This text signals the midpoint of Mark's Gospel. Jesus' Galilean ministry is now concluded and he and his disciples start moving spiritually and physically towards Jerusalem. On the course of this journey Jesus begins a series of lessons on discipleship.

Jesus begins these lessons by initiating a discussion about his identity leading to Peter's classic confession that Jesus is "the Christ." But Jesus has much more to reveal to his disciples before they are really able to confess his messianic identity and comprehend what that actually entails. So Jesus silences the disciples, curtails any pride they may feel in guessing his identity, and begins to fill in the blanks in their understanding.

The messiah Jesus depicts in verse 31 is very different from the image Mark himself has tried to conv…