Peter’s blundering response to the first passion prediction becomes an occasion for Jesus to give a more general teaching (a pattern repeated in 9:35–37; 10:42–45). Here for the first time he speaks plainly—without parables—to the crowds as well as the disciples, outlining the radical demands of discipleship. Now that he has already spoken of the suffering he will undergo, he can explain how all who follow him must share in that suffering. The veil over the messianic secret is being removed. 8:34