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13:1-9
The parables
To understand the parables of the kingdom, we have to go back to the Old
Testament and look at the Covenants which God made with Israel and Judah.
Without taking these national covenants into account, the parables can easily
become an apparently chaotic and contradictory mess. Many legitimate
spiritual lessons can still be drawn from the parables, but their overall
national meaning is lost.
There are eight parables in Matthew :
1.
The Sower,
2.
The Wheat and Tares
3.
The Mustard Seed
4.
The Leaven
5.
The Hidden Treasure
6.
The Pearl
7.
The Dragnet
8.
The Scribe
Jesus went from the place he had been teaching, and walked down to the
edge of the lake. He was followed by a huge crowd, so he found a boat and asked
the owner to sail it out from the shore a short distance. Jesus sat in the boat
and waited for the crowd to settle, then, using the perfect acoustics of the
flat water between himself and he people, he began to tell them strange,
mysterious stories - at least that is how they understood them.
"This is the parable of the sower" said Jesus, "The sower
went out with his bag of grain for a time of broadcasting. As he sowed his
field, some of the grain fell along the edges of the paddock, where the birds
began to eat it. Some grain fell amongst the stones, where it sprouted, but soon
withered because the soil was shallow and the sun was scorching. Some grain fell
in amongst young thistles, but the thistles soon grew and choked the seedlings.
Some grain landed on good soil, where it grew well, and reached maturity,
producing a bumper crop.
"If you listen carefully, you will understand that this is more than
just a story."
13:10-16
The purpose of the parables
The disciples, who had been sitting listening on the boat, were quite
mystified by the parable of the sower. Of course, they understood the basic
meaning - any child could do that, but they were curious as to why Jesus was
switching from plain teaching to hidden messages, and mysterious double-meaning
stories.
Jesus explained the situation.
"There is a difference" he said, "Between the general
crowd, and my close friends. Those people out there are mainly Jewish, and
ignorant of spiritual things, and a large percentage of them are against me.
Even if I taught them plainly they would not be interested.
"So I am disguising my teaching, which means that only those who
have the right attitude towards me, and who study the Bible, will understand the
hidden meanings. Of course, I want my disciples to understand, but why should my
enemies have the same insights?
"It works like this. If you are keen to follow me, and have the
right attitude, you will increasingly understand the truth. The more you have,
the more you will get.
"But if you refuse to listen, and make light of God's Word, you will
gradually lose anything you might already have.
"So the purpose of these parables is to sort out the men from the
boys! The keen from the lazy! The wise from the foolish! This is an opportunity
for these people to make a choice - they are either sincerely following me for
the right reasons, or they are just here for the free food and healings.
"Unfortunately, I know already how most of them will react. Isaiah
described them clearly when he said :
"This people hears but doesn't listen,
And they see but don't look,
Because they have gradually become insensitive to the truth;
They don't want to listen,
And they don't want to see,
Because they are unwilling to face the conclusion which this will lead to
. . .
Namely, that I am the Messiah!
I have come to restore these people
But they don't want to be restored."
"But you" said Jesus to his disciples, "Are different. You
are hearing and listening, and you are looking and seeing! I hope you realise
just how privileged you are!? After thousands of years, I the Messiah have come,
and you are hearing me speak, and seeing me do miracles. This little space of
time in which you are living is a moment in history which many people, including
the prophets, have been longing for! My life has made this generation unique,
and you have been fortunate enough to be alive in it!"
13:18-23
The Sower parable explained
"Now listen. Here is the code-breaker for the parable of the sower.
The main elements are as follows :
The
sower = those who preach the gospel (Me, and my followers)
The
field = people everywhere who hear the gospel
The
birds = Satan and his followers
The
stones = a superficial, trivial attitude
The
thorns = cares and pleasures of the world
The
soil = an open, willing, sincere and faithful attitude.
"And this is how the parable works in principle : Some people hear
the gospel, but, for one reason or another, they don't see any relevance or
importance in it. Satan uses various methods of distracting or spoiling the
gospel, so these people miss the opportunity to be saved.
"Some people are shallow, or superficial in their attitudes. When
they hear the gospel they think it is a wonderful thing, but they value it in
the same way that they value worldly things. Soon the novelty passes, and they
grow bored with it. Life gets difficult, or they find that God doesn't
automatically give them a life of bliss and happiness. They give up and go
chasing other things.
"Some people think the gospel is worth believing, but they soon
discover that God's way and the world's way are diametrically opposed, so they
have to make a choice. Unfortunately for them, they choose the popularity of the
world, the gaining of wealth, the running of a business, and the many other
(legitimate, and often very good) but time-consuming pursuits of the world,
rather than the dedicated Christian life.
"And lastly, there are people who decided to go all-out for Me, and
do everything I command, and centre everything they do on My plan for their
lives. These people develop Christian characters (Gal. 5:22,23), and win other
people to My cause."
13:24-30
The Wheat and Tares
"God's kingdom on earth is like a huge field which a good and
wealthy farmer owns. The good farmer goes out, from time to time, to sow wheat
all over his field, but when he has gone home for the night, and falls asleep,
the farmer next door comes along and throws tare seeds all over the places where
the wheat has been sown. This wicked neighbour hates to see the good farmer
being blessed, so he does everything he can to ruin things.
"The seasons pass, and soon the seeds begin to sprout. Up came the
wheat plants and the tares together, flowering and growing in a tangled mess.
"The good farmer's servants are concerned.
"Sir" they said, "We are sure that you used the best wheat
seeds when you went sowing last year . . . where did all these tares comes
from?"
"My wicked neighbour did this" said the good farmer, "He
threw tare seeds everywhere during the night after I was finished with my
sowing."
"We can gather the tares from among the wheat plants?"
suggested the servants.
"No" said the good farmer, "That would not be sensible,
because the roots of the tares and wheat are so close together, if you pulled
the tares up, you would damage the wheat. The best thing to do is put up with
the tares for a bit longer, then, when the wheat is ready for harvest, rip the
tares out. It won't matter then, because the wheat will be in fruit, so you
won't lose anything.
"When you have cleansed the crop, pile the tares somewhere and burn
them. That will get rid of their seeds, then harvest the wheat. The last thing I
want to do is lose my crop!"
(In the Greek, 'tares' = 'zewan' - not darnel as some would have it.
Zewan grows in Palestine today. It looks like wheat as it grows, but when it
matures it turns almost black. If the seeds of zewan are mixed with wheat they
produce a bitter flavour, and are poisonous.)
13:31,32
The parable of the mustard seed
"God's kingdom on earth is like a field which a good and wealthy
farmer owns. The good farmer goes out one day to sow an area of herbs, but in
amongst his herb seeds he has one mustard seed, which he plants. Although this
seed is very small, it produces a wonderful tree, which towers above all the
herbs. It is so big, in fact, that birds are able to nest in its branches."
(Although the intention of God was to grow a wonderful tree in his world
garden, the mustard seed tree became the resting place of demons -
"birds" -v19, and the safe haven of such things as Jehovahs Witnesses,
Mormons, Unitarians, Christian Scientists, Moonies and so on.
13:33
The parable of the Leaven
"God's kingdom on earth is like this. Imagine an evil woman who is
making a lump of sour dough. When she has finished kneading her sour dough, she
finds some good dough, which has been prepared by someone else. She adds some of
her sour dough to the good dough she has found, and leaves it to work its
poisonous influence. Eventually the sour taste of her dough is found through the
whole lump of good dough."
(Leaven = evil influence. Ex.12:15 - leaven was to be cleaned from
Israelite homes. Jesus mentioned
three kinds of leaven, all of which were treated in a bad sense : 1. the
Pharisees with their hypocrisy and formalism, Luke 12:1, 2. The pharisees and
Sadducees with their evil doctrine or teaching, Matt. 16:11,12, 3. Herod, with
his political religion and worldliness, Mark 8:15.
A woman is commonly seen as evil in the worldly or religious sense -
Zech. 5:7,8, Rev. 2:20, 17:1-6.)
13:34,35
The reason for parables
When Jesus had finished telling these four parables he stopped talking.
The people on the beach waited for more, but Jesus showed no inclination to
continue. Not that what he was saying made any sense to the people, because
instead of plain teaching, all they had heard was a string of mysterious little
stories about farmers and seeds, herbs and trees, birds and weeds, and women
making sour dough. For all the good they got out of they might as well have
stayed home!
But at that time I recalled a prophecy about the Messiah, which was made
by Asaph, in Psalm 78:2, where he said "I the Messiah will use parables to
teach with, and I will tell people things which have not been explained since
the days of creation."
13:36-42
The parable of the tares and wheat explained
Jesus ignored the crowd for a short time, then he stood up in the boat
and told them that his teaching time with them was finished for the day. He
asked the people to return to their homes, and, reluctantly, they began to drift
away. Soon the beach was empty again. Jesus directed the disciples to draw in to
the shore, then he disembarked and walked to Peter's house, where he sat down
and rested.
Soon his disciples came and sat with him. They were just as puzzled about
the parables as the other people, so they asked Jesus to explain one of them -
the one about the tares and the wheat.
"Here are the code-breakers to that parable" said Jesus :
The
good farmer who sows his field = Me, the Messiah
The
wheat = the true people of the kingdom
The
tares = the false, or counterfeit citizens
The
wicked neighbour = Satan
The
weeding out of tares = the end of the age
The
harvest = the reward for the true citizens of the kingdom
The
fire = final judgement and punishment for sin
The
servants who gather the tares = the angels
"This is what you can expect to happen at the end, or wind-up of
this present age : the people of God's kingdom will be a real mixture. There
will be true and false citizens everywhere, some pretending to be good, others
openly bad. This state of affairs will continue right up to the time when I, the
Messiah, return in glory. At that point in time I will send angels to gather out
of my kingdom all the people who are not true citizens. They, and the devil,
will be removed for ever, but the kingdom people will remain, and they will
inherit a glorious, everlasting kingdom. (See 8:12)
"As I said before, if you listen carefully, you will understand that
these parables are more than just stories."
(This parable has national applications. If it was about the Church we
would have a contradiction, because the Church is commanded to be intolerant of
certain wicked people - 1Cor.5:9-13, and to put them out.)
13:44
The parable of Hidden Treasure
"God's kingdom on earth is like this. Imagine a huge field, in which
a treasure has been hidden. A man comes along, and he knows there is a treaure
in the field, so, instead of just buying the patch where the treausre is, he
buys the whole field! This costs him far more than just the small patch, but he
wants that treasure so much, he is willing to sacrifice everything he has to get
it."
(This national parable is about God's nation Israel, his "peculiar
treasure", with whom He made many everlasting covenant promises, i.e.
Jer.30:18-22, 31 - the whole chapter, and many other places in almost all the
prophets and Psalms. While the people of the world, the Gentiles, are unaware of
these Israelites, God can see them, and to Him they are a treasure, hidden in
the field. In order to redeem these people, God sent His Son, to die of the
cross, giving everything he had to buy not just the treasure, but the whole
world.
If this parable were taken to apply to the Church, we would have the
bizarre picture of a sinner, giving up all in order to buy salvation, or
purchase Christ . . . this contradicts the gospel of grace. Is.55:1 and
Eph.2:8,9)
13:45,46
The parable of the Pearl
"God's kingdom on earth is like a wealthy merchant, who spends his
time looking for pearls to buy pearls. While he is doing this he comes across a
pearl like no other, but when he asks the price he finds that it is terribly
expensive. He looks carefully at this pearl and then he decides that the cost is
worth it, so he sells everything he has and raises the money to buy the pearl.
He would rather have pearl, than all his personal wealth."
(This parable shows the value which God placed on Israel. Jesus emptied
himself of all his glory, and set aside all his heavenly wealth, as he came to
purchase, with his very life - Philippians 2:5-11, the people with whom God had
made the covenants. Israel, God's kingdom people, are like a pearl of great
value to God.)
13:47-52
The parable of the Dragnet
"God's kingdom on earth is like a huge net, which is dropped into
the sea and gathered to the shore. When the net is pulled up on to the beach,
the fishermen find thousands of things in it - fish, junk, bottles, cans,
plastic, eels, shells, octopus and all sorts of other things. The fishermen have
to go through the whole catch, sorting out the good fish from the useless
things.
"This parable is a picture of how things will be at the end of this
age. God will send his angels through the world, gathering out of His kingom all
the bad or useless citzens, who will then be taken away and destroyed. It will
be a terrible, frightening, dreadful time, but it has to happen, because God
ccannot allow things to continue like this for ever.
13:52
The parable of the Scribe
The disciples, who were sitting around Jesus and listening intently, were
beginning to understand the double-meanings in his parables. They could see now
that God had not forgotten His people of old, and they had a better
understanding of how things were going to develop through the years ahead.
"Do you understand what I'm talking about?" said Jesus.
"Yes" they said.
"Then let me tell you one more parable. Imagine a scholar who has
such a good command of resources that he can dip into history, the Bible,
biographies, and new books for all his learning? He has a wealth of information
at his fingertips, and if he works at it, he can be a great teacher. He can
teach people about God and His ways, and show how God's Word applies to history,
to the Church and to personal experiences. By his wisdom and knowledge he will
be like a huge reference book, treasured by all who are enquiring after the
truth!"
13:53-58
Jesus goes to Nazareth
Jesus traveled from Galilee to Nazareth. This was to be his last visit to
his home town. He began teaching regularly in the synagogue, but instead of
being accepted for what he was - the messiah - the people turned on him.
"Where did he get all this power?" the people asked, "He's
just a man isn't he? How come he's so wise all of a sudden?"
They had heard one good answer to these questions, but it didn't suit
them. They preferred to dodge the obvious, and cling to their doubts and
prejudices. It just couldn't happen
that Jesus was the Messiah!! The people who had seen Jesus grow up from baby to
boy to man, couldn't now bow to him, and call him Lord! What a dreadful
prospect!
The people tried to reduce Jesus to the familiar.
"Look" they said, "There's his mother and sisters, and
there's his father's carpentry shop, and there are his brothers - all normal
Jewish men - James, Joses, Simon and Judas, and there's his ordinary little
house where he grew up. Surely he doesn't expect us to believe he is anything
more than a rather bright rabbi?
But Jesus kept insisting that he was the Messiah, which upset everybody,
including his own family . . . and as a result he was rejected by most of the
town. This made Jesus sad of course, because his heart's desire was to bring
health and happiness to all his friends. He said to the people, as they began to
disperse : "A prophet has honour everywhere except his home town and with
his family."
So the visit to Nazareth was, generally, a complete failure. One or two
people were healed and a few people were helped, but by and large, the whole
town continued on as if nothing had happened. Jesus might as well have not
tried, for all the good it did.