The parable of the wedding feast. Remember that one? A king gave a wedding feast for his son. He invited many guests: “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast” (22:4). However, “They paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them” (22:5-6). So, the king sent his servants out in the roads to...

The thing that strikes me from these chapters is the constant jockeying for position and approval and prestige among men, even among the disciples. The Pharisees sought to put themselves above Jesus by asking their trick questions (ch. 19), the rich young man sought self-justification (ch. 19), the laborers in the vineyard wanted more money (ch. 20), and even the mother of James and John wanted them placed at the right and left of Jesus in heaven (ch. 20). Jesus, on the other hand, said of...

The disciples sometimes just seemed slow, slow of learning. Jesus had taught them that a man is defiled from within, not from without. But they did not understand. He asked them, “Are even you still lacking in understanding?” (15:16) On another occasion, Jesus had just finished feeding around 12,000 people (4,000 men plus women and children) with only seven loaves and a few small fish. Almost immediately, after reaching the other shore of the Sea of Galilee, the disciples realized they...