An Exposition of Mark 8:31-33

We have just hit the climax of the Gospel, and now we are sliding down the

backside. Jesus has just point blank asked the disciples who He is, and

they affirmed that He is the Christ—He is God’s promised, anointed one. He

is the deliverer. 

This is the climax, because all the expectation has been building to this

point, and now that Jesus identity is affirmed, everything moves quickly

downhill toward the cross.

But in the meantime in our passage today the disciples discover that Jesus

isn't exactly the Messiah the were expecting. And as the story unravels, so

do their hopes.