There's a moment in every marriage, every friendship, every job where you have to decide out loud who you're really with. Not just in your heart. Out loud, where people can hear you. Jesus brings his disciples to a place soaked in pagan worship and asks them to do exactly that — and it's the hinge on which the whole Gospel of Mark turns.
A Question Asked at the Gates of Hell
Jesus and the disciples travel to Caesarea Philippi, a town built out by Philip the Tetrarch and dominated by the worship of the Greek god Pan — half-man, half-goat, wildly unpredictable, blessing one moment and terrorizing the next. That's actually where our word 'panic' comes from. There was a cave there with a spring bubbling out of the rock, believed by the superstitious culture of the day to be an entrance to the underworld — the gates of Hades.
It's in the middle of all that chaos and false worship that Jesus asks his disciples,
"Who do men say that I am?" So they answered, "John the Baptist, but some say Elijah, and others one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered and said to Him, "You are the Christ."(Mark 8:27-29)
Jesus doesn't ask what the textbooks say or what the polls say. He asks what you, deep down in your own soul, know Him to be. Peter gets it right — moved by God the Father, according to Matthew's account. Christ, Messiah, the anointed one, the conquering King. And Jesus tells him he's dead on.
The King Who Wasn't What They Expected
Here's where we need to be honest with ourselves. As Americans, we carry around this idea that we're kings of our own little country. I know I did. Before I met Jesus, I was the king of my own land — I called it Axelandia. My rules, my desires, my agenda. Nobody told me how to live.
But when the real King walks into the room, your little crown better come off fast. Confessing Jesus as the Christ means nobody else gets to be king. Not the government, not culture, not you.
So naturally, the disciples are ready to go conquer something. Peter just declared Jesus the King of kings — let's go! But instead, Jesus starts teaching them something they weren't ready to hear:
"...the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again."
He said this plainly. Not in parables, not in riddles — clearly, so there could be no mistaking it. And Peter, the same guy who just nailed the confession of Christ, pulls Jesus aside and starts correcting Him.
Right About Jesus, Wrong in Pursuit
Jesus' response is startling:
"Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."The only other person Jesus calls Satan is Satan. That's how serious this moment is.
Peter had guts. He had a spine. But he had zero understanding of the things of the Lord. He could grasp the conquering King. He could not wrap his mind around the suffering servant. And that's a warning for us too — you can be theologically correct about who Jesus is and still be completely out of step with what He's actually doing in the world. To be "mindful" of something means to be of one mind with it, in pursuit of it together. Peter was still in pursuit of his own plans, dressed up in religious language.
The Cost of Following the King
From here Jesus lays out what it actually costs to follow Him:
"Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it."
Three ingredients, and none of them are complicated, but all of them are costly.
Deny yourself. The word literally means to cut ties, to disassociate. Not deny some habit or hobby — deny the old you. The king of Axelandia had to die. Your opinions, your agenda, your rights — gone.
Take up your cross. In that culture, a criminal carried his own crossbeam publicly, marked for where he was headed, no matter who saw or what they thought. Following Jesus means being marked — even when it costs you the promotion, the friend group, the approval.
Follow Him. Walk in lockstep. Go where He goes. Agree with what He agrees with. Disdain what He disdains. Not just on Sunday morning — everywhere. It's easy to love Jesus inside these walls. He's asking for the parking lot, the job site, the family reunion.
Jesus asks the piercing question:
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his own soul?"You could build an empire — bank accounts, influence, even good works — and still show up before God having compromised the one thing that actually mattered. Monopoly money looks great at the table. Try spending it at the grocery store.
Embarrassed or Embraced?
The passage lands on this warning:
"For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."Ashamed is just another word for embarrassed. Do you dim the light depending on who's in the room? We'll take pictures with people of influence and brag about the connection. Would you do the same with the King of kings?
Salvation is free to you, but it wasn't free. It cost God His one and only Son. Things we get for free, we tend to treat cheaply — don't let that happen to the cross. It came at the highest possible price, and it's offered to you as a gift.
So here's the real question this passage leaves hanging in the air, same as it did for Peter at the gates of hell: who do you say Jesus is? Not what the culture says. Not what you were raised to believe. What do you say, out loud, with your life? He's not just a good teacher, not just a prophet. He's the conquering King who became the suffering servant so that you could be brought in instead of shut out. Don't be embarrassed by Him. There is no one like Him, and there never will be.
This article is drawn from the message "Embarrassed or Embraced" on Mark 8:27-38 by Pastor David Ax. Watch the full message on our YouTube channel.
