Jesus speaks to his disciples and explains that if they really want to follow him, it’s going to be hard. It’s going to be harder than they could imagine. He explains in verse Mark 8:34, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” That’s hard. It means giving up on your prospects here in order to follow Jesus into persecution, humiliation, and execution. It is a statement that suddenly distinguishes between two groups of people: the crowds that have been following Jesus because he’s been healing people of their diseases and casting out their evil spirits – the crowds that have seen the health and well-being plan in action from Jesus – and his true disciples, those who really want to follow him. To them he offers something entirely different: the death and persecution plan. To be a follower of Jesus means you must prepare yourself for the worst, not the best.

So, what makes Jesus so special that we would follow him into death and persecution? What makes Jesus so unique that we would be willing to abandon our prospects here and now? He does say that if we do we will find life, but what makes this so compelling? It is the person of Jesus more than the promise of Jesus that compels you to follow. The only thing that’s going to compel you to follow Jesus through death and persecution, is Jesus himself.

So let’s look at Jesus is this passage.

Mark 8:27-38 Self Denial – Discussion Guide