eternal God has become Man. By this He connects Himself with all mankind and not only with Israel. He also became the Son of Man so that He could die and then bring in a great harvest in His resurrection (Jn 12:24).

The Interests of Men

The Lord has, without using veiled terms, shared from His heart with His friends what will happen to Him. Peter disagrees with this and begins to rebuke Him. How can He think and say such things? Aren’t they here to prevent it? Peter reacts this way because a rejected Messiah doesn’t fit into his thinking. He has just given a wonderful testimony of Him. Yet he did not understand its true meaning, and so we see in him that the most beautiful testimony does not guard against such a slip. Peter sees himself as a great tree that he can put himself so above the Lord to rebuke Him.

The Lord turns His back on Peter. He recognizes this utterance as an utterance of satan and rebukes Peter who has allowed himself to be used as a mouthpiece of satan. As He rebukes Peter, He looks at the disciples, for they must all understand that without the cross there can be no blessing.

Satan will always try to keep the Lord from the way of obedience, which is the way of the cross. He wants to offer Him glory without suffering for it. But God’s way is through suffering to glory. First the suffering must come from the side of men and for the sake of sin from the side of God, then glory can come. First everything that has dishonored God must be removed, then there can be reigning according to God’s thoughts. This is an important practical truth.

Peter acknowledges through the teaching of God that the Lord Jesus is the Christ, but he cannot bear the thought of rejection, humiliation and death. He even dares to rebuke the Lord. To this comes the believer who does not realize that God’s glory is precisely enclosed in the cross. The worst and most dangerous instruments of satan are often believers who fear the defamation and enmity of the world.

Satan has already presented to Christ the glory without the cross. Christ then scornfully rejected that proposal (Mt 4:8-10). Here lies the trap we all so easily fall into, namely the desire to spare one’s own self and prefer an easy path rather than the way of the cross. By nature, we prefer to escape shame, rejection and trial. We prefer a quiet path, respected by people.

Peter does not understand that there is no other way to redeem people. He lacks insight for this. Our way of life and our reactions to suffering show that we too often do not understand that God’s way to glory is only through the cross.

Conditions to Follow the Lord

The way to glory for the disciple is no different than that of his Master: it is by the way of the cross. This word the Lord speaks not only to His disciples, but also to the crowd. It applies not only to those who already follow Him, but also to everyone who wants to follow Him. He tells the crowd what the consequences are of following Him.

It begins with the denial of oneself, of the pursuit of one’s own interests, the establishment of one’s own kingdom, an area where life meets one’s own goals. It is the renunciation of one’s own importance. Then the cross must also be taken up. The cross means submission to defamation and rejection by the world. This implies following the rejected Jesus. The cross, for example, is not a disease from which we can suffer. We do not take up a disease, but it happens to us. Taking up the cross is a voluntary thing. We can do it, or we can leave it.

To follow Christ we have to do two things. One is to deny ourselves. In the judgment of the world, this is negative, because the world is out to uphold itself and to prove itself. The other is to take up the cross. This is also negative according to the judgment of the world because the world only wants to enjoy beautiful things. Suffering has no place in it. If we want to remain with the Lord forever, we must follow Him. And if we want to follow Him, we must experience what He experienced on our way after Him.

In following Christ, things are quite different from what they are in the world. There is nothing more important to a human being than his life. Whoever does everything in his power to preserve it and therefore dedicates himself to a long stay on earth, will lose his life. Such a person has not thought about God and the right He has to the life of every creature. He who looks at his life in connection with Christ and the proclamation of the gospel, has understood what is at stake. Such a person does not arrange His life to be long and pleasant on earth, but follows a Savior rejected by the world because He preached the gospel. He who lives that life fulfills God’s purpose in life. The reward is sharing in the glory into which Christ has already entered.

The question “for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” is important to all who wish to enjoy the worldly things as much as possible. Even if one were to win the whole world, what would it profit him for eternity if he had to spend it in loneliness, pain and darkness? Pharisees and Herodians have won the world, but they lose their souls.

The soul of a human being can’t be compared to anything. Yet countless people exchange their souls for a little earthly or worldly pleasure. They sell their souls to the devil for a little tinsel. The world is the system that feeds self-love and the flesh, in which all kinds of pleasure are used to have fun without God.

Everything is determined by our attitude toward the Son of Man. This is the Name of His rejection, but also of His future glory. He who, through a feeling of fear or shame, does not come to accept the Lord Jesus and His words and testify of Him in an adulterous and sinful generation, will not share in His glory. Such a person does not want to take on himself the displeasure of his adulterous and sinful surroundings. That gives him a temporary recognition of his surroundings, but an eternal rejection by Christ.