The disciples are in the first stage of spiritual sight, seeing but not fully. Jesus is indeed the Christ, but they don’t understand what the Christ has come to do: be rejected, suffer, and die. Peter’s rebuke confirms his partial sight. He thinks he’s seeing better than he actually is.

Stories have turning points, and Peter’s confession—“You are the Christ”—is a turning point in Mark’s Gospel. Many New Testament scholars divide Mark’s Gospel in a way that outlines sections before this confession and after it. Peter’s confession is a threshold.
In Mark’s Gospel, the confession, “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:29), occurs after Jesus healed a blind man at Bethsaida. Reading this miracle alongside Peter’s confession can be interpretively helpful, especially since Mark’s Gospel is the only book that records this miracle. What can we notice by reflecting on this miracle and then on Peter’s confession?
The Blind Man’s Partial Sight

The miracle didn’t seem complete, as if Jesus’s first attempt fell short of the mark. Jesus laid hands on the man’s eyes, and then his sight was restored: “he saw everything clearly” (Mark 8:25). Success!
We’re not used to seeing miracles take place in stages. We’re used to something more immediate. When Jesus tells the leper, “Be clean,” the leper is healed instantly (Mark 1:41–42). When he tells the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your bed, and go home,” the paralytic immediately rises (2:11–12). When he tells the man with the withered hand, “Stretch out your hand,” the man stretches out his now-restored hand (3:5).
Mark 8:22–26 reports a miracle in two stages. But this was not a record of dwindling power. The stages are the point.
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You don’t need to worry about being in the inner circle because you know you are loved eternally by God—you are in his heart. You don’t need to worry about pleasing or making yourself better according to worldly standards—you seek to show your thankfulness to God for your salvation by pleasing him. With this mindset, you will be able to set aside the self-centered, approval-seeking motivations and instead experience God’s peace and growth in grace as you focus on your master and Savior Jesus Christ.

We often get caught up with how we appear to others—our image is important to us. The desire for approval can creep into even the simplest tasks that we do, or preoccupy our thoughts. Whether it is the reason behind why we dress or act a certain way, the filters we use on our Instagram or Facebook posts, or the people we choose to hang out with in public, creating a persona or protecting the one we already have can be a sinister motivator. As Christians, how do we break with this self-centered behavior and the idolatrous search for approval by others?
Christians may find themselves to be outcasts because of their faith.
The apostle Peter has some very helpful words in the beginning of his second letter as he writes to Christians who would have been on the outside of society, those who would have been the outcasts. Because of their faith in Christ, they no longer would have fit in with their neighbors or former friends. The urge to slide back into society and feel the old sense of belonging would likely have been a temptation for them as no one likes to be the odd one out. Peter writes in his introduction,

Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. (2 Pet. 1:1-3)

All Christians are in the same “inside circle” as children of God.
Peter tells his Christian brothers and sisters that they have received the same faith that the apostles have. The apostles don’t have a special Christianity because they are apostles. All Christians have the same beautiful and wonderful faith. All Christians by God’s power have the Holy Spirit indwelling them, helping them to face life challenges and grow in godliness. The Christianity that the apostles held is the same as the Christianity of the other followers of Christ (2 Pet. 1:1).
Have you ever felt left out? You look on while the popular girls or guys do their thing. You wish you were on the inside circle. You wish you had something special about you to make people notice. So, maybe you try to make yourself look different by your dress, make-up, lifestyle, activities. You try to play the part so somebody, anybody, will take notice and include you, make you feel special and sought after. With Jesus you don’t need to do any of that.
The most wonderful gift, Jesus himself, has been given to you along with all Christians over the centuries. Along with famous Christians, renowned missionaries, pastors, and evangelists who have done great works for Christ’s church, and even the apostles, you have the same faith. You are not second class. The Holy Spirit dwells in you like he dwelt in the apostles. Jesus is your Savior just like he was the apostle Peter’s. And you didn’t do anything to deserve this “faith of equal standing.”
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These rules I propose to teach to those who are able and willing to learn, if God our Lord do not withhold from me, while I write, the thoughts He is wont to vouchsafe to me in my meditations on this subject. But before I enter upon this undertaking, I think it well to meet the objections of those who are likely to take exception to the work, or who would do so, did I not conciliate them beforehand.

There are certain rules for the interpretation of Scripture which I think might with great advantage be taught to earnest students of the word, that they may profit not only from reading the works of others who have laid open the secrets of the sacred writings, but also from themselves opening such secrets to others. These rules I propose to teach to those who are able and willing to learn, if God our Lord do not withhold from me, while I write, the thoughts He is wont to vouchsafe to me in my meditations on this subject. But before I enter upon this undertaking, I think it well to meet the objections of those who are likely to take exception to the work, or who would do so, did I not conciliate them beforehand. And if, after all, men should still be found to make objections, yet at least they will not prevail with others (over whom they might have influence, did they not find them forearmed against their assaults), to turn them back from a useful study to the dull sloth of ignorance.
There are some, then, likely to object to this work of mine, because they have failed to understand the rules here laid down. Others, again, will think that I have spent my labor to no purpose, because, though they understand the rules, yet in their attempts to apply them and to interpret Scripture by them, they have failed to clear up the point they wish cleared up; and these, because they have received no assistance from this work themselves, will give it as their opinion that it can be of no use to anybody.
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