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Gospel Reading - Secrets of the kingdom

¹⁰His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you always use these hard-to-understand illustrations?”^a

¹¹Then he explained to them that only they were permitted to understand about the Kingdom of Heaven, and others were not.

^12-13“For to him who has will more be given,” he told them, “and he will have great plenty; but from him who has not, even the little he has will be taken away. That is why I use these illustrations, so people will hear and see but not understand.^b

¹⁴“This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah:

‘They hear, but don’t understand; they look, but don’t see! ¹⁵For their hearts are fat and heavy, and their ears are dull, and they have closed their eyes in sleep, ¹⁶so they won’t see and hear and understand and turn to God again, and let me heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. ¹⁷Many a prophet and godly man has longed to see what you have seen and hear what you have heard, but couldn’t.

1. Is implied.
2. Those who were receptive to spiritual truth understood the illustrations. To others they were only stories without meaning.