Matthew 13 – The Listening Plan

Devotional

Matthew 13 begins the parable section of Matthew’s gospel account. And every time I come to this passage I wonder, “What sort of Parables would Jesus use today, in our culture?”

The truths and principles of the Kingdom revealed in Jesus’ parables would still be the same in the western world of the 21st century, but it’s highly unlikely that Jesus would use farming and shepherding parables. Instead He might say, “An investor went to the trading floor to invest, and some of his money he invested in cryptocurrency, some in stocks, some in credit default swaps, and some in well balanced mutual funds.”

I think it’s important that we find the parables that speak Gospel truths to the people of our day, instead of only explaining the farming allusions of first century Galilee.