I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 13-14.

    In today’s passage Matthew recounts some of the parables which Jesus used in His preaching. It is clear from this passage that Jesus used a lot of parables in His teaching. His disciples asked Him why He used so many parables rather than using less ambiguous language. Jesus answered by saying that people hear what they want to hear and see what they want to see. As a result they do not understand God’s message and do not turn to Him for healing. I have always heard this explained to mean that Jesus taught in parables so that only His disciples, who received more detailed explanations, would understand. However, it occurred to me today that Jesus taught in parables because it is easier to understand a lesson explained in a parable than one without the parables. I come to this conclusion because while Matthew provides explanations for the meaning of some of the parables, he does not do so for all of them. This latter fact suggests that Matthew expected that once people understood the logic of Jesus’ parables they would understand the message of all the rest of His parables.

    I was not going to comment on the parables other than the above, but I have some thoughts I want to share today about the parable of the weeds, the parable of the treasure and the pearl. The parable of the weeds is exactly contrary to the saying, “kill them all, let God sort them out.” My understanding of Jesus’ point here is that we should not seek ideological purity within the Church, because in doing so we might eliminate some who would otherwise produce results in the service of God. This is tempered by Jesus’ teaching regarding Church discipline in Matthew 18 and Paul’s writings regarding the same matter in 1 Corinthians.
    Then we come to the twin parables about the great treasure and the pearl. In both parables Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to something which the individual greatly desired. The desire was so great that the individual in the parable was willing to sacrifice everything else they had in order to obtain the object of their desire. Jesus tells us in these parables that we should desire the Kingdom of Heaven so much that we are not only willing but eager to sacrifice everything else in order to gain entry. This is consistent with elsewhere where Jesus says that we must be willing to leave abandon our father, mother, children, or spouse in order to do God’s will. There should be nothing which we are not willing to give up if by doing so we can enter into doing God’s will.