Gospel according to Matthew 16

¹ The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked if he would show them a sign from heaven.

² He replied, ‘In the evening you say, “It will be fine; there is a red sky”,

³ and in the morning, “Stormy weather today; the sky is red and overcast”. You know how to read the face of the sky, but you cannot read the signs of the times.

⁴ It is an evil and unfaithful generation that asks for a sign! The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah.’ And leaving them standing there, he went away.

⁵ The disciples, having crossed to the other shore, had forgotten to take any food.

⁶ Jesus said to them, ‘Keep your eyes open, and be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees’.

⁷ And they said to themselves, ‘It is because we have not brought any bread’.

⁸ Jesus knew it, and he said, ‘Men of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread?

⁹ Do you not yet understand? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand and the number of baskets you collected?

¹⁰ Or the seven loaves for the four thousand and the number of baskets you collected?

¹¹ How could you fail to understand that I was not talking about bread? What I said was: Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’

¹² Then they understood that he was telling them to be on their guard, not against the yeast for making bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.[*a]

¹³ When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’

¹⁴ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets’.

¹⁵ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’

¹⁶ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said ‘the Son of the living God’.

¹⁷ Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven.

¹⁸ So I now say to you: You are Peter[*b] and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld[*c] can never hold out against it.

¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.'[*d]

²⁰ Then he gave the disciples strict orders not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

²¹ From that time Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day.

²² Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. ‘Heaven preserve you, Lord;’ he said ‘this must not happen to you’.

²³ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.

²⁵ For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.

²⁶ What, then, will a man gain if he wins the whole world and ruins his life? Or what has a man to offer in exchange for his life?

²⁷ ‘For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and, when he does, he will reward each one according to his behaviour.

²⁸ I tell you solemnly, there are some of these standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming with his kingdom.'[*e]