By Eddie Lombard
31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of man.“
Mark 8:31-33
We have come to the climax of the first half of Mark’s gospel. Peter recognised that Jesus was the Christ, the promised one that Israel had been waiting for, for a long time. So how could he get it so wrong that only a few verses later Jesus rebuked him so sharply: “Get behind me, Satan” vs 33? Jesus gives us the answer right away: Peter did not understand the kind of king Jesus was.
Peter had “the things of man” in mind. Men want a king who will rule with power that can be seen. His army must be big and his enemy must run at the sight of him, but not so with Jesus. Jesus must suffer vs 31. All His people must reject Him even His closest friends. He must hang alone on the cross. In man’s eyes this is a weak king, but with God this is the power of salvation, the Saviour Christ on the cross, rejected and killed. Jesus must suffer because these are the “things of God” vs 33. These “things of God” are the big things in life that have eternal consequences. The things that determine where we spend eternity. Peter did not get that. He still did not see the whole picture, but later he did. By God’s grace his eyes were opened fully and he saw the suffering Christ on the cross as the only hope he had.
Prayer points:
Ask God to help us see why Jesus must suffer
Ask God to help us find our hope at the cross