Have you ever had something backfire on you, making you feel as though you had spit into the wind? Leo Buscaglia tells about a man who was driving his car on a narrow, winding country road. He came to a hairpin curve and accidentally crossed the center dividing line a bit. A woman driving in the opposite way had to swerve to avoid hitting him. As they passed, she yelled out her window, “Pig!”

Why that - that so-and-so the man thought. Instantaneously, he shouted back, “Sow! Then he rounded the curve and hit a big pig in the middle of the road. There’s a price for everything. And that’s what I want to talk about today not only today, but next Sunday as well.

I

First, let’s get the perspective of scripture. In the passage from Matthew’s gospel, Jesus gives us

A series of parables — mini-…