Matthew 14:33

‘And those who were in the boat worshipped him, saying, “Of a truth you are the Son of God.” '

Filled with awe at what they had witnessed those in the boat (seemingly more than just the twelve) ‘worshipped' Him. And they declared, ‘truly You are the Son of God'. They now had a deeper recognition of His status than ever before. They had broken through from His being a prophet, to His being something more. Truth was beginning to dawn. Yet it arose from the awe of the moment, it was not the more fully fledged faith that Peter would shortly declare in comparison with other great figures of salvation history (Matthew 16:16).

In Matthew such Sonship is more than Messiahship. Only the demons have previously called Jesus ‘the Son of God' and they were thinking of One superior to themselves in the spiritual world. But God has called Him ‘My beloved Son' (Matthew 3:17) and Jesus has related Himself as ‘the Son to ‘the Father' (Matthew 11:27), as well as regularly distinguishing God as ‘My Father' when having in mind His own authority (Matthew 7:21; Matthew 10:32).

Mark has here, ‘they were greatly amazed in themselves, for they did not understand concerning the loaves, but their heart was hardened.' The point is that because their hearts were not receptive they had not realised the significance of the miracle of the loaves and were thus astonished by just such another proof of Jesus' power over nature. Here we learn what that astonishment resulted in, a recognition of His uniqueness.