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The Jonahs of Matthew 16

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Matthew 16:4Matthew 16:17
A wicked and adulterous generation
looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.		15 "But what about you?" [Jesus] asked. "Who do you say I am?"
16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
17 Jesus replied, "Blessed are you,
Simon son of Jonah, for this was not
revealed to you by man, but by my
Father in heaven.
Is it a coincidence that the Prophet Jonah is mentioned in verse 4 and that we find out in verse 17 that Peter’s father is named Jonah? These observations make me think otherwise:
  1. In the Old Testament Book of Jonah, we see that that Prophet had fled from doing God’s will, i.e., bring the message of repentance to Nineveh (Jonah 1:1-3). In the New Testament Book of Matthew, Peter (taking on characteristics of Jonah) is described as denying Christ three times (Matthew 26:69-75)
  2. Jonah was commissioned by God to preach repentance for the forgiveness and relief from judgment (Jonah 3:4,9-10). Jesus told Peter that in the apostle’s ministry, he would be given the power that could either determine liberty or judgment of souls (Matthew 16:19; Acts 2:37-39)
  3. Jonah had to be “uncaught”, i.e., vomited by a fish in order to win over wicked people to God (Jonah 1:17; 2:10). Peter had to respond to Jesus’ call that the latter leave his fish and fishing business altogether in order to line up with God’s purposes.
  4. Even though Jonah (Jonah 3:4-5) and Peter (Luke 9:1-6) had experienced the miraculous power of the Lord in turning the hearts of people to Him, both had to be warned later that being led by God does not mean doing or experiencing what they want. God basically “laid down the law” that where He leads, they were to follow. For instance, see the reaction of Jonah after Niniveh’s incredible turnaround to righteousness (Jonah 4:1-11) and the rebuke that Peter received from Jesus (Luke 21:18-22) when Peter thought John might be getting off light compared to Jesus’ prediction of Peter’s martyrdom.

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