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

Today’s passage contains several parables.  I am going to skip over the parable of the sower because I have written about it several times (and will probably do so again in the future).  The next parable is the parable of the weeds, which teaches the opposite message of a saying often quoted for military operations which goes, “Kill them all, let God sort them out.”  In this parable Jesus’ teaching could be summed up as “Let them all live in peace, God will sort them out.”  It is not our job to decide who should be, or shouldn’t be, admitted into the kingdom of God.  Rather, our job is to tend God’s field and allow God to sort the crops from the weeds after the harvest.  After explaining the parable of the weeds Jesus told two parables comparing the kingdom of heaven to a great treasure.  Both of those parables suggest that if we truly understand what God is offering us, we will give up everything else that we have, or could have, and will expend all of our efforts to have it.  Finally, today’s passage concludes with the account of Peter walking on water.  We often hear this story and make the main take away that Jesus walked on water, but that is not the main take away.  The main take away is that Peter walked on water, but only so long as his focus was on going to Jesus.  As soon as Peter got distracted by the wind, he began to sink.  Peter was able to do the same thing Jesus did, when he did so in order to get closer to Him.  The same is true of us, we can perform the miracles Jesus did, as long as we do so in order to become closer to Him.  If we allow the things of this world to distract us, we will begin to sink.

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