Religious Education 

GOSPEL            Mk 8:27-35 

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 

You are the Christ … the Son of Man was destined to suffer much. 

Jesus and his disciples left for the villages round Caesarea Philippi. On the way he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say I am?’ And they told him. ‘John the Baptist,’ they said, ‘others Elijah; others again, one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he asked, ‘who do you say I am?’ Peter spoke up and said to him, ‘You are the Christ.’ And he gave them strict orders not to tell anyone about him. 

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man was destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise again; and he said all this quite openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. But, turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, ‘Get behind me, Satan! Because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’ 

He called the people and his disciples to him and said, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.’ 

 A beginning point for discussion of this week's Gospel with children 

Jesus asked the disciples ‘Who do people say I am?’ 

• What are some words you would use to describe Jesus? 

Jesus wants people to ‘take up their cross’ and follow him. 

• What does that mean? 
• What are some of the ‘crosses’ that people carry?