Having just made a great statement Peter now gets it completely wrong. This should serve as a warning to us all. One moment we may well do something that is very Christlike, or receive some wonderful insight from the Lord. This most definitely does not mean that we will not put our foot in it the next minute, it most certainly does not mean that we have insight on all matters. We need to maintain an attitude of humility and trust at all times.
"From that time on ..." Why did Jesus "from this time on" start to explain about His need to suffer? Two reasons (at least). The disciples had realised that He was the Messiah, but they did not realise what this truly meant. Secondly, the time of His death was approaching and they would need to have some understanding of what was going on. Though this would largely be of benefit to them after the resurrection, as they understood precious little before the cross.
Jesus always knew that He came to die and rise again. Sometimes people talk about Jesus becoming aware of what was going to happen to Him. The Bible actually never indicates that Jesus did not know what was going to happen. Note that it says "must go", "must be killed". The events of Easter were not a series of unfortunate events, but part of carefully designed plan.
Peter objects to this. How could the Messiah die? Human understanding mixed with a little revelation is a dangerous thing. Jesus knew that Satan was working through Peter. Human understanding is strictly limited.
Following Jesus involved denial of self. Now note that all this is given in the context of reward. If we think following Jesus is going to be one of triumphalism then we are very much mistaken. But we are equally mistaken if we think it is one of sacrifice upon sacrifice. It does involve suffering, it does involve a cost, but it is suffering for a purpose, not for its own sake.
When we truly follow Jesus we find life.
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