In nearly every context where I’ve studied this story or heard it taught or preached, the assumption is made that “we” (Christians) are the wheat, and “they” (non-Christians) are the weeds. But what we fail to consider in that assumption is that nobody in Jesus’ original audience was a Christian. Jesus was preaching to first century Palestinian Jews who were deeply entrenched in their Jewish heritage.
Gospel
“Attitude reflect leadership”
Jesus is stripping away all sense of personal privilege. He is revealing all the ways we think ourselves superior to others and places us all, no matter our station in life, on a level field with one another.
Flat tires and sunsets: A story of answered prayer
Sometimes, we have to look through the weirdest circumstances to encounter God. This is a story of one of those times.
I don’t like you, but I really want to love you
The more I try to love people I don’t like, the more I find out that it’s not just hard. It’s actually costly. It requires something of me, something sacrificial.
Authority
It was as if their leaders, the ones who claimed God’s truth, who called them to follow God’s law, who confidently declared who was “in” and who was “out,” didn’t really know God at all.
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