Scripture:
+ GOSPEL: Mark 8:31-38
After Peter confesses his belief that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus tells his disciples for the first time
what is to come. Peter’s response indicates that he does not yet understand the way of the cross that
Jesus will travel.
[Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be
rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three
days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to
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rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get
behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human
things.”
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my
followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those
who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for
the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world
and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are
ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the
Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy
angels.”
After the gospel is read, the following is said responsively:
P: The gospel of the Lord.
C: Praise to you, O Christ.
