And he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and of the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise [again].
Peter has just confessed Him as the Christ. The Lord answers by speaking of a cross, not a throne, and from here Mark's Gospel turns: the Servant who healed and taught now tells His disciples plainly what lies ahead.
Up to here the Gospel has followed the Servant from one need to another. What He now begins to teach turns the whole book.
It was now too late to make Him known as such. Instead of what belonged to Him as a living Messiah in Israel, He was about to be "cut off and have nothing" (Daniel 9:26). Not the throne of the kingdom but the cross of shame lay before Him. It is the turning point of the Gospel of Mark.
He tells the disciples to say nothing about His being the Christ. Then He takes up a different name for Himself.
So He drops the title of "Christ." He insists first on His place as Son of man, the suffering One, and this suffering comes from the leaders of Israel. As Son of man He was going to suffer, and as Son of man to be raised the third day, which is the real condition of His glory later on.
The new title is not a smaller one. It reaches further than any earthly rule in Israel. But the road to it runs through death.
The nation had rejected Him, so His position as the Messiah is set aside for the time. The Lord takes the wider title of Son of Man. That title leads to greater glories than earthly rule linked with Israel, for as Son of Man He will have universal rule over all created things. But first He must go into death, carry out redemption, and break the power of Satan, death and the grave. Only then does He take His place as Son of Man, with all things put under Him, and show His grace to all men. The time had come to speak openly of this great truth to the disciples, and no longer in parables.
One word in the verse carries the weight of all the rest. He says He must suffer.
The Lord repeats this "must" again and again when He speaks of the sufferings that would end in His death. To understand that word is to go deep into the deepest counsels of God.
Three things made His suffering necessary.
Why should the only perfect, sinless, spotless Man have to suffer? Why should God forsake Him? The glory of God, the eternal counsels of redeeming love, and man's guilty, ruined, helpless condition — all these made it necessary that Christ should suffer. Nothing else could uphold the divine glory. Nothing else could fully atone for sin and clear it out of God's creation for good. Nothing else could bring forgiveness of sins.
The verse names three groups, not a faceless mob. Each stood for a different power in the nation, as one writer shows from Matthew's record of the same words.
At Jerusalem He must suffer many things from the elders (man's authority), the chief priests (man's religion), and the scribes (man's wisdom), and He must be killed. But He does not leave matters there. He adds, "and be raised again the third day."
The sentence does not end at the grave. Yet the disciples could not take in a Messiah who suffers before He reigns.
Nothing seemed harder for the disciples to grasp than the humbling and sufferings of the Messiah coming first, before His glories were displayed. Yet this was the subject, above all others in importance, that the Lord was about to open to them. On the holy mountain He would give some of them a glimpse of the kingdom in its coming glory. At the same time He taught them of the sufferings and death of the Son of man, which had to come first. Could their eyes bear the sight, and their hearts take in its meaning?
- Turn — the time for offering Israel a living Messiah had run out. So the Lord silences talk of the Christ, and Mark's Gospel turns from service to the cross.
- Title — He takes up "Son of Man." That name is wider than Messiah and reaches to rule over all things. The road to it runs through death.
- Must — He does not say He may suffer, but that He must. God's glory, His counsels of love and man's ruined condition left no other way.
- Rejected — authority, religion and learning cast Him out. The best men in the nation are the ones who do it.
- Raised — the same sentence that tells of His killing tells of His rising. Suffering comes first, glory follows. The disciples found this the hardest thing of all to grasp.
And he spoke the thing openly. And Peter, taking him to [him], began to rebuke him.
Just before this verse, the Lord told His disciples what lay ahead: the Son of Man must suffer many things, the leaders of Israel would reject and kill Him, and He would rise again. Here He says it out in the open, with nothing hidden. Peter had just confessed Him rightly. Now the same man rebukes Him, and that raises a hard question. How can a true believer speak for the enemy?
The word "plainly" marks a change in how the Lord teaches. He no longer spares His disciples the shock of what is coming.
"And he said this plainly," for the time had come for His disciples to face the changed situation. Peter's answer was a sad one. He took Him aside and, in his rashness and self-confidence, began to rebuke his Lord. This shows how little he had taken in the truth of his own confession. He was not ready for what it costs to be identified with a rejected Christ.
From here the road in Mark runs to the cross. The hopes the disciples had built on the kingdom collapse.
It was too late now to make Him known as the Christ in the nation that had rejected Him. He turns from all that belonged to Him as the living Messiah on earth. The bright prospect of the kingdom was over. He was about to be "cut off and have nothing." … "And he said this plainly." It is the turning point of the Gospel of Mark. What an immense change this meant for the disciples!
Peter had confessed Him as the Christ. Yet the saying He now speaks plainly is not built on that title. One writer explains the change.
Rejected as "David's Son," He is owned by faith as "the Son of the living God"; but He is also "the Son of man." He was about to be humbled even to death, and that could only be in His human nature. And He will come back to earth again as the Son of man, in His glory… So He drops the title of "Christ," and holds to His place as Son of man: the suffering One first, and this at the hands of the leaders of Israel.
Peter pulls his Master away from the others and corrects Him. One writer weighs what that act shows.
He speaks on the impulse of the flesh, as a natural man… He acts with astonishing boldness. He takes his Lord aside and begins to rebuke Him. The Lord, who rebuked the wind and the sea, rebuked by His own creature! What ignorance of who the Lord is, and what failure, this action of Peter shows.
Peter meant well. That is what makes this moment so searching.
How solemn that true believers can say things with complete sincerity that come from Satan. Peter may have thought he was only voicing his love for His Master. In fact he was doing the work of Satan. He was trying to turn the Lord away from the path of obedience to the Father's will, and he was putting a stumbling block in the way of the disciples. He was looking at it all from a purely human point of view.
Writers here do not treat Peter as a special case. They read his instinct as the common one.
How worthless the mind of the flesh is, even in the leading one of the twelve apostles! The Lord rebuked Peter for his fleshly dislike of the cross of Christ, and could say, "Get behind me, Satan." For it was the flesh's unbelief, selfishness and presumption — no less so because it was hidden under a pious form… What was it that so stirred our Lord? The very snare we are all so open to: the wish to save self, the preference for an easy path over the cross.
Another writer draws a further lesson, and it reaches every believer.
Let us learn that a Christian can have true faith and be taught by God, as Peter was here, and yet the flesh in him stays unjudged. Then he cannot walk in the way this truth opens to him. It is important to remember this; a person can be sincere without knowing himself.
- Plainly — The Lord no longer hides His death. His disciples must face the change.
- Turning point — From here the road in Mark runs to the cross, and the kingdom hopes fall away.
- Son of Man — He drops "Christ" for the title that fits the One who must suffer and rise.
- Sincerely wrong — Peter's kind words did Satan's work. They urged the Lord off the path of obedience.
- The same snare — What moved Peter moves us: the preference for an easy path over the cross, dressed in pious form.
But he, turning round and seeing his disciples, rebuked Peter, saying, Get away behind me, Satan, for thy mind is not on the things that are of God, but on the things that are of men.
Peter has just confessed Jesus as the Christ. Moments later he tries to talk his Master out of the cross. The reply is a sharp rebuke. Jesus does not fault Peter's love. He faults where Peter's mind was fixed: on the things of man, not the things of God.
The phrase at the heart of the rebuke is not about feelings but about the direction of a person's thoughts. Older translations read "you do not savour the things of God." One writer shows the force of the word by where else it is used:
When the Lord rebuked Peter, saying, "Get behind me, Satan," He added, "for you do not savour the things that are of God, but the things that are of men" (Mark 8:33). Two other translations put it this way: "you do not mind," or, "your mind is not on the things that are of God." The same word comes again in Philippians 2:5, where we read, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."
Peter was not plotting. He was speaking out of affection for someone he loved and could not bear to see rejected — which is exactly what makes the moment so sobering:
How solemn that, as true believers, it is possible to make statements with the utmost sincerity which come from Satan. Peter may have thought he was only expressing a loving feeling for his Master. In fact he was doing the work of Satan. He was trying to turn the Lord away from the path of obedience to the Father's will, and putting a stumbling block in the way of the disciples. He was viewing it all from a merely human standpoint.
The exact wording matters. Jesus did not tell Peter to leave Him:
Later there was the case of His servant Peter. Prompted by Satan, he had fallen into human thoughts and would have talked his Master out of the cross. To him the Lord does say, "Get behind me." Christ did not want Peter to go away from Him and be lost, and that is what sending him away would have done. "Get behind me" — not away, but behind me — He says. He rebuked His follower — yes, He was ashamed of him — and He wanted Peter to be ashamed of himself. "Get behind me, Satan," was fitting language then. Satan was the source of the thought behind Peter's words.
The name Jesus used carries its own meaning:
Without knowing it, Peter was taking the place of an adversary, which is what the word Satan means. He was looking at the matter the way men think, and not as one taught by God.
Jesus answered in front of the other disciples, and they are the reason the rebuke was so sharp:
Satan was trying to discourage the disciples by the shame of the cross, and this stirs up the Lord's heart. He loved His disciples. He saw those poor sheep, with the enemy putting a stumbling block in front of them. So a strong rebuke falls on Peter, as the instrument of Satan, speaking on his behalf. Alas for us! The reason was plain — he savoured the things of men, and not those of God; for the cross contains in itself all the glory of God.
The thing Jesus called satanic here is not an exotic sin. It is the ordinary preference for a comfortable road:
What was it that so stirred our Lord? The very snare to which we are all so exposed — the desire of saving self, the preference of an easy path to the cross. Is it not true that by nature we like to escape trial, shame, and rejection? Do we not shrink from the suffering that doing God's will must always bring in a world like this?
The cross He took becomes the road for everyone who follows Him, and two mottos stand opposed:
If the cross had to be His portion, His followers must accept the cross also. For Him, of course, the cross meant atonement for sin, as well as rejection and shame; we share the rejection and shame only. But nature shrinks from, and even resents, this. Its motto (suggested by Satan) is "Spare yourself"; God's motto is "Deny yourself." Someone has rightly said that Peter "at the last denied the Lord because he had not denied himself."
- Mind, not mood. The rebuke targets where Peter's thoughts were fixed — "you are not setting your mind on the things of God" — not the warmth of his feelings.
- Sincerity is no shield. A true believer can mean well and still voice a suggestion that comes from Satan. Peter's loving words did the enemy's work.
- Adversary. "Satan" means adversary. By trying to steer the Lord off the path of obedience, Peter stood in that place without knowing it.
- Behind, not away. Jesus did not send Peter away to be lost. He kept him — rebuked, ashamed, but still following behind.
- Spare or deny. Nature says "spare yourself"; God says "deny yourself." The man who would not deny himself here ended up denying his Lord.