Then Jesus asked them, "Don't you understand this parable? How, then, will you ever understand any parable?

They complain about me. They say, "Who does that man think he's teaching? Who needs his message? It's only good for babies that have just stopped nursing!

He is trying to teach us letter by letter, line by line, lesson by lesson."

Then I thought, "These are only the poor and ignorant. They behave foolishly; they don't know what their God requires, what the LORD wants them to do.

I will go to the people in power and talk with them. Surely they know what their God requires, what the LORD wants them to do." But all of them have rejected the LORD's authority and refuse to obey him.

Jesus said to them, "You are still no more intelligent than the others.

Don't you understand? Anything that goes into your mouth goes into your stomach and then on out of your body.

How is it that you don't understand that I was not talking to you about bread? Guard yourselves from the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!"

Then Jesus said to them, "How foolish you are, how slow you are to believe everything the prophets said!

Jesus answered, "You are a great teacher in Israel, and you don't know this?

I had to feed you milk, not solid food, because you were not ready for it. And even now you are not ready for it,

There is much we have to say about this matter, but it is hard to explain to you, because you are so slow to understand.