“And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly.” - Mark 8:31-32, ESV.

This teaching was no parable. Jesus didn’t beat around the bush. “I want you to know that I am going to really suffer soon. I want you to know that although a lot of people are following me right now, soon, no one will be. I want you to know that I am going to be murdered. I want you to know that the religious elders will do it. And I want you to know that I will rise from my grave after three days of being dead.”

Mark wrote that Jesus “began to teach,” meaning the lesson wasn’t a single event. Jesus repeatedly taught these very things to His disciples. Maybe He wanted them to know and be fully prepared for what was coming up. Or maybe He desperately wanted to protect them from being blindsided by the horror that was coming. I can just hear Him say, “Do you understand? Now tell it back to me.”

But I have another theory of why Jesus burned this truth into their brains. He did so because this is the basis for the gospel of salvation. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” Jesus wanted Paul and us to know how to tell the story: the blunt, brutal, wonderful story.

Go tell the story. Begin to teach what happened to Jesus plainly and repeatedly. - Pastor Mike.

BTW, my wife complains that I don't buy her flowers. In all honesty, I didn't know she sold flowers.