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

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I want to start by looking at what Jesus says when His disciples asked Him why He spoke to the crowds in parables.  He tells them that they have been given the ability to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but it has not been given to the crowds.  I understand Jesus to mean that His disciples had chosen to follow Jesus because they wanted to learn what He had to teach.  I want to remind you that when the passage speaks of the disciples here it is not referring to just the Twelve.  The crowds followed because they wanted to see His miracles of healing, to them Jesus was entertainment.  They saw what Jesus was doing and heard what He was saying, but they did not try to understand and put it into practice.  Even if they believed that Jesus was the Messiah, they were just waiting for Him to do “his thing”.  I want to note that Jesus was not exactly talking about all of the crowds.  He was talking about those who refused to take Jesus seriously.  Those who say things like, “How can you believe that is true?”  Or, like those today who insist that Jesus could not possibly have risen from the dead.  Those who believe He lived, had twelve disciples, and died on a cross, but reject the idea that He rose from the dead.  They hear what we say about what Jesus’ taught and why we follow Him, but they do not understand.  They see how Christians treat others, but they do not actually perceive it.  Instead, they perceive what they are told about what Christians do by those who hate them and believe such things to be true, even if they have never seen it themselves.  Or, if they have seen Christians in action, they refuse to accept the idea that their motives are what they say that they are.  They have closed their eyes so that they do not see because they do wish to not change.  Those who allow themselves to hear and understand, and to see and perceive will understand that they need healing.  Then they will turn to God and He will heal them.

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