Mark 8:31-33

Verse 31)

"And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again"


Note that Jesus explains His role as Messiah. He was not the conquering Prince others expected Him to be...NO, He was to be the sacrificial Lamb recognized by John the Baptist! This verse, then, is Jesus' response to His disciples' assumption of who Messiah should be! They might think they know whom Jesus is...but He now tells them who Messiah IS!

Even so, we know that still the disciples will not completely understand...but before we go on and on about their lack of understanding we have to face the sad reality that we are just as guilty of not always letting what the Word says convince us! What do I mean by this? Well, how often to we try to make for ourselves a god in the image of what we desire in a god? We create this god in our own image, rather than worshipping the God Who is revealed in the blessed Scriptures!
Indeed, our expectations too often determine what we will believe and how we will act! We are quicker to make Jesus what we want Him to be rather than worship Him as He has revealed Himself to us.

Before we examine this phrase "Son of Man," let us look closely at a small word in here. The Greek word translated as "must" is die, it gives the sense of the word "necessary" even "binding." So Jesus says He "must" suffer many things...It was necessary for Him to do so. This was something that had to come to pass.

Why "must" these things happen?

While we can say refer to many things such as the salvation of man and His sinless nature being the only acceptable sacrifice, there is an even more simple reason why these things "must" happen. What is that reason?

God said they must happen!

Look closely at Isaiah 53

In other words, because the Scriptures needed to be fulfilled!

This is a common theme throughout the NT...events occurred that were fulfillment of prophecy and lest God cease being God they would happen as proclaimed by the prophets of the Living God! And the scourging, death, and resurrection of our Lord was the greatest of the prophecies...the first one ever proclaimed in the Scriptures (See Genesis 3:15)

Now in regards to the phrase Son of Man...I want us to look at the term in the way that Jesus used it of Himself. Why did He identify Himself as "Son of Man" in so many places?

The title Son of Man was used by Jesus to refer to Himself as one who exercised authority...an authority dependent not upon anything other than God...note Matthew 7:29 where we see that the people were amazed because He derived His authority from Himself. See also Mark 2:10.
The Bible records only one instance in which Jesus was referred to as "Son of Man" by anyone other than Himself...Stephen in Acts 7:56.


What can we deduce from this...that the term Son of Man was a title of authority...Yes, Jesus would be temporarily humbled (because He chose to be) but ultimately the Son of Man would and will return as King (Mark 14:62).

Verse 32)

"He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him"

Poor Peter...Jesus has just acknowledged His role of Messiah, and now He says He has to die! In Matthew, of course, Peter has been offered the keys to the Kingdom! You can just imagine that he can just see a temporal position of power at his reach! If Jesus dies, what happens to his position?!? To be fair to Peter, however, we must realize that no Jew who knew anything about the Messiah believed His rejection was possible. Therefore what Jesus is sharing would have been inconceivable to a 1st century Jew!

So Peter takes the Lord aside and "rebukes[s] Him"! The creature rebuking the Creator! If this does not convince everyone in this room that it is truly by God's grace alone that saves and maintains us...then we have no hope!

Verse 33)

"But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, 'Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.'"

Note that the Lord looks closely at the other disciples...He knows that they agree with the sentiments of Peter!

Jesus does not react with concern...saying "Thanks for caring so much about me Peter." NO! He reacts with righteous anger! "Get behind Me, Satan!"

And why do you think Jesus reacted in this way?

For this reason: to oppose the scourging and death of Messiah was to oppose the revealed Word of God! To challenge the Word Himself on a prophetic statement was arrogance! It was to care more about the way things should be than the way God plans them to be! Remember that God owes us no explanation for the decisions He makes...one commentator says that "Jesus shows no inclination to justify the ways of God to men. He simply affirms that the way of the cross is the will of God"!

Realize this...when we close our eyes to God's truths we desire the things of men rather than God...when we seek to live in any way other than that which is outlined in the Scriptures, we are not mindful of the things of God.

So then what should we take away from these verses?

How about the following:
We need to be prepared to give an account of our faith to anyone, for we may be asked ourselves...who is Jesus?
We need to accept the Word of God as authoritive in all areas of our lives
When we read the Scriptures, we should be prepared to consider our preconceived notions, our prejudices, our personal “feelings” as secondary to the teachings of Scripture!

Amen?