Coulby,
 
I started reading your postings last week.  I have learned to become excited about the deeper truths hidden in the parables of Matthew, but am alittle confused by your title- The deeper things of Matthew.  Forgive me if I sound trite....but I was looking for deeper things other than doctrine class 204.  I wrote a comment on your Matt. 13 posting and sent it to John. I hadn't opened the scriptures to reread the parable so I only followed the line of thought you had presented and commented on  that.  That was wrong of me and I had to pull myself up short and I asked John not to post it.  Today I have read a few more of your postings and since you are interested in the deeper things of scripture, I would like to present a few things that you might find interesting to consider.
 
In the parable of the sower, Jesus lays out the meaning to his disciples in Mat. 13: 18-23.  It is important to know that the subject matter being shown is word of the Kingdom.  Which kingdom, the one proclaimed by John the Baptist...".the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."  This Kingdom posed no threat to Rome and Ceasar understood this when after questioning Christ, he stated that he had nothing to charge him with that would warrent punishment, certainly not the death of the cross.  If the Kingdom had possed a threat, Jesus would have been charged with treason, but this was a heavenly kingdom being offered, not an earthly kingdom, and no physical threat was present.  To whom was the Kingdom being offered.....the Jews.  The very learned, scholarly and practicing Jews.  The Jews held a position very different from the rest of humanity...they were the only ones referred to as the chosen to represent God to the world.  These were religious people not told to believe, but to repent.  Turn back to something.  How completely different I still haven't figured out, but yes, different.  Now the word of the kingdom was being presented to them.  I will specifically pick only one of the situations Christ talks about, although I could allude to them all.  In verse 20 it says that where the word was "received" in the stony places, that person immediatly received it with joy, but.......    Here in lies the study....if a person is spiritually dead...there is no place for truth to be either received or understood.  How can I state that? You actually stated it really well:

Simply, people like this have become blind to the truth because they are not saved and when you are not saved you do not have the Spirit of God to show you the truth.
 
 To worship God, you must worship Him in spirit and in truth.  In Him lies all truth.  To understand those things from God, you must be spiritually alive.  There is no understanding in something that is dead....just visit the grave yard.  There is no thinking going on there. Dead is dead is dead.... But alive, there comes the receiving of truth and the joy of it.....vs 20.  Does this make sence?  They could receive the truth, but the depth of conviction and/or the pressures of daily living caused that excitement to die.  Afterall they were looking for an earthly savior that would cut the ropes of Rome from their daily lives....who cared about a heavenly kingdom when you still had children to feed, taxes to pay, offerings to sacrifice.....it just seemed so far away from their daily lives.  Kind of sounds like today doesn't it.