Mark 8:21-38

²¹Then he kept saying to them, “◄ I am disappointed that you do not understand yet that you should never worry that you do not have enough food!/Why do you not understand yet that you should never worry that you do not have enough food?►” RHQ

²²They arrived in the boat at Bethsaida town. People brought to Jesus a blind man and earnestly requested that Jesus touch him in order to heal him.

²³Jesus took the hand of the blind man, led him outside the town, he put his saliva on the man's eyes, he put his hands on the man, and then he asked him, “Do you see anything?”

²⁴The man looked up and then he said, “ Yes, I see people! They are walking around, but I cannot see them clearly. They look like trees!”

²⁵Then Jesus again touched the eyes of the blind man. The man looked intently and at that moment he was completely healed! He could see everything clearly.

²⁶Jesus said to him, “Do not go into the town! First go straight home and tell the people there about what I did!” Then he sent the man to his home.

²⁷Jesus and the disciples left Bethsaida town and went to the villages near Caesarea Philippi town. On the way he questioned them, “Who do people say that I really am?”

²⁸They replied, “ Some people say that you are John the Baptizer, who has come back to life again. Others say that you are the prophet Elijah who has returned from heaven as God promised. And others say that you are one of the other former prophets who has come back to life again.”

²⁹He asked them, “What about you? Who do you say that I am?” Peter replied to him, “ We believe that you are the Messiah!”

³⁰Then Jesus warned them strongly that they should not tell anyone yet that he was the Messiah.

³¹Then Jesus began to teach them, “ Even though I am the one who came from heaven, it is necessary that I suffer very much. It is also necessary that I be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the men who teach the Jewish laws {that the elders, the chief priests, and the men who teach the Jewish laws reject me}, and that I be killed {they kill me}. But on the third day after I am killed I will become alive again.”

³²He said this to them clearly. But Peter took Jesus aside and then, because he assumed that the Messiah would never die, he started to rebuke Jesus for talking about dying.

³³Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples. Then he rebuked Peter, saying, “Stop thinking like that! Satan is causing you to talk like that! Instead of wanting what God wants me to do, you are wanting me to do only what most people would want me to do.”

³⁴Then he summoned the crowd along with his disciples so that they might listen to him. He told them, “If any one of you wants to be my disciple, you must not do only what you yourself want to do. Specifically, you must be willing to allow people to hurt you and to disgrace you. That is what they do to criminals who are forced to carry crosses MET to the places where they will be crucified. That is what anyone who wants to be my disciple must do.

³⁵You must do that, because those who try to save their lives by denying that they belong to me when people want to kill them for believing in me will not live eternally, but those who are killed because of being my disciples and because of telling others my good message will live forever with me.

³⁶People might get everything they want in this world, but ◄they are really gaining nothing if they do not get eternal life because they do not become my disciples!/what will they gain if they do not get eternal life because they do not become my disciples?► RHQ

³⁷◄ Think carefully about the fact that there is absolutely nothing that people can give to God that would enable them to gain eternal life!/Is there anything that a person can give to God in order to gain eternal life?► RHQ

³⁸And think about this: Those who refuse to say that they belong to me and who reject what I say in these days when many people have turned away from God and are very sinful, I, the one who came from heaven, will also refuse to say that they belong to me when I come back with the holy angels and have the glorious brightness that my Father has!”