NASHVILLE (BP) — This weekly Bible study appears in Baptist Press in a partnership with Lifeway Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Through its Leadership and Adult Publishing team, Lifeway publishes Sunday School curricula and additional resources for all age groups.
This week’s Bible study is adapted from the MasterWork curriculum.
Bible Passage: Mark 8:31-38
Discussion Questions:
- What are some things you MUST do and why?
- Read Mark 8:31-38 in your favorite Bible translation. Why did Peter rebuke Jesus? Why did Jesus rebuke Peter?
- What did Jesus declare He MUST do and why must He?
Food for thought:
Jesus Christ must suffer and be rejected. This “must” is inherent in the promise of God. The Scripture must be fulfilled. There is a distinction here between suffering and rejection.
Had He only suffered, Jesus might still have been applauded as the Messiah. All the sympathy and admiration of the world might have been focused on His passion. It could have been viewed as a tragedy, with its own intrinsic value, dignity and honor. But in the passion Jesus is a rejected Messiah. His rejection robs the passion of its halo of glory. It must be a passion without honor.
Suffering and rejection sum up the whole cross of Jesus. To die on the cross means to die despised and rejected of men. Suffering and rejection are laid upon Jesus as a divine necessity, and every attempt to prevent it is the work of the devil, especially when it comes from His own disciples; for it is in fact an attempt to prevent Christ from being Christ.
It is Peter, the Rock of the Church, who commits that sin, immediately after he has confessed Jesus as the Messiah and has been appointed to the primacy. That shows how the very notion of a suffering Messiah was a scandal to the Church, even in its earliest days. That is not the kind of Lord it wanted, and as the Church of Christ it did not like to have the law of suffering imposed upon it by its Lord.
Peter’s protest displays his own unwillingness to suffer. That meant Satan had entered the Church and was and is trying to tear it away from the cross of its Lord. Jesus must therefore make it clear beyond all doubt that the “must” of suffering applies to His disciples no less than to Himself. Just as Christ is Christ only in virtue of His suffering and rejection, so disciples are disciples only in so far as they share the Lord’s suffering, rejection and crucifixion. Discipleship means adherence to the person of Jesus, and therefore submission to the law of Christ, which is the law of the cross.
MasterWork
MasterWork is an ongoing Bible study curriculum based on works from a variety of renowned authors and offers pertinent, practical messages that adults will find uplifting and enriching. The list of authors and their books to be studied in upcoming months can be found at Lifeway.com/masterwork.
