Matthew 16

Jesus Christ is not a party favor sent here by God to perform tricks and miracles for our amusement. He is the savior of the world focused solely on glorifying the Father and saving humanity. This is why, when prompted to perform a miracle, Jesus responded to the Pharisees saying that the signs are already present if you have the eyes to see them. Then He says something really interesting. He says that He will give them the sign of Jonah.

Christ is comparing Himself to Jonah in that Jonah spent three days in the belly of the fish while Christ will spend three days in the belly of the earth. When Jonah was brought forth on the land, a major shift occurred in Ninevah and the people repented. When Christ is resurrected, the church will be born and a massive number of people will be able to enter into a relationship with God.

Interestingly, the disciples still didn't understand. Jesus tried to tell them to guard against the incorrect teachings of the Pharisees and they thought He was talking about food. I think that if I had just seen Jesus feed five thousand people, and then He turned around and fed four thousand more with next to nothing to work with, then I doubt that I would ever worry about food again. As long as I have a crumb in my pocket, He can make enough to feed a few dozen anyway.

Since they were not understanding, Christ wanted to get them to understand and to take a stand. They were probably in some ways still trying to figure out what was happening around them. Why was this guy upending everything that they knew? Why was this guy teaching things so different from tradition? And what about all the different things people were saying about Him?

At some point, each of us has to decide what we want to do with Jesus. Who do we listen to? And what do we believe? Christ asked the disciple, point blank, what they heard about Him. And then He asked them what they believed. Peter responded correctly that Christ was the Son of God, and Jesus used that make a point: man, in and of himself, cannot see that; only God can reveal that to us. Sometimes He works through people just like He worked through the disciples, but man, cannot reveal God to anyone. The created can point to the creator, but it cannot reveal the nature of the creator because it cannot understand it.