Mark 8:27–9:50
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This is the pinnacle and hinge of Mark’s Gospel. Immediately following Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Messiah in Mark 8:29, the whole Gospel swivels around and begins moving in a different direction. After eight chapters of accumulating amazement at Jesus by the crowds and the disciples (with occasional opposition from the Jewish authorities), Jesus suddenly begins to foretell his coming suffering and death. Halfway through Mark, the disciples have been decisively convinced that Jesus is the Messiah for whom they have been waiting. Now they learn that he will be a suffering Messiah.
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In Mark 8:27–9:50 Jesus begins to predict the suffering and death, followed by resurrection, that awaits him, explaining that such humiliation-followed-by-exaltation is the lot of all who follow him.
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Read through the complete passage for this study, Mark 8:27–9:50. Then review the questions below and write your notes on them concerning this phase of Jesus’ life and ministry. (For further background, see the ESV Study Bible, pages 1910–1913; also available online at www.esvbible.org.)
In Mark 8:27–30 Peter speaks for the Twelve and confesses Jesus as the Christ, i.e., the divinely appointed leader and Messiah (2 Sam. 7:14–16; Psalm 2; Jer. 23:5–6) whom they expect to liberate the Jewish people from the oppressive yoke of Rome (see John 6:15). Peter’s confession is God-given (note Matt. 16:17) but incomplete. How is it incomplete? In light of what Jesus goes on to say in Mark 8:31, what did Peter and the disciples not yet grasp about Jesus? How might this illumine Jesus’ order in Mark 8:30?
Up until chapter 8, we have not seen any predictions of future suffering for Jesus. Instead, we observe:
Scan through Mark 8–10 and notice, by way of contrast, every time Jesus predicts his suffering and death.
Read Daniel 7:9–14, noting especially verse 13. This is the text that Jesus appears to have had in mind more than any other in referring to himself as the “Son of Man” (Mark 8:31). How does the depiction of the “son of man” in Daniel 7 make even more surprising Jesus’ prediction of his imminent suffering in Mark 8:31?
Upon a careful reading of Mark 8:34–38, what is the reason for self-denial on the part of a disciple of Jesus? What is the danger if we resist self-denial and instead pursue the things of the world? How has Jesus set a pattern for self-denial in his own life in the verses immediately before Mark 8:34?
Jesus’ statement in Mark 9:1 is puzzling. Is he implying that some of the people living at that time would see Christ’s second coming1? Was Jesus mistaken about the timing of his return? No. Read 2 Peter 1:16–18, and consider the event that immediately follows Jesus’ statement in Mark 9:1, in reflecting on what Jesus might have been referring to in speaking of “some” of his disciples seeing “the kingdom of God . . . come with power.”
Jesus’ transfiguration2 (Mark 9:2–13) affords a glimpse into the radiant and divine glory of Jesus (Heb. 1:3), who is God’s Son and Lord of all. What is the biblical significance of Jesus becoming “radiant, intensely white” (Mark 9:3), in light of Dan. 7:9; Luke 24:4; Acts 1:10; Rev. 20:11?
Moses represents the Law3 (see Ex. 24:1, 9) and Elijah represents the Prophets4 (see 1 Kings 19:8). What is the significance of these two men from Israel’s past appearing with Jesus in Mark 9:4? Note Matt. 5:17 in considering your answer.
Mark 9:14–29 recounts an episode of a demon-possessed boy whom the disciples seek to liberate but cannot. What does this passage indicate about the key failure on the part of the crowd and the disciples? Note especially verses 19 and 23. How does the father of the boy represent what the disciples lacked, even if not perfectly (v. 24)?
Jesus turns upside down his disciples’ intuitive understanding of what defines true greatness in Mark 9:33–37. How does he do this? How does the broader story told in Mark’s Gospel portray Jesus as supremely displaying the kind of service and humility he commends in Mark 9:33–37?
At first glance Jesus’ statement in Mark 9:40—“the one who is not against us is for us”—seems to contradict Jesus’ statement in Matthew 12:30—“Whoever is not with me is against me.” How do these two statements cohere? In considering an answer note closely just who is being described in each verse. Observe the key phrase that is repeated in both Mark 9:38 and 9:39; likewise consider the context, and who is being described, in Matthew 12:22–32.
In the final section of Mark 9 Jesus teaches about sin and temptation. He has already emphasized that receiving lowly persons in Christ’s name means receiving him (v. 37); now he warns against causing such people “who believe in me to sin” (9:42). This leads to an extended teaching on sin and the measures that must be taken to avoid it (9:43–48). What is the central point Jesus is making in vv. 43–48? Does he mean that we should literally cut off parts of our bodies if they are causing us to sin? In answering, consider the nature of sin as described in Mark 7:20–23.
Read through the following three sections on Gospel Glimpses, Whole-Bible Connections, and Theological Soundings. Then take time to reflect on the Personal Implications this passage from Mark may have for your walk with the Lord.
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REJECTED ON OUR BEHALF. Three times in this portion of Mark, Jesus speaks of his impending suffering (8:31; 9:12, 31). Here we are given a glimpse into the very heart of the whole Bible. Jesus says that he is going to be rejected by the religious authorities of the day, and that is of course true. But at a deeper level, on the cross Jesus felt himself rejected by his own Father (Mark 15:34; Rom. 8:32). Jesus experienced rejection not only horizontally, by men, but also vertically, by God. Jesus felt the full force of ultimate rejection, a rejection that you and I deserve but which, in Christ, we will never experience.
THE LAST AND THE FIRST. “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35). With these words Jesus gave his disciples the secret key to true greatness. But this truth—service leading to true greatness, the last winding up first—is embodied most clearly in Jesus himself. Jesus Christ is the only person ever to walk this earth who truly deserved to be first, to be great, but on the cross he made himself last, servant of all, so that you and I, who deserve to be last, can be treated as first.
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SON OF MAN. Five times in Mark 8:27–9:50 Jesus refers to himself as the “Son of Man” (8:31, 38; 9:9, 12, 31). Though this title assumes Jesus’ humanity, its main significance lies in its hearkening back to Daniel 7. Here Daniel has a vision of “one like a son of man” being presented to “the Ancient of Days,” God (Dan. 7:13). This son of man is no mere mortal—he comes on the clouds of heaven, and is given authority and glory and an everlasting kingdom (Dan. 7:13–14). This son of man, then, is a kingly figure. This fact likely connects this title with the “son of David” who will also, according to 2 Sam. 7:12–16, reign forever (and note Bartimaeus’s crying out to Jesus as the son of David in 10:47–48). Jesus is this coming king.
THE CLOUD OF GLORY. During the course of Jesus’ transfiguration, as he stood with Moses and Elijah, “a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud” (Mark 9:7). Why a cloud? The coming of a cloud, and its representing the presence and glory of God, shows up at important points throughout the Bible, especially in the book of Exodus. The Lord leads his people by a pillar of cloud (Ex. 13:21–22), speaks to his people by appearing in a cloud (Ex. 16:9–10), gives his people the Ten Commandments amid a cloud (Ex. 19:9, 16; 24:15–18), descends in a cloud when Moses enters the tent to speak with him (Ex. 33:9; 40:34–38), and proclaims his name in a cloud (Ex. 34:5). Throughout the Bible the cloud signifies God’s glory-filled presence, and in the transfiguration Jesus appears below a cloud because he is the climactic display of the glory of God (cf. John 1:14). Jesus and the cloud are then explicitly brought together in the final judgment at the end of the Bible in John’s vision of “a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man” (Rev. 14:14).
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SATAN AND DEMONS. “Get behind me, Satan!” says Jesus (Mark 8:33). To whom is Jesus speaking? Peter—but Jesus addresses Peter as Satan. It was not Peter personally that Jesus was rejecting as satanic. Rather it was Peter’s mind-set and worldly thinking, thinking that rejected suffering as a viable path for the Messiah. We learn here the insidious nature of the forces of evil: even Peter, one of the disciples closest to Jesus, was capable of falling into patterns of thinking that aligned with Satan rather than God. On the other hand, in Mark 9 the disciples are concerned that strangers are casting out demons in Jesus’ name (9:38). Mark 8, then, shows us that the work of Satan can be done by those close to Jesus; Mark 9 shows us that the work of God can still be done by those far from Jesus.
HELL. In the course of teaching on temptation, Jesus calls hell “the unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43) and the place “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (9:48). Jesus had already spoken in Mark 8:35–36 of losing one’s life and forfeiting one’s soul. While the language chosen here is metaphorical, the horror of what is being depicted is not. Hell is a real place, reserved for those who refuse to repent and trust Christ. According to Jesus, hell is a place of “unquenchable” torment, a fire that “is not quenched.” Though it is difficult to swallow and almost too horrible to think about, the awful reality awaiting those who reject God’s free offer of salvation is eternal, unending torment under the wrath of God.
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Take time to reflect on the implications of Mark 8:27–9:50 for your own life today. Make notes below on the personal implications for your walk with the Lord of (1) the Gospel Glimpses, (2) the Whole-Bible Connections, (3) the Theological Soundings, and (4) this passage as a whole.
1. Gospel Glimpses
2. Whole-Bible Connections
3. Theological Soundings
4. Mark 8:27–9:50
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Take a moment now to ask for the Lord’s blessing and help as you continue in this study of Mark. And take a moment also to look back through this unit of study, to reflect on a few key things that the Lord may be teaching you—and perhaps to highlight or underline these to review again in the future.
Definitions
1 Christ’s second coming – The OT looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, the Christ. Surprisingly, when the Christ came and the kingdom of God dawned, this new age brought forgiveness of sins yet did not bring full redemption of the body and the physical world. Sin and suffering remained. Thus the Christ has already come once, decisively inaugurating the new world longed for in the OT, and the Christ will come again, bringing to full and final fulfillment the redemption of the cosmos and the eradication of all sin and suffering.
2 Transfiguration – An event in the life of Jesus Christ in which his physical appearance was transfigured, that is, changed to reflect his heavenly glory.
3 Law – When spelled with an initial capital letter, “Law” refers to the first five books of the Bible. The Law contains numerous commands of God to his people, including the Ten Commandments and instructions regarding worship, sacrifice, and life in Israel. The NT often uses “the law” (lower case) to refer to the entire body of precepts set forth in the books of the Law, and reinforced by the rest of the Bible.
4 Prophet – Someone who speaks authoritatively for God. When the NT refers to “the prophets,” it is referring either to a specific group of OT books (e.g., Matt. 5:17; Luke 24:44), or, more generally, to those who spoke to God’s people on behalf of God throughout the OT between the time of Moses and the close of the OT.
The Place of the Passage