The Leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees
1 The Pharisees and Sadducees approached, n and tested him, asking him to show them a sign from heaven. o 2 He replied, “When evening comes you say, ‘It will be good weather because the sky is red.’ 3 And in the morning, ‘Today will be stormy because the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to read the appearance of the sky, but you can’t read the signs of the times. 4 An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” p Then he left them and went away.
5 The disciples reached the other shore, and they had forgotten to take bread. 6 Then Jesus told them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” q
7 They were discussing among themselves, “We didn’t bring any bread.”
8 Aware of this, Jesus said, “You of little faith, r why are you discussing among yourselves that you do not have bread? 9 Don’t you understand yet? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand and how many baskets you collected? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand and how many large baskets you collected? s 11 Why is it you don’t understand that when I told you, ‘Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees,’ it wasn’t about bread? ” t 12 Then they understood that he had not told them to beware of the leaven in bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. u
Peter’s Confession of the Messiah
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, ,v he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is? ”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” w
15 “But you,” he asked them, “who do you say that I am? ”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” x
17 Jesus responded, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, ,y because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven. z 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, a and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, b and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he gave the disciples orders to tell no one that he was the Messiah. c
His Death and Resurrection Predicted
21 From d then on Jesus began to point out to his disciples that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day. e 22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “Oh no, Lord! This will never happen to you! ”
23 Jesus turned and told Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.” f
Take Up Your Cross
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. g 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it. h 26 For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life? i 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, j and then he will reward each according to what he has done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” k
16:1–4. In anticipation of the climactic scene of 11:2–16:20, Matthew returns to a number of motifs that he has developed. First, in 16:1–4, we see a challenge to Jesus by Pharisees and Sadducees that demonstrates their opposition to Jesus’s ministry (16:1; cf. 12:14) in a request for a sign. (The analogy to weather signs in 16:2–3 is missing in some early manuscripts, presumably omitted by scribes in locations outside of Palestine where such signs did not forecast the same weather; see the CSB footnote.) In their refusal to receive Jesus and the signs he has already displayed (cf. 11:20–24; 12:41–42), they epitomize the “evil and adulterous generation” that rejects Jesus’s enactment of God’s kingdom (16:4a; cf. 11:16; 12:39–45). Jesus leaves his opponents (16:4b; cf. Jesus’s withdrawals at 12:15; 14:13; 15:21), and they will not reappear in the narrative until 19:3.
16:5–12. As Matthew turns to Jesus with his disciples, a number of disciple-related themes resurface. Once again, Jesus refers to his disciples as “you of little faith” (16:8; cf. 6:30; 8:26; 14:31), this time in relation to their incomprehension of Jesus’s power at the two miraculous feedings. Even though Jesus has demonstrated that he is able to provide food for large crowds, the disciples are concerned that they have forgotten to bring bread with them, in the process misunderstanding Jesus’s warning about “the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (16:6–7; cf. the Pharisees’ teaching at 15:1–20).
16:13–16. The climactic moment of 11:2–16:20 is Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah (16:16). In response to Jesus’s question about how others perceive his identity, the disciples provide a range of responses (16:13–14; including John the Baptist, in line with Herod’s belief at 14:2). Peter speaks on behalf of the disciples, rightly identifying Jesus as the Messiah (16:16). Although Matthew tells his readers that Jesus is the Messiah from the very beginning of the Gospel (1:1), this is the first occasion in which a character within the story identifies Jesus as the Messiah. The additional “Son of the living God” was likely understood as a messianic title within first-century Judaism (cf. 26:63). This additional phrase includes the intimate relationship already demonstrated between Jesus and the Father (e.g., 3:17; 4:3; 11:25–27).
16:17–19. Jesus confirms that Peter’s confession on behalf of the Twelve is true and has been given by divine revelation (16:17). Whether Jesus promises to build his church on Peter himself (as in Catholic interpretation, highlighting the wordplay between Peter’s name and the Greek petra [“rock”]) or on the messianic confession Peter has made (the typical Protestant interpretation), it is clear that Matthew shows the binding and loosing authority of 16:19 to extend from Peter to the rest of Jesus’s disciples and the church itself at 18:17–18.
16:20. After these promises, Jesus warns the Twelve against telling anyone of his identity as Messiah. Given the swiftness of Roman action against would-be Jewish messiahs of the first century, such concern for discretion (cf. 8:4; 9:30; 12:16) would be necessary and wise. It is telling that the Romans crucify Jesus within a week of his public “debut” as Messiah (see 20:29–21:27).
16:21. Immediately after Peter confesses Jesus to be the Messiah (16:16), Matthew narrates Jesus’s first passion prediction (16:21). Jesus explains to his disciples the necessity of his impending suffering and death at the hands of Jerusalem leaders. In two subsequent passion predictions, Jesus indicates that he will be betrayed into human hands (17:22–23) and be crucified by Gentiles (20:17–19), demonstrating Matthew’s emphasis on wide-ranging culpability for Jesus’s execution (see 27:26).
16:22–23. In response to Jesus’s prediction, Peter rebukes him, denying that execution will be Jesus’s lot (16:22). Peter’s response demonstrates two things. First, he has not heard Jesus’s prediction of being “raised the third day” in any meaningful way. This is understandable from the perspective of first-century Jewish expectations. Though a majority of first-century Jews would have believed in bodily resurrection, they would not have conceived of resurrection as a series of individual resurrections. Instead, Jewish hopes focused on a corporate resurrection of God’s faithful people at the time of final restoration (e.g., Dn 12:1–3). So Peter likely did not hear Jesus’s statement here as referring to Jesus’s resurrection ahead of the final, general resurrection (cf. 1 Co 15:20–23).
16:24–28. Matthew follows this passion prediction with a teaching on discipleship that echoes the call to sacrifice that Jesus models. Self-denial and carrying one’s cross provide the pattern for discipleship (16:24; cf. 10:38), just as they are definitional for Jesus’s role as Messiah. Yet the paradox of discipleship is that losing one’s life (Gk psychē) results in finding it. Since psychē can refer to both earthly and transcendent life (often translated as “soul” for the latter), a wordplay is operative in 16:25–26. Jesus defines losing one’s life (and so self-denial) in terms of tangible actions (16:27), which Matthew will illustrate in subsequent chapters (Mt 18 particularly). [Discipleship in the New Testament]