The Gospel According to Matthew Chapter
13
General Comment: Chapter
12 was quite long, but worth the effort to study. We were able to see how Jesus
dealt with the growing hostility from the Pharisees, particularly in debates
over the Sabbath regulations. In Jesus' developing sense of the role God had
given him as the one in whom God had already begun to Reign, Jesus
expresses that, as he will say elsewhere, the "Sabbath was made for
humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath." As a gift, the Sabbath was
not to be a day of forgetting the more important aspects
of community, in mercy, compassion and forgiving others. These days
we live in such a complex world that we probably have only distant memories of
what Sunday used to be like. I can recall visiting with my grandparents in
New Bedford on Sundays and experiencing the quiet of an afternoon on the front
porch with no activity other than going to Church. My sister, a faithful
Baptist, would never think of working on Sunday. I wonder how many of us
keep our Sunday Sabbath as a day of celebration, restfulness, fellowship
and thankfulness of the gift God has given?
In Chapter 13 we read our first parables. These are
wonderful literary pieces that Jesus and other teachers of his time used as a
way to teach a particular truth. The content of many of Jesus'
parables comes from his having been raised in Nazareth in
the upper midlands of Galilee, a "bread basket" area of
Palestine. Generally a parable contains one lesson or truth, mostly about
the ultimate Reign (Kingdom) of God in the age to come, thus they are
future oriented. Often they are not self evident although the details
will be familiar. They are meant to challenge conventional wisdom,
causing the listener to rethink assumptions and presuppositions. We will enjoy
them, and we will learn much from them if we listen to what they say. We will
look at the parables and explanations in a group, then return to
sections about their purpose (vs 10-17) and use (vs 34-35). Try to
read the parables without the explanation because the meaning may
otherwise be blurred.
Parables of Separation
Matthew 13:1-9 The Parable of the Sower
By now the crowds have become larger, people pressing to
hear this young preacher (about 28 years old) that has caused such a stir. He
begins the parable with the word, "Behold," pay attention, this is
important, similar to times he begins a saying with Amen Amen (truly
truly). He uses a familiar farming image; a sower goes out to sow. The peoples'
minds are already forming pictures of the scene. The details of the story
are logical. The ground is not uniform. There are foot-worn pathways, rocky
areas, thorns, but enough good ground to make planting productive. What happens
to the seed is expected. Only the good soil can produce a bountiful crop
according to its fertility. There are two important events, sowing and
harvesting. Both of these activities have metaphorical meanings known to the
hearers. Sowing is teaching or preaching in the present, and harvesting is the
gathering at the time of the new age to come, which also includes Judgment
(as we will see near the end of Matthew's Gospel). Here the sowing is
Jesus' teaching about the future Reign of God. The harvest is when the response
to that teaching and preaching will be judged. The surprise comes at the end
with the rather spectacular yield in the good soil (we shouldn't assign
different degrees of response to different yields - they are all very good
yields). It is at this end point that the listeners have an "Aha!"
moment. What they finally "see" is the Biblical vision
of hope in a time when God transforms the world into one of abundant
productivity and plenty, the time when peace will reign, the harshness of life
will fade away and God will "gather in" those who have believed
what has been taught and have turned back to God.
Matthew 13:24-30 Weeds Among the Wheat
This parable is similar to that of the Sower but with
plants replacing the different soils. The parable looks toward the same image
of the future harvest, the ingathering and separation in God's new
age. As with a number of parables,this one has a more
informative opening, "The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to..."
Notice that the writer uses "Kingdom of Heaven" instead of
"Kingdom of God." This may indicate the Scribal and/or Priestly
vocation of the writer who would avoid writing the word
"God," as is still the case in Jewish prayer books used in worship,
where God is shown as G_d.
In this parable there is also a sower - teacher/preacher,
who sows good seed. The crop grows but the enemy sabotages the field with
weeds. Rather than launch a major weeding project (and anybody with a garden
knows how difficult that is), the wheat and weeds grow together. The outcome is
the similar to the previous parable in which the good harvest is
gathered. Here there will be the obvious harvest separation - a judgment
in the new age to come in which the wheat will be gathered and the weeds
discarded. Frequently the image of fire is used as the apparent fate of
those (weeds, unproductive seed) who do not "measure up." We should
not be too quick to conjure up images of Hell in such pronouncements. Fire
was often used as a metaphor for purification, as in a refiner's fire that
purifies silver and gold from its impurities. In a major strain
of Jewish thought about the future age of God, there is a certain universalism
about those who will be part of that age, with God in God's world. All nations
will come to Zion, all peoples will come to honor God. This vision shuts no one
out, for all persons are of equal worth to God, and are embraced by God's care
and compassion. Being a person with my own imperfections that need refining, I
see God's future as a hopeful future finally open to all.
Matthew 13:47-50 The Good and the Bad Fish
This parable depicts a typical fishing scene in the Sea of
Galilee. Several boats together with their crews would use large
dragnets, some as large as 200 feet long. Dragging them along they would
scoop up any fish in their path, fish of all kinds that would need to be
separated onshore. As with the parables of the Sower and the Weeds
Among the Wheat, this parable also relates to an ultimate judgment
and separation. It is interesting that the word translated as "bad"
for the fish means "rotten," and could be Matthews way of referring
to Christians similar to those noted before who produce bad (rotten) fruit.
Also, note that the fishermen "sat done" to sort the fish. Sitting is
the position the judge takes when in the final judgment the wheat is
separated from the weeds.
Parables of discovery
Matthew 13:31-33;44-46 The Mustard seed, Yeast, Hidden
Treasure and Pearl of Great Price
The delightful, two verse Mustard seed parable is
probably one of the best known of Jesus' parables. Trees were often used
on coins and other artifacts as symbols of great kingdoms in their
full glory. The point is direct. Jesus begins his ministry with a small band of
disciples. He travels, teaches, heals, and invites the crowds to turn to
God. He proclaims a hope in God's future Reign, beginning to grow, almost
hidden like a small mustard seed in the ground but which one day will
become a mighty tree, a Kingdom, whose branches will gather peoples from
all ends of the earth. The parable carries the element of surprise. That which
begins small and unlikely to be sustained in the face of opposition, will
suddenly appear in its fullness and the world will be amazed. Perhaps that is
how Jesus thought of his ministry, small and insignificant, yet destined to
flourish and grow. Who could have predicted such an outcome?
The parables of the Yeast, Treasure in the field and the
Pearl of Great Price speak to the importance of our attention to the Reign
of God as well as the surprise at its unexpected appearance. For Jesus this is
a matter of highest priority. We are reminded here of the saying in MT
6:33 exhorting us to "...strive first for the Kingdom of God." A
small seed turns into a Kingdom greater than any earthly kingdom; a small bit
of yeast placed in enough flour to fill a 10 gallon container produces a
bountiful amount of bread which would feed well over 100 hungry people; a
priceless treasure is found in a field; an extremely valuable pearl is found in
the trader's mart. None are expected. They appear in surprising ways. That,
says Jesus, is the way the fullness of God's Reign will appear, and the
world will be astonished at its appearing.
Matthew 13:18-23; 36-43 The Parables Explained
The Sower
The explanation of the parable to the disciples is generally
understood as the later church turning the parable into an evangelistic tool.
By making the parable into an allegory in which each element has a particular
meaning, a stark distinction arises between those who do not
respond in belief (not-so-good soil) and those who do (good soil). The
difference can be exploited as a way of proclaiming the coming judgment and
separation. The parable loses its primary focus on Jesus' portrayal of the
Biblical vision of hope for people whose hope had been stripped away in
grinding poverty and oppression. Rather than a message of
hope it becomes one of warning to those who might fail to
respond positively to Christian evangelist.
The vision is ancient, framed in the ideas and
images of another time. Yet, do we not need to hope for a better tomorrow,
for ourselves and for the world? In times of the many struggles that all
of us have faced or will face, isn't hope one of the promises that
sustains us? And what of the hopes of others? Do we not hold out a hand of
comfort to those "bought low" as a sign of our shared hope? I recall
a sermon on hope preached years ago by Bob Bushong, a former
Associate Pastor at our Church. It was part of the prophetic vision
of God's future world of peace given to the exiles in Babylon. One line,
"You will no more raise up children for
destruction," was particularly meaningful to me during the last
two years while my grandson served his two tours of duty as a Marine in Iraq.
Every day became a day of hoping. We need hope. The people listening to Jesus
needed hope. It would sustain their days with a vision of what might be, in the
time of God's future.
The Weeds
As with the Parable of the Sower, Matthew creates an
allegory, giving objective meaning to each element. By doing so he
creates a scenario of the tension between two Kingdoms, one of God and one
of the Devil. Each have their children. The good seed are the children
of God's Kingdom and the weeds are the children of the Devil's. Again, as
you may already have expected, with two opposing forces, there will be a
sorting out and separation at the final judgment, with the outcome being in
favor of the children of God's Kingdom. As in all of these parables of
separation, Matthew is looking toward what he believes to be the
imminent return of Jesus as the Son of Man, who is seated and
presides over the final judgment. These parables which carry a sense of urgency, are
well suited to Matthew's evangelistic enterprise. They both warn and promise.
The punishment is more descriptive than a field fire for the burning of
weeds, or the shore side fire for the burning of rotten fish. Now there is
a furnace of fire, envisioning a physical place where such punishment is
carried out. This is a development of a later time, a step beyond any
consideration of the refiner's fire which purifies those who will ultimately be
part of God's new age. Perhaps the change is indicative of the more violent
opposition to Christianity which had begun to take place in the latter years of
Matthew's community, enduring Roman persecution of Christianity as an
illegal religion without standing in the Empire. As with Revelation and John's
Gospel, there is a need to rally the faithful, to stem the tide
of desertion, to bolster the courage of the fearful. It will not be
too many years before leaders of this community are taken to Rome to be tried
and executed, just as Peter and Paul had been before them. it is an age which
we in our own time cannot comprehend.
Matthew 13:10-17; 34-35 The Purpose and Use of Parables
I have kept these sections until now because they are
difficult to understand and generally contradict one another. The second
section is related to Psalm 78:1-4 in which the Psalmist, "will
open [his] mouth in a parable..." The point of the Psalm and the use of a
parable is to openly speak of the traditions of the ancestors and pass them on
to a new generation. There is no mystery here, no hidden meaning. Jesus used
parables because it was a favored way of passing on important truths about God
and God's future age. He uses familiar scenes, characters and activities well
known to his hearers. The parable may make one rethink a perspective, but no one
will walk away ignorant of the meaning and the parable will be the very vehicle
to keep the saying in one's memory.
Comparing this with vs. 10-17 it appears as though Matthew
is saying that Jesus spoke in parables for which he had given the
disciples "...to know the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven,"
which he deliberately did not give to the crowd so that they would not
understand them. This begs the question, why would Jesus hide the
meaning of a parable from his audience to which he is trying to convey the
importance of turning toward God and being part of that Kingdom, the very
subject of the parables? Matthew uses the difficult quotation
of Isaiah 6:9-10 and this is a clue to its presence here. It does not
answer the question of the use of parables, but it does tell us how it is used.
This same passage from Isaiah is used in John's Gospel, the Book of Acts, and
Paul's letter to the Romans. In each case, and no doubt in Matthew's as well,
it is used in response to the refusal of the Jewish audience to believe
and be converted to Christianity. For these Christian preachers, the only
possible reason why their message was being rejected could be because God had
kept them from understanding. For Paul this was only a temporary situation and
when the Gentiles had been brought into the church, God would lift the veil.
John's attempts had also met with failure among the Jews as did the evangelists
Barnabas and Paul in Acts.
In a complement to that, modern Rabbinical thought on these
verses of Isaiah interprets the text as God saying to Isaiah that no matter
what Isaiah says to the people as an effort to bring them back to
God, they will not understand, not because God has told the Prophet to cloud
their minds or that God has done so either, but because the people simply do
not want to understand. It is a prediction of God that no matter what is said,
the people will not turn. They like the way things are and they do not need
God. They will attend the Temple, they may even make an altar sacrifice now and
then, and throw alms offerings into the treasury horns, but it will all be lip
service and not from the heart.
After speaking to the crowds Jesus returned to the family
home in Nazareth. It had been a long and tiring journey, many nights sleeping
on the ground, healing as many as he could, and trying his best to move his
hearers one step closer to God. He was exhausted. But home was not going
to be the restful interlude he longed for. Like a visiting celebrity he was
called on to take Moses' Seat and teach in the Synagogue. People were amazed at
what they heard but could not understand that his words and his acts of
healing were of God and not from his own power. Rather than be happy that one
of their own had been so welcome in towns and villages across Galilee, they
took offense at him. Why would they do that? Why couldn't they just appreciate
him for who he was? Perhaps it was that rather than remain in Nazareth and
bring honor and prestige to the village, Jesus chose to leave and take his
ministry to others. That was God's call but the people could not accept such a
choice. Rather than share Jesus with others they wanted the honor all to
themselves. Jesus felt like Jeremiah, rejected by his own people, and,
"...he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their
unbelief." He would not return home again.
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Notes
1) One rather spectacular image of the future age, in the
Book of Enoch, describes the abundance of the grape vine. Each vine will have
1,000 branches, and each branch will have 1,000 clusters, and each cluster will
have 1,000 grapes and each grape will produce a cor (48 gallons) of wine.
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