16
“Only a Wicked and Adulterous Generation Demands a Sign”
1 When the Pharisees and Sadducees came up to Jesus, to test him they asked him to show them this: A definitive sign from heaven.
2 Jesus answered, “When it is evening, ᵖyou say, ‘Fair weather ahead because the sky is red!’
3 And in the morning, ‘Red and gloomy sky this morning, stormy weather today is coming!’ The appearance of the sky ᵖyou do know how to discern, but the signs of the appointed times you can’t?
4 Only a wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it, except one: The sign of Jonah.” Then he left them and went away.
“Watch Out and Be on Your Guard against the Yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!”
5 When the disciples reached the other side of the lake, they discovered they had forgotten to bring along any bread.
6 Jesus, then, said to them, “Watch out and be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!”
7 So the disciples began talking the matter over among themselves, saying, “It’s because we didn’t bring any bread.”
8 Aware of what they were saying, Jesus said, “Why are you talking with each other, ᵖyou of little faith, about not having any bread?
9 Do ᵖyou disciples still not understand? Surely you remember, don’t you, the five loaves for the five thousand and how many basketfuls you gathered?
10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand and how many large basketfuls you gathered?
11 How is it possible that ᵖyou don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? So again, watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!”
12 Then they understood that what he meant was for them to watch out not for the yeast used in bread, but for the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
“Who Is It You Say I Am?”
13 Now when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 “Some say John the Baptizer,” they replied. “Others say Elijah, and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “And what about ᵖyou disciples? Who is it you say I am?” he asked them.
16 “You are the Messiah,” Peter answered, “the Son of the living God.”
17 “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah!” Jesus said to him in response. “For it was not mere mortals, mere flesh and blood, that made this known to you, but my Father in the heavens.
18 And I, moreover, to ˢyou, say: ˢYou are Peter, ‘the Rock,’ and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Sheol will not prevail against it.
19 I will entrust to ˢyou the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven; whatever restrictions or discipline ˢyou pronounce on the earth will have been pronounced in the heavens, and whatever freedoms or pardon you pronounce on the earth will have been pronounced in the heavens.”
20 Then Jesus gave the disciples strict orders not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
21 From that time on Jesus began explaining to his disciples that it was God’s will for him to go to Jerusalem; and to suffer many, many things at the hands of the elders and chief priests and Torah-experts; and to be killed; and then on the third day, to be raised to life.
22 So Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “God be merciful to you, Lord!” he said. “This will not happen to you!”
23 “Get behind me, Satan!” Jesus replied to Peter as he turned his back to him. “You are a stumbling block to me! For your mind is set not on the interests of God, but the interests of men!”
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If someone wants to be a disciple of mine, he must deny himself and take up his cross and continue coming along with me.
25 If someone is set on saving his life, you see, he will lose it. If someone is prepared to lose his life because of me, however, he will gain it.
26 Is it really worth it for a person if he gains even all the riches in the world, yet forfeits his very life? Or what can a person give in return for his life?
27 The Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, you see, and at that time he will ‘repay each person according to his deeds.’+
28 Amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: There are some standing right here who will certainly not experience death while they have a glimpse of ‘the Son of Man coming’+ with his Kingdom.”