Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ (Mark 8:29) is the hinge upon which the whole Gospel of Mark turns. Before this confession, Jesus’s ministry is a revelation of His authority and power to save sinners as the King of Kings (God-Man). After this confession, Jesus’s ministry focuses on His Messianic mission in fulfillment of all God’s promises; it is a mission to suffer to the point of death and then rise from the dead to save sinners (Mark 8:31). If you see His mission in light of His identity, then you truly see who Jesus is. It is at this point that we are sad to say many people think they know Jesus when they simply don’t (cf. Matt. 7:22). This should not surprise us at all, especially since we have witnessed that Jesus’s own students were blind to who Jesus is (Mark 8:17-21). But their blindness would be a temporary reality for them because of Jesus’s determination to save them. His Father showed the Disciples that Jesus is the Christ and Son of the Living God (Matt. 16:17), and the Spirit would patiently bring them to understand Jesus would have to suffer “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45; cf. Acts 2:23-24).
