Read Mark 8:31-38. What does Jesus teach here about the cost of following Christ?

 The disciples have come to a crucial turning point in their relationship with Jesus. They now know that He is the Messiah. The reader of Mark has known this from the beginning of the book (Mark 1:1) and thus has had an advantage over the sometimes bumbling disciples.

 When Jesus first called the disciples, He said He would make them fishers of men (Mark 1:17). There was no talk of trouble. But now that they really know who He is, He unfolds to them the goal of His ­mission—that it is necessary for Him to suffer many things, to be rejected and killed, and then to rise again after three days.

 It is shocking news. Peter, who just confessed that Jesus is the Messiah, takes Him aside and rebukes Him for saying such things. All of this was told in indirect discourse, but now the Gospel writer reports the words of Jesus, words that must have stung as Peter heard them. He calls Peter “Satan” and tells him to get out of His way since such thoughts are not in accord with the will of God.

 “Peter’s words were not such as would be a help and solace to Jesus in the great trial before Him. They were not in harmony with God’s purpose of grace toward a lost world, nor with the lesson of self-sacrifice that Jesus had come to teach by His own example.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages,p. 415.

 Followers of Jesus are called to have the same goal He has—to take the cross and to follow Him. Crucifixion was the most cruel, humiliating, and intimidating method of execution that the Romans had. Everyone wanted to avoid the cross. So, why would anyone want to take up the cross as a symbol of their devotion to Jesus?

 Jesus explains not only the cost of discipleship but also its great value. In the paradox of Christian faith, losing one’s life becomes the way to find it. In contrast, gaining the whole world but forfeiting eternal life is nonsensical. As missionary Jim Elliott put it so eloquently in his journal of October 28, 1949: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

 “ ‘He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life’ ” (John 12:25, NKJV). How have you experienced the reality of these words?