Matthew 16

In Matthew 12:38, scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign

Mat 12:39 But He answered and said to them,
An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign.
And there shall be no sign given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Now in again in 16:1 they ask for a sign,
and His reply is the same:

Mat 16:4
A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign.
And there shall no sign be given to it,
except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
And He left them and went away.

Their reaction to this is not recorded here,
but I'm guessing it was probably something like stunned silence.

I'd be surprised if anyone had the slightest idea of what he was talking about.

baffling.

Maybe he said it "to confound the wise".

But since Jesus calls Jonah a prophet,
(I'll never wonder if Jonah was truly a prophet after THAT endorsement!)

I wanted to see what Jonah prophesied.

After a quick scan through the book of Jonah,
the only prophecy I see is this:

Well, before that, here is the background:

Jon 1:1 And the Word of Jehovah came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
Jon 1:2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it;
for their evil has come up before Me.

but here is a prophecy:

Jon 3:4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said,
Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!

Of course, Jesus already drew a parallel between Jonah and himself in this verse

Mat 12:40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the huge fish, so the Son of Man shall be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

so I am not questioning that,

but I also see another side of it.

They could have repented right then and been saved!

That's the sign they could have seen.

Just as Ninevah repented,
gained God's mercy,
and made Jonah's prophecy appear to have been incorrect,
so could the religious leaders have recognized what he was saying,
and accepted him.

No matter how much a religion has warped a person,
I believe he is still given the opportunity to truly hear the call,
repent and be converted.

-=-=-=-

Again I try to put myself in the shoes of anyone in the audience that day....

If I had been there at the time, I think I would have been wondering what he was all about,
trying to decide if he was the real deal,
believing that if he was, then I could be following in the wake of a conquering hero.

How could this possibly fit in with the following:

Mat 16:21 From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

Up to this point I don't think Jesus has made a definitive statement that he is the promised messiah
(correct me if I'm wrong).

When John the Baptist asked if he was,
he answered in a different way:

Mat 11:3 And they said to Him, Are You he who should come, or do we look for another?
Mat 11:4 Jesus answered and said to them, Go and tell John again those things which you hear and see:
Mat 11:5 the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel proclaimed to them.
Mat 11:6 And blessed is he, whoever shall not be offended in Me.

See, he doesn't ever really say it.

He has alluded to it,
Prophecies point to it,
His works support it,
but he still lets me draw my own conclusion.
Just as Peter has to draw his own conclusion.

Jesus doesn't say who he is,
he asks.

"But who do you say I am?" (16:15)

and when

Mat 16:16 Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

He doesn't say
"You are correct! I am!"

No, he just blesses him.

He even comes right out and says "flesh and blood have not revealed this to you"

The reason I am looking at this is because of something he has been teaching me,
conveniently summarized in the phrase "actions speak louder than words".

sounds lame maybe,
or maybe too simple to be worth mentioning,
but I have really started to notice how he doesn't proclaim himself by just announcing it.

He shows us.

I guess I have a newer understanding of what it means to call him,

"The Living Word"


-=-=-=-

After Peter takes his step,
Jesus immediately (or "from that time")
starts explaining how he is to be killed.

Sheesh, does he know how to keep us unbalanced or what?

Just when we gain a footing he rocks the boat again!

"C'mon, you don't really have to die, do you?"

and just after Peter rebukes,
we are given a kernel of truth.
(a truth worth building a life around)

Mat 16:25 For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it, and whoever desires to lose his life for My sake shall find it.
Mat 16:26 For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Mat 16:27 For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall reward each one according to his works.

THAT is a powerful statement!

He even gives us a week off to think about it.

Mat 17:1 And after six days...