NOTES for Mar 8:27-31

At first glance, Jesus’ response to Peter’s confession may seem strange: He forbids His disciples to tell anyone about His Messiahship and begins to speak with them about the death on the cross that awaits Him. Yet if we recall the religious and social atmosphere of Palestine in the Gospel era, such caution becomes entirely understandable. Messianic expectations in the Synagogue, and especially among the religious brotherhoods associated with it, were very intense at the time and often almost feverish. Not everyone was prepared to await the Messiah’s coming calmly. Some believed that the messianic war had to begin immediately, that this would provoke God’s intervention in the situation, and that the Messiah would then come sooner. It was precisely these supporters of messianic war who were called Zealots, the “zealous ones.” Jesus, however, who testified to a Kingdom “not of this world,” did not call for any messianic war. Yet He understood perfectly well what would happen if He were proclaimed the Messiah: His “supporters” and “followers” would do everything possible to make Him the leader of yet another messianic religious and political movement and then of yet another messianic uprising. As subsequent events would show, even His closest disciples did not really understand what this messianic Kingdom “not of this world” was. That is why Jesus begins to speak with them about His death and, we may suppose, about His resurrection, in order to prepare them at least a little for what they would have to endure. Although they did not fully understand their Teacher until after Pentecost, these conversations undoubtedly played their part: even if they did not help the apostles understand everything, they at least enabled them to survive the most difficult days, from the Savior’s death on the cross to His resurrection.