Just prior to these verses in Mark Peter uses a word for Jesus: “Messiah” (vs. 29). And Jesus immediately tells the disciples not to tell anyone. Why? Maybe it’s because Peter has just used a word he doesn’t understand. They’ll get the message all wrong. They’re not ready yet and Jesus knows it.

And the following verses prove it. To talk about “Messiah” as a label would have connected his mission with “success” (thanks, Scott) and led to more confusion. To talk about suffering, Jesus’ real mission, which Jesus shares freely and openly, is something that Peter (and the other disciples too?) want to hide.

What we hide and what we reveal is telling. Who wants to show their weakness, their vulnerability? Who wants to open themselves to being hurt? Further, who could speak of their own impending death in a way that lacks defensiveness or accusation, in order to reveal the injustice of what “those” people are going to do to me? But there’s none of that feeling in these words of Jesus. It’s just straight-forward, a matter of fact that being Messiah involves this course when you’re “on the way.”

Labels do more hiding than revealing. Labels allow me to dismiss others and their opinions more easily so that I can be more comfortable with my own prejudices. And those labels to which I cling, which give me some judgment that allows me to rise above a more direct relationship and the accompanying vulnerability do not fall away easily. And yet here is Jesus inviting us to see ourselves as we are and to see others as they are because Jesus is willing to be among us just as he is.

(from www.goodpreacher.com/blog/)