But ever be on your guard, so that your hearts may not be loaded down with self-indulgence, drunkenness, and worldly worries, and that day, like a trap, catch you unawares.

Then He told them a story: "Can one blind man lead another? Will they not both fall into the ditch?

The portion of them on the rock illustrates those who accept the message, bubbling over with joy when they first hear it, but it takes no real root. They believe for awhile, but in the time of testing they fall away.

plotting, as if in ambush, to entrap Him in something that might fall from His lips.

They will fall by the edge of the sword and will be carried off as captives among all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled under the feet of the heathen, until the times of the heathen come to full measure.

Then people will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall upon us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us up!'