Matthew 16. I am dying laughing at the exchange that Matthew records in chapter 16. “They forgot to bring any bread.” (16:5) Then, after an oblique chastisement from Jesus, “The began discussing it among themselves saying, “We brought no bread”” (16:7). You just know there was a lot of squabbling back in forth about whose job it was to bring the bread, how someone is always the forgetful one, and how we are always out in the middle of nowhere with Jesus and there’s nothing to eat. Or maybe, just maybe, the person responsible for bread was like – Why bother, Jesus can make more bread anytime he wants to?! Travelling around the countryside in the band of Jesus followers must have been such an interesting journey! No boring days!

In the end, the chastisement was not about the bread at all, but about the danger of the false teachings from the religious elite (16:8-12).

This is a very interesting chapter for Peter. Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do you say that I am? (16:15) and Peter gives an amazing, five-star answer that is the central confession of all Jesus followers today. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:16). Jesus tells Peter that only God could give him so full of an understanding of Jesus’ true identity as the Messiah-King.

There’s a great play on words in the Greek text here. Peter’s name is “petros”, which means pebble in Greek, a small stone. Yet Jesus says, on this mountain “petra” I will build my church. Some people think that Jesus implied the church would be built on Peter, but that makes no sense. The church could not be built on a man (a mere pebble). The mountain-rock that the church is built on is the confession of Peter – the statement of faith that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of the living God! We read in Acts 4:11 and 1 Corinthians 3:11 that the church is built on Jesus Christ, the foundation and the cornerstone of the church. This is also the first mention of the church in the scriptures.

So, Peter gets bonus points for his confession of Jesus as the Messiah. Then Jesus explains to the disciples that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer, be killed, and to rise again on the third day (16:21). Peter would never want his beloved Jesus to suffer and be killed and so he jumps in to counteract Jesus. This earns him a stinging rebuke “Get behind me Satan” (16:23) because Peter is thinking in human terms about self-preservation. He just zeroed out his bonus points for the day.

Jesus concludes this chapter with instructions for his disciples. “If anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (16:24-26). The instructions for us today are the same as they were to his disciples – completely submit to God’s authority.