Team Jesus

We are presented with three parables in our Gospel today. First, the Parable of the Hidden Treasure. Second, the Parable of the Pearls. Lastly, the Parable of the Net. I remember in high school when my Christian Living teacher said that the reason why Jesus teach through parables is because it illustrates profound divine truth which imagery is not easily forgotten. I guess because these parables are timeless which the generation today can still easily connect to. In the first parable, Jesus said to his disciples “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” What’s your treasure? Is it money, clothes or your reputation? The parable obviously give us the idea that one’s we know God, all else becomes secondary. In serving God, there will always be a special kind of feeling; and that is joy and contentment. We might not have every pleasure that material things c...

"Whoever has ears ought to hear" - Matthew 13:43 I remember growing up to the stories of the Bible animated to me by my grandmother. It was through her that I first learned about "Papa Jesus" (wrong reference. hehe) and the whole concept of faith. And an important tool back then was being able to imagine things through parables. In the Gospel reading, wasn't that the first thing you noticed? That it was full of parables? I don't know if you find it helpful or maybe even annoying how Jesus, instead of going straight to the point, used parables. As I find myself reading the Bible, I sometimes find that these parables are doing more harm than good. I mean, understanding the Bible is difficult as it is. Why put in these metaphors?  A common misconception is that a parable is as story about characters like animals or even  inanimate objects (i.e the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the talents etc.) But mali pala! Fable yun, di parable! Th...

Jesus taught in parables so that it would be plain and easy to those willing to be taught, and at the same time more difficult and obscure to those who are willingly ignorant. The parable of the sower teaches us to be better listeners with our hearts and not just hearers with our ears. Let us always aim to be the seed sown in rich soil, the one who hears the word of God and understands it, and indeed the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven will be granted unto us. -Micah Chin

                   Pride has been one of the deadliest sins in this world, indeed. Pride creeps into us slowly and silently and before we actually realize it, we start doing things because of pride. How many times have we encountered a problem but refused to ask for help or to accept any help because we thought we could solve it on our own? How many times have we not accepted the negative outcome of things and events in life because we felt that life is unfair but the truth was it was just our ego that was actually hurt?  A lot of times we put too much credit on ourselves for achieving and having all the good things in life and forget who we must thank for, for the optimism, the strength, the courage and the determination that we had as we strived to get what we wanted. We tend to choose to carry our burdens alone because we don’t want to burden others. We tend to pretend that we’re all strong and mighty and don’t need help in ...