30

The Ultimate Good News and Bad News
(Mark 8:27–33)

Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?” They told Him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.” And He continued by questioning them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.” And He warned them to tell no one about Him. 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. And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” (8:27–33)

No question is more important than, “Who is Jesus Christ?” It is of ultimate significance because how people respond to the Lord Jesus determines their eternal destiny (John 3:36; cf. John 14:6; Acts 4:12). Those who wrongly answer that question will face divine judgment (cf. John 3:18; 1 Cor. 16:22). They may view Jesus as a good teacher, a moral example, or even a human prophet. As this passage demonstrates, those designations are woefully inadequate and incomplete.

The Bible reveals that Jesus was far more than a benevolent teacher or inspirational leader. As Mark states at the outset of his gospel, He is the “Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). The Lord Jesus is the divine Messiah, God incarnate, of whom the apostle John declared:

Repeatedly and clearly, the four Gospels reiterate the theme that Jesus is both the Messiah (e.g., Matt. 1:18; 16:16; 23:10; 26:63–64; Mark 1:1; 14:61–62; Luke 2:11, 26; 4:41; 24:46; John 1:17, 41; 4:25–26; 11:27; 17:3) and the Son of God (e.g., Matt. 8:29; 27:43, 54; Mark 3:11; 15:39; Luke 1:35; 3:21–22; 4:41; 9:35; 22:70; John 1:34, 49; 5:18; 10:30, 36; 11:4; 14:9–10; 19:7). The very reason the gospel accounts were written was to demonstrate those dual truths. As John explained, speaking for himself and the other gospel writers, “These have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31; cf. 1 John 5:20).

The fundamental question of who Jesus is forms the crux of this passage (Mark 8:27–33). At this point in the Lord’s ministry, the Twelve had been with Him for more than two years. Their hopeful expectation from the beginning was that He was the Messiah and the Son of God. As Andrew told Peter, after first meeting Jesus, “We have found the Messiah” (John 1:41); Nathanael similarly exclaimed, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel” (John 1:49). The disciples were likewise familiar with the testimony of John the Baptist, who declared Jesus to be the Son of God (John 1:34) and the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Over the course of Jesus’ ministry, the apostles had been amazed by His authoritative teaching (cf. Mark 1:22, 27; John 6:68), awestruck by His divine power (cf. Mark 2:12; 4:41), and aware of their own sinfulness in contrast to His divine perfection (Luke 5:8; cf. Mark 2:5–7). Only a few months earlier, after Jesus miraculously walked on water and instantly calmed a violent storm (Mark 6:45–52), they had responded by worshiping Him and saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!” (Matt. 14:33). The following day when many of Jesus’ followers deserted Him (cf. John 6:66), Peter said on behalf of his fellow apostles, “We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God” (John 6:69).

As those examples demonstrate, the incident recounted in these verses was not the first time the Twelve had recognized the deity and messiahship of the Lord Jesus (though it is the first such confession recorded in Mark’s gospel). However, it was on this occasion (Mark 8:29; cf. Matt. 16:16; Luke 9:20) that the apostles, through their spokesman Peter, stated that truth with greater conviction and confidence than ever before, doing so against the backdrop of widespread confusion among the crowds and increasing hostility from Israel’s religious leaders. That which began as a hope-filled expectation had become a heart-fixed certainty. Appropriately, this passage marks the climax of Mark’s gospel and the culmination of Jesus’ training of the Twelve. Their discipleship had been intensified over the previous few months, as the Lord increasingly withdrew from the Galilean multitudes to focus on mentoring His apostles. After weeks of concentrated instruction, this essentially constituted their final exam.

From the perspective of Peter and the other disciples, this passage also represents the ultimate emotional trauma: the highest high followed by the lowest low. Peter’s confession about Jesus marks the christological apex of Mark’s gospel, while his subsequent confrontation of Jesus was met by the most stinging reprimand any believer could ever receive.

THE GOOD NEWS: PETER’S CONFESSION

Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?” They told Him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.” And He continued by questioning them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.” And He warned them to tell no one about Him. (8:27–30)

After His final miracle in Bethsaida, the healing of the blind man (8:22–26), Jesus went out, along with His disciples. They traveled north of the Sea of Galilee, walking some twenty-five miles to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, located near the ancient Israelite town of Dan (cf. Judg. 20:1; 1 Chron. 21:2), about forty to fifty miles southwest of Damascus. Situated at the foot of Mount Hermon, near a large spring that fed the Jordan River, Caesarea Philippi was originally named Paneas (or Panias), after the Greek deity Pan (a mythological half goat, half man famed for his flute-playing). When Philip the Tetrarch inherited the territory from his father, Herod the Great, he greatly enlarged the city. In A.D. 14, he renamed it Caesarea in honor of Caesar Augustus. To distinguish it from Caesarea Maritima, located west of Jerusalem on the Mediterranean coast, the city became known as Caesarea Paneas or Caesarea Philippi (so called in honor of Philip the Tetrarch). The city itself was largely populated by Gentiles and thus filled with pagan idols. By again journeying outside of Galilee (cf. Mark 7:24–8:10), Jesus and the apostles enjoyed a reprieve from the oppressive crowds, the antagonistic religious leaders, and the threat posed by Herod Antipas (cf. Luke 13:31). Mark explains that it was while they were still on the way to the region surrounding Caesarea Philippi that the conversation recorded in these verses took place.

According to Luke 9:18, Jesus had been praying, as was His custom (cf. Matt. 14:23; 19:13; 26:36, 39, 42, 44; Mark 1:35; 6:46; 14:32, 35, 39; Luke 3:21; 5:16; 6:12; 9:28–29; 11:1; 22:32, 41–45). After returning to the disciples, He presented them with a “final exam” consisting of only two questions. The first surveyed human opinion about Jesus’ identity; the second zeroed in on the divine truth about who He truly is.

First, He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?” By people (a plural form of the Greek word anthrōpos, a general term for “man” or “person”), Jesus was referring not to the religious leaders but to the uncommitted throngs of people who flocked to hear Him teach and especially to witness His miracles (cf. John 6:2). The parallel passage in Luke 9:18 uses the word ochlos, meaning “crowds” or “multitudes.” Of course, the Lord already knew what the masses thought about Him (cf. John 2:24–25). But He wanted the apostles to fully appreciate the contrast between perception and the truth.

Responding to His question, the disciples recounted the varied popular opinions. They told Him that some, like Herod Antipas, considered Jesus to be John the Baptist raised from the dead (Mark 6:14–16). Others assumed Jesus was Elijah, whom God promised to send “before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord” (Mal. 4:5). But others thought He might be one of the prophets, like Jeremiah, whom Jewish tradition held would return with the ark of the covenant at the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom. In spite of the countless and universally acknowledged miracles Jesus had performed, all of which testified to Him (cf. John 5:36; John 10:37–38), the people still did not believe in Him. They knew He had divine power and thus considered Him to be a prophet like Elijah, Jeremiah, or John. However, because they expected the Messiah’s agenda to include being a military deliverer who would overthrow the pagan occupiers from Rome and establish a temporal and autonomous kingdom in Israel (cf. John 6:14–15), they were unwilling to embrace Him as the Messiah.

After hearing them answer, Jesus followed with a second, all-important query. He continued by questioning them, “But who do you say that I am?” In all three gospel accounts of this event, the word you is emphatic (cf. Matt. 16:15; Luke 9:20). Surveying the opinion of the crowds may have been an educational exercise for the disciples, but Jesus’ follow-up question got to the crux of the matter. Nothing was more important than how they answered.

Like all first-century Jews, the disciples had been raised expecting the Messiah to vanquish Israel’s enemies and establish His kingdom in Jerusalem. When it became clear that the religious leaders had rejected Jesus (e.g., Mark 3:6, 22), and that He would not use His miraculous power to overthrow Rome (cf. John 6:15), the disciples must have wondered if He truly was the Messiah. Those same considerations caused John the Baptist to express similar reservations. As Matthew reports, “When John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples, and said to Him, ‘Are you the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?’” (Matt. 11:2–3). The Lord responded to John by pointing to His miracles, which clearly established His messianic credentials (cf. vv. 4–6). But, as John’s example demonstrates, even the most faithful Israelites struggled to overcome their preconceived notions of what the Messiah would be and do.

Nonetheless, in stark contrast to the popular opinion of their countrymen, the disciples expressed what every believer knows to be true (cf. John 20:31a), and what Mark’s gospel was written to demonstrate (cf. Mark 1:1), that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. Speaking for the rest of the Twelve as he often did (e.g., Matt. 15:15; 19:27; John 6:68), Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.” Peter’s full statement is recorded in Matthew 16:16, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Significantly, this is only the second time in Mark’s gospel that the title Christ (Christos, the Greek word for “Messiah”) has been used; the first being in the opening verse (1:1). The term “Messiah,” from the Hebrew word mashiach, means “anointed one” (cf. Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38; Heb. 1:9). A royal title, it was used in the Old Testament to refer to the divinely appointed kings of Israel (cf. 1 Sam. 2:10; 2 Sam. 22:51) and later came to refer specifically to the great eschatological deliverer and ruler whose coming was eagerly anticipated by the Jews (cf. Dan. 9:25–26; cf. Isa. 9:1–7; 11:1–5; 61:1). With clarity and conviction, and without a shade of doubt or equivocation, Peter proclaimed Jesus to be God’s supreme “Anointed One,” the Savior of the world. After more than two years of following the Lord, the apostles’ doubts about who Jesus was had vanished. Both His deity and His messiahship were firmly anchored in their minds. To be sure, they would still exhibit times of failure and weakness (cf. Mark 14:66–72). But they had come to know that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the Son of God.

The resolute conviction that filled their hearts was not of their own doing. As Jesus told Peter in response, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 16:17). The disciples could take no credit for this theological breakthrough of faith. They believed only because the Father had drawn them (John 6:44), the Son had revealed Himself to them (Matt. 11:27), and the Spirit had opened their eyes to the truth (1 Cor. 2:10–14; 2 Cor. 3:15–18).

With minds full of faith and certainty, the apostles were undoubtedly eager to spread the news about Jesus that Peter had just articulated. But the Lord warned them to tell no one about Him. The word warned (from the Greek verb epitimaō) refers to a strong admonition or stern rebuke (cf. Mark 1:25; 3:12; 4:39; 9:25; 10:13, 48). In this case, Jesus’ insistence on their silence was motivated by more than a desire to quell the unbridled enthusiasm of the multitudes (cf. John 6:14–15). The Lord knew His work was not yet finished, and thus the gospel message was still incomplete (cf. 1 Cor. 15:1–4). It would be premature for the apostles to go into the world and preach the good news until after His death and resurrection (Matt. 28:19–20; Acts 1:8). To demonstrate that this was the primary motivation behind His warning, the Lord immediately began to discuss the events of His passion (Mark 8:31; cf. Matt. 16:20–23; Luke 9:21–22). (For further discussion regarding the reason Jesus issued these types of warnings, see chapter 18 in this volume.)

THE BAD NEWS: PETER’S CONFRONTATION

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. And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” (8:31–33)

The last thing the disciples expected to hear on the heels of this grand moment of revelation and clarity was a death announcement from Jesus. Understandably, the declaration devastated them. They knew Jesus was the Messiah, but they could not fathom the thought that He would suffer and be killed.

Mark notes that Jesus began to teach them about His death, indicating that from this point forward His death would be a repeated theme of His instruction to them (cf. Matt. 17:9, 12, 22–23; Mark 9:31; 10:33, 45; John 12:7). The title the Son of Man, a name Jesus applied to Himself more than eighty times in the Gospels, designated both His divine messiahship (Dan. 7:13; Acts 7:56) and His humanity (cf. Phil. 2:6–8; Heb. 2:17).

As the Lord foretold what would take place, He explained that He must suffer many things. By using the word must, Jesus indicated that the torments He would endure were an unchangeable part of the Father’s purpose for Him. Though Peter failed to grasp that truth on this occasion (cf. v. 32), he would later come to clearly understand and proclaim that Jesus was “delivered over [to be crucified] by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23; cf. Luke 22:22, 37; Acts 3:18; 4:27–28; 13:27–29). The cross was no accident; it was part of the divine plan of salvation from eternity past. As Jesus Himself explained regarding the purpose of His earthly mission: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

The suffering Jesus would face meant that He would be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. The religious leaders of Israel would reject their own Messiah, putting Him through a mock trial, delivering Him to the Romans, and unjustly and hatefully orchestrating His execution. Though Jesus had previously spoken about His death, He had done so in veiled ways. In Matthew 12:40, He told the Pharisees, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” He similarly declared to the temple authorities, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). Now He was stating the matter plainly to His disciples, with a level of clarity that not even they could misunderstand (cf. Mark 8:14–21).

The news sent the apostles reeling. They were convinced of His divine person, but now they struggled with the divine plan. In their bewilderment, they either completely missed or badly misunderstood the part about the resurrection (cf. John 20:9), perhaps thinking Jesus was referring to the final resurrection on the last day (cf. John 11:24). The disciples had no paradigm in which the Messiah, the Anointed One of God who would bring salvation and blessing to Israel and the world, would be rejected and killed by the very people He came to save (John 1:11). Like most of their fellow Jews, they had inherited misinterpretations of familiar Old Testament passages that predicted that the Messiah must suffer (cf. Pss. 16:10; 22:1, 7–8, 16–18; 69:21; Isa. 50:6; Zech. 11:12–13; 12:10). As Isaiah prophesied seven centuries earlier regarding Christ:

In spite of that passage, they were shocked by Jesus’ announcement. In his resistance to his Lord’s words, Peter went from being a spokesman for God (Matt. 16:17) to being the mouthpiece of Satan. As Mark recounts, Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him. Incredibly, a former fisherman had the audacity to contradict the Creator Himself, the one he had just identified as the Messiah and the Son of God. Rather than submitting to his sovereign Lord, Peter confronted Jesus with an abrasive retort, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You” (Matt. 16:22). Rebuke translates the same word Mark used earlier to speak of Jesus’ stern admonition to the disciples (v. 30). The word implies a level of authoritative judgment from a superior to someone under his command or oversight. Not only had Peter presumptuously elevated his own authority above Jesus, he directly contradicted the redemptive purposes of God. What Jesus said must take place, Peter brashly insisted would “never happen.”

If Peter had been shocked by Jesus’ earlier words about Himself regarding His coming death, he must have been utterly shaken by what the Lord said about him. Turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” Matthew 16:23 notes that Jesus also added, “You are a stumbling block to Me.” The fact that Jesus turned around for all the Twelve to hear suggests that Peter was articulating what all of them were thinking. They recoiled at the thought that their Lord would suffer and die, though only Peter had the rash boldness to actually confront Jesus about it. Thus, they all needed to hear Jesus’ rebuke. The word rebuked translates the same word that Mark used of Peter’s confrontation of Christ in verse 32.

Peter’s intentions may appear noble on the surface. He naturally reacted to the thought that the Lord and Messiah whom he loved would be rejected and murdered. Furthermore, he and the other apostles had sacrificed a great deal to follow Jesus (cf. Matt. 19:27). In addition to their hopes for kingdom glory in the future, they had come to depend on Him completely in the present. It seemed impossible that He could be taken from them. But by rebuking Jesus, Peter, beyond forgetting his place, put his own selfish desires above the plans and purposes of God. The short-sighted apostle needed to be reminded that God’s plans transcend human reasoning (cf. 1 Cor. 1:18–31). As God Himself explains, “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isa. 55:8–9; cf. Ps. 92:5–6; Rom. 11:33–36). The disciples did not yet understand God’s plan, but Jesus was operating in perfect accordance with the Father’s will (cf. Mark 14:36; John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38).

In response, Jesus leveled a devastating rebuke that must have hit Peter like a deathblow, “Get behind Me, Satan.” By opposing the purposes of God and demanding Jesus avoid the cross, Peter had actually become a spokesman for the devil. The Lord understood that the plan of redemption and the path to glory required suffering and death (Phil. 2:8–11; Heb. 12:2). Therefore, He would not yield to any temptation that promised a kingdom without the cross (cf. Matt. 4:8–9). He refused to put a desire for personal comfort above His submission to His heavenly Father (cf. Luke 22:42–44). Though the devil tempted Jesus intensively in the wilderness (Mark 1:13), Satan’s attacks did not end there. According to Luke 4:13 (NKJV), after the forty days ended, Satan “departed from Him until an opportune time,” meaning that he was continually looking for ways to tempt Jesus (cf. Heb. 2:18; 4:15). Peter’s severe transgression provided that opportunity on this occasion. Knowing that the cross would spell his downfall and defeat (cf. Gen. 3:15; John 12:31; Col. 2:14–15; Heb. 2:14), Satan tried vigorously to derail God’s plan of redemption. Jesus never succumbed to those temptations (cf. Heb. 2:18; 4:15).

Peter erred greatly on that day near Caesarea Philippi, but he would soon come to understand and cherish the cross deeply. Less than a year later, on the day of Pentecost, he would boldly stand in Jerusalem with the other apostles and proclaim the gospel of a crucified and resurrected Messiah (Acts 2:22–24). Near the end of his life, writing to believers in Asia Minor, Peter explained the glorious significance of the crucifixion: “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18; cf. 2:24). What the disciples considered to be the ultimate bad news on that day near Caesarea Philippi was, in reality, the best news the world has ever received. It was the very heart of the gospel. By dying and rising again, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, paid the penalty for sin and conquered death, so that all who believe in Him might have eternal life (c.f. John 3:16; 6:40; Rom. 10:9–10; 2 Cor. 5:20–21; 1 Tim. 1:15).