“I am going to be arrested, suffer brutally, and be killed…” is the last thing that Peter heard before he flew off the rails. I say that’s the last thing (though I can’t be certain) he heard because he responded as if Jesus didn’t follow that up with a promise that He would rise again after three days.

His reaction makes sense if all he hears is that the person he is betting everything on is going to die and that’s the end of the story. If Jesus dies and that’s it, then there is no point in denying yourself and following Him. To Peter, the dream would have been over if Jesus dies. Time to head back to the sea and re-open Pete’s Fishing Co.

That’s exactly what we should do too should Jesus had died and stayed dead. The chapter we are studying right now on Sunday nights, 1 Corinthians 15, makes it clear that if Jesus died and stayed dead, then our faith is in vain. We should go back to our old ways of living, we should stop gathering to worship this Jesus we say we believe in, and we should stop telling others about Him. If the man we are betting all on is still dead, let’s pack it up and call it a day on the Christian faith.

However, had Peter kept listening, he would have heard the whole promise! Sure, he would have heard Jesus say that he would suffer and die, but he also would have heard the promise that ensured his death wouldn’t be in vain, namely, the promise of His resurrection. He would have heard the one promise that makes the death of Jesus more than just another ordinary death by crucifixion. He would have heard the one promise that ensures the identity of Jesus truly being the Son of God. He would have heard the one promise that makes Jesus’s death not in vain. Thank God for promising His Son would live after His death, and thank God for keeping such a promise!

As Christians today, we look back to Jesus’s words in Mark 8:31 not as a promise to be anticipated, but as a promise that has been fulfilled. We don’t look ahead nervously wondering if His promise to come back to life would come true, we get to look back in faith knowing that it did. So, we get to look to Easter this year and every year, not as a promise that we should anticipate, but as a promise fulfilled that we should celebrate!