Suffering,rejection &death were in the agenda of Jesus Christ.He has shared openly about what was going to happen to Him in the future with his disciples who believed that Jesus as the Messiah would act in earthly & political terms.(Luke 24:21;Acts 1:6).But Jesus Christ preached about the Kingdom of Heaven.(Matt.4:17)He taught about the character of His kingdom to His disciples.(Matthew chapters 5-7;13).
It was the program of Jesus Christ(Salvation Program)to come in the flesh & offer Himself as Sacrifice for sins of the world.(Ps.40:6-8;Heb.10:4-9).
Animal sacrifices under the Mosaic Law(First Covenant)were not adequate as they could not take away sins.(Heb10:3).The Old Testament sacrifices pointed to Jesus Christ as the perfect & ultimate sacrifice.He came to establish the Second covenant(New Covenant)by replacing the first one.(Heb.10:9;8:13).His sacrifice was efficacious & effective & sufficient.It put an end to the sin problem.No more sacrifice is needed after His perfect sacrifice as there is remission of sin through the shedding of His blood.(Heb.10:17,18;9:22).
Though Peter had confessed Jesus as the Messiah,he thought of Him as a redeemer of Israel who would come to deliver the people of Israel from the rule of the Romans.He didn’t expect the religious leaders to reject Him & to arrest Him & to hand Him over to the Roman Governor so that death sentence would be passed. So Peter took Jesus away and rebuked him saying that such things as Jesus has told would not happen.

Commentary by Alexander
Posted on: 8/6/2008 04:07 am