A. Peter’s Confession and Rebuke (8:27-33)

At last, Jesus himself raises the identity question, and the disciples reply with “popular” answers (see 6:14-15), all of which are incorrect. Peter acclaims Jesus as Christ, and he is surely right, as 1:1 indicates. When Jesus begins to teach them plainly about his suffering, however, it is clear that Peter still misunderstands who Jesus is. Apparently, for him, Jesus is the Christ of popular expectation, the glorious King (see Green, Prophecy, 83-96). For Jesus, this view of messiahship had to be modified by the portrait of the Son of Man who, of divine necessity, suffers.