- 31 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 scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. 33 But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.
Fate of Jesus Predicted
In the previous passage Jesus acknowledges that he is the Messiah, but here we find that Jesus refers to himself again as “Son of man.” If he wanted news of his being Messiah to remain just among them, it would make sense if he used that title when out and about. Here, however, he is alone among his disciples. If he really acknowledges that he is the Messiah and his disciples already know about it, why continue to use a different title?
Jesus then proceeds to explain what will happen to him in the future, namely that he will be killed but he will rise again. It is interesting that the text says Jesus began to teach them here about how the Son of man must suffer. This means that the teaching is a new development — not something that he had brought up before. Why here, and why now? From this point on, references to suffering increase and multiply until predictions of his death are fulfilled.
Before this point much of Jesus’ story is preoccupied with his working miracles: healing the blind, exorcising demons, etc. All of this serves to spread his name and make him more popular. From this point on, however, few miracles are performed and those that are don’t serve the goal of popularity. Now that he is popular, however, he begins to experience opposition from the authorities as well as the suffering which he predicts as necessary for the Son of man.
Peter tries to “rebuke” him for this — that is to say, Peter is criticizing him. The word used here, though, is the same used when describing how Jesus “rebukes” demons. Why? It’s possible that this might have been for the sake of the gospel’s audience. Much of Mark thus far is very similar to the tales about miracle workers and great philosophers, people assumed to be at least partly divine by virtue of their great works.
The idea of their suffering and dying, however, was not part of the heroic format and would have aroused opposition on the part of Mark’s audience. Peter, then, may be giving voice in the narrative itself to the reactions Mark expected from readers. This allows Jesus to respond directly to possible objections Mark would have wanted to counter.
Jesus interprets it as a form of temptation which makes the scene rather strange. We can imagine Jesus treating it as a “temptation” if Peter said something about Jesus not needing to die in order to achieve his goals (although that would be odd because there is no indication that Peter has any idea what those goals might be). A much more plausible scenario, however, is Peter saying something like “Don’t say that — you can’t die!” But where is the temptation in this?
Jesus’ informing his disciples about his impending death is also curious because in John 20:8-9 we read that they “knew not ... that he must rise again from the dead.” One might try to harmonize this by claiming that they didn’t believe Jesus when they were informed and, not believing, they didn’t really “know” that he would rise from the death. That, however, is a weak rationalization.
It is significant that Jesus describes his eventual death as “necessary” — he “must” suffer many things before being killed and rising again. Jesus’ fate is already determined and there is nothing that anyone can do about it. There is no detailed, theological explanation here of Jesus’ passion like we see in later Christianity.
