Frogprince,

You asked if Jesus was "just messing around with his listeners, switching between references to totally different stages of the 'plan' without giving them any indication that he was doing so"? That is a good and fair question.

You are right that context is important. In the context of Matthew 16, there is a lot going on.

Starting in verse 13, Jesus asks the disciples what people were saying about him. Then he asks them what THEY think. Peter identifies Jesus as the "Christ", the Anointed One(verse 16).

Jesus agrees that he is the Christ, but immediately begins correcting their faulty understanding of what this implied:

"From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised." - Mt. 16:21

Peter didn't like this and began to rebuke Jesus, only to be rebuked himself.

What a let-down! To be told that the Anointed One, the long-promised Messiah, was standing in their midst, and then to be told that he was going to be killed!

That is the context.

So, to answer your question: No, I don't think that Jesus was just messing around with his listeners, switching between references to totally different stages of the "plan" without giving them any indication that he was doing so. I think he was explaining the situation to them one bit at a time, as much as they could understand, "stretching" them to a fuller understanding of something that was more profound than they had imagined.

Kent