Mark 8:31-38--Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection

Mark 8:31-38
English Standard Version

Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection
31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

​34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

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This is one of at least three separate occasions when Jesus told His disciples about His death and resurrection plainly.  This one sticks out to us though because Peter, who just made a great confession of faith saying, "You are the Christ," is now going to try to forbid Jesus from going to the cross and accomplishing His mission.  Jesus sees this for what it is and now calls Peter an advisory (that is what "Satan" means--we normally think of it as referring to the specific angel named Lucifer who we also call "the devil," which is why it is capitalized here, but I think it had a more generic meaning here of letting Peter know He was on the wrong side of that issue and He should not be trying to rebuke his Master)>

Now, it probably is true that Satan as well as Peter's flesh had some influence here and that this is likely another case where we see Jesus being tempted, tried, and tested.  Jesus doesn't really want to go through the pain and suffering of the cross, but He knows that is what is necessary for our salvation.  He was willing to submit Himself to the will of the Father, even unto the point of death on a cross--a horrible death reserved for the worst of the criminal offenders.

All that conversation had happened privately with just His disciples.  The crowds were not there to hear Him talk of His true mission.  However, after that private conversation was over, He called the crowds to Himself and began to teach them that there was a heavy cost to discipleship and that any of them who wanted to be His disciples must be willing to "take up their cross daily" and follow Him and they needed to stop trying to save their own lives.  For, whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for the sake of the gospel and the sake of Christ will save it (will be given salvation and eternal life).  Anyone not willing to count the cost should not be a disciple of Jesus, and whoever is ashamed of Jeus and denies Him before men, that person will be denied by Jesus before the Father in heaven (salvation and eternal life are given to those who Jesus claims belong to Him--the ones the Good Shepherd claims as His sheep).  When the "sheep" are separated from the "goats" only the sheep will enter into eternal life and the goats (who may look like sheep from a distance, but clearly are not sheep on close inspection) will be sent away into eternal judgement.  Matthew 7 has quite a bit to say about this.  The key question in this teaching of Jesus is right in the middle of his short message, "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?"  We must each answer that question if we are living for anyone or anything other than Christ. (The answer is that it profits us nothing in the long run because all are equally cursed who do not die to self to be born again and receive the new life offered by Jesus and the Holy Spirit).