declaration that he was destined to suffer. He notes that even Peter rejected this role immediately after his remarkable confession of faith in Jesus’ messiahship. For this friendly persuasion, Jesus rebuked Peter in some of the harshest words one finds in the scriptures (Mark 8:33). Bonhoeffer sees Peter as exemplifying the church’s own offense at the suffering of Christ. Here, we see how Bonhoeffer uses Jesus’ rebuke to Peter as a lament at the cowardice of the churches, afraid of suffering in