Year 3, Day 187: Matthew 13

I Love This Chapter

I’ll confess it up front.  This is a high “challenge” chapter, which means I am going to love it.  Which means … this blog post is going to be long.  I’m sorry.  No, I’m really not.  I just hope you don’t find it unbearably long.  Because there is a ton of stuff happening in this chapter and it is all good.  It’s also all challenge.

Purpose of Parables

In Matthew 13 we have scores of parables.  In order to talk frankly about the parables, I’m going to talk a bit out of order here.  I’m going to start with verses 10-17 and then come back and look at the Parable of the Soils.

Jesus tells us that the purpose of parables is so that Jesus can separate the crowd.  Jesus tells us that the parables don’t help people understand at all.  In fact, parables make it so that the people who don’t understand have an even more difficult time understanding.  This is the point of the quote from Isaiah.  A parable helps Jesus separate the discerning from the non-discerning.  Like a shepherd separating sheep from goats.

Let me put it in practical terms.  I’ve spoken much about how the crowds were following Jesus.  Some of them followed for righteous reasons.  Others followed for less than righteous reasons.  So Jesus taught in parables.  Nobody understood the parables.  But those who were following for righteous reasons would come to Jesus later and ask for understanding.  The parables would allow Jesus to see who wants to learn more.  At the same time, those who were following for the wrong reasons would hear the parables, be confused, and eventually go away.  They’d go away without understanding.

For Jesus, the parables are not a means of making spirituality easier to understand.  The parables are a means of separating the sheep from the goats.  The parables are a means of seeing who wants faith enough to pursue it.  The parables are a means of discovering who is happy just putting in time and staying in confusion.  That is why Jesus spoke in parables.  That is why Jesus had to explain the parables privately to His true disciples.

Disciple-makers follow Jesus’ lead.  We are always about sorting people into groups.  Who are the people who are pursuing truth from me?  Who are the people who are pursuing truth from the people who are pursuing it from me?  {I.E. 2^nd generation disciples…}  And who are the people who don’t seem to be pursuing truth at all?

Soils

Jesus tells us about four soils.  Some seed falls on hard ground, and birds come and eat it up before it can grow.  Other soil falls along the rocky ground where it can only grow shallow roots.  It grows quickly, but dies when the heat of the summer comes and its roots can’t reach down deep where the water is.  Other seed fell among thorns, which allowed the seed to get a start but which quickly choked out the life of the seed once it grew to any substance.  Finally some seed fell among the good soil.  This seed can grow properly.  This seed produces a harvest.

What does this parable mean?  Well, most of us have hear this parable so often that we can explain it in our sleep.  But remember, the disciples who heard this parable for the first time were utterly confused.  So Jesus explains it. 

• There are some people who are in such great connection with Satan that at soon as the Word of God comes to them Satan gets rid of it and it cannot even take root.  {In this case, note that the birds represent an evil presence.} 
• There are other people.  These people aren’t necessarily close to Satan, but they don’t want to be close to God, either.  God’s Word comes to them and they find a small amount of truth to it.  But they don’t submit to it.  It’s too hard, too involved, or just not their idea.  God’s Word dies within them almost as soon as it comes.
• There are a third group of people.  These people have depth, but they are also busy.  They have so much going on in their life that although they have depth available the other stuff in their life doesn’t allow God’s Word to grow within them.  These people of busyness don’t grow, either.
• Then there is a fourth group of people.  These people have depth.  They have taken the time to get rid of the weeds in their life.  They are fertile ground where God can cause His Word to grow within them.  I find it interesting to note that a fourth equals far less than the majority.

Only one of those groups produces fruit.  Only one of those groups of soils allows for what God desires to happen.  Only one of those types of soil represents people who are willing to submit to God deeply and remove the distractions in their life that keeps them from God.  Which group are you?  I ask myself the same question.

Weeds

The next parable of Jesus deals with weeds and wheat in the kingdom.  There was a man who planted good seed, but along the way an enemy came and planted bad seed.  When it was discovered, the weeds couldn’t be removed without destroying the whole of the crop.  So the man allows both to grow together, knowing that the weeds can be pulled out and burned once the wheat was mature.

Again, note that the disciples needed further explanation.  We have heard this parable so often that we immediately know it.  But not so with the disciples.

• The wheat are the sons of God.  They are planted by God.  They grow under God’s nurture.  They bear a harvest.
• The weeds are the rest of the world.  Jesus later calls them the children of the Devil.

The point of the parable is that God allows both wheat and weeds to grow in this world – His field.  But just because both grow in the world doesn’t mean both please God.  There will come a time of judgment.  There will come a time when the weeds and the wheat are separated out.  There will come a time when the people of God are separated out from those who are not God’s children.  God’s children will shine like the stars while those who are not will find themselves in God’s judgment.  Notice that Jesus does not shy away from speaking like this.  Jesus doesn’t pull punches or try to make everyone comfortable.  Jesus tells it like it is because he knows that the only way people can respond is if they know the truth.

For the record, a little later in this chapter we find a parable of reinforcement to this one.  The parable of the net that gathers good fish and bad fish is really the same teaching.  The net catches good and bad fish.  The good will be kept.  The bad will be discarded and thrown into the fiery furnace.  Not only does Jesus not pull punches; He reinforces the punches He throws!

Mustard Seed and Leaven

Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed and leaven.  What is true about both a mustard seed and leaven?  They are both very small in the beginning.  But when they are given time to mature, they have a significant impact upon the world around them.  Yeah, I think that just about sums up the parable nicely.  The kingdom of God started with a humble man: Jesus.  But when allowed to mature, it grew rapidly.

Treasure and the Pearl

Again Jesus gives us two more parables.  The Kingdom of God is like a treasure and a pearl.  Both are things of such great worth that we trade away our whole life just to come into possession of it.  At least, that’s how it should be.

In the end, these two parables are also about discipleship.  We see it.  We see we have an opportunity to possess it.  {Not that we earn it or deserve it, mind you.}  But the question is, do we sell out for discipleship?  Do we give God our whole life so that we can be discipled?  {Oh look.  There’s another verb like “apostled” that my word processor feels the need to put a red line underneath.  I really think we need to make “apostle” and “disciple” verbs, not just nouns.  Who’s with me?}

Old and New Treasure

Then Jesus gives us the final parable for this chapter.  He tells us that the Kingdom of God is like old and new treasure.  Jesus is telling us that the Kingdom of God takes the Law (old treasure) and builds upon it.  The old treasure is the value of seeing ourselves as sinful.  That might not sound like treasure, but just imagine the alternative!  We don’t deserve grace, but grace starts with our conviction of understanding just how much we need it!  We don’t often consider having a parent who disciplines us a treasure at the time of discipline.  But twenty years later when we are living on our own, we sure appreciate the lessons we’ve learned – even if learned through the hard way!

The new treasure is grace.  It is that which comes through Christ.  It is the fulfillment of the Law.  It is the answer to our brokenness.  It is the knowledge that we can be restored in a relationship with God in spite of our brokenness.  That is indeed treasure.

Rejection at Nazareth

As if to reinforce the point I made earlier about the purpose of parables, we end this chapter of parables with a story on rejection.  After teaching all these great stories, Jesus comes to Nazareth and finds nothing.  In fact, they take offense at His teaching.  Here we see case and point what Jesus was saying earlier about the parables.  Some people hear Jesus teach and are led to ask more questions.  Other people hear Jesus teach and are led to reject Him.

Public discourse is often more about sorting people than it is for genuine teaching.  Learn this truth, and you can usually get the speaker’s agenda before the rest of the people get it.  Personally, I’ve always found that the best teaching happens in groups of at most twelve.  The fewer, the more deeply the lesson can be taught to each individual.  When I look at Jesus’ example, I find the same to be true about how Jesus saw life and discipleship, too.

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