Monday
Monday
The Necessity of the Cross
He [Jesus] then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and … be killed…. He spoke plainly about this.
Mark 8:31–32
Before we come to the confrontation between Jesus and Peter, it may be helpful to fill in something of the historical background. For more than seven hundred years Israel had been oppressed by the successive empires of Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome—except for a brief intoxicating period under the Maccabees. At the turn of the first century, a number of apocalyptic movements arose, whose leaders made wild promises. Yahweh was about to intervene through the Messiah, they said; Israel’s enemies would be destroyed in a violent and bloody conflict, and the messianic age of peace and freedom would dawn.
Galilee itself was a hotbed of such expectations, and some were focusing their hope on Jesus of Nazareth. Thus John records that “Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself” (John 6:15). But Jesus had not come to be some kind of military Messiah. Hence the command to silence.
But now, once Peter had confessed Jesus as the Messiah, the disciples should be ready to learn about the sufferings of the Messiah. So Jesus “began to teach them [it was a new instruction] that the Son of Man must suffer many things and … be killed” (Mark 8:31). Moreover, he spoke this plainly and openly; there was no need for silence. Peter listened aghast and then exploded. “Never, Lord! … This shall never happen to you!” (Matt. 16:22). Peter would have been familiar with the figure of the Son of Man in Daniel chapter 7, who was given “authority, glory and sovereign power” (Dan. 7:14) so that all nations would worship him. How then could the Son of Man suffer? It was a contradiction in terms. So Peter was brash enough to rebuke Jesus, and Jesus now rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said (Matt. 16:23). The same Peter who had received a divine revelation had now become an object of Satanic deception.
Still today the voice of Peter sometimes drowns the voice of Christ. For like Peter many people deny the necessity of the cross. The cross is still a stumbling block to human pride.
For further reading: Mark 8:31–33