Year 9, Day 187: Matthew 13

Theological Commentary: Click Here

The stories in this chapter are some of my favorite in the Bible.  They appear in a variety of the Gospels, so they are certainly common stories that the early followers of Christ also found important.  For me, though, these stories changed my understanding of discipleship.  It is this chapter – and the corresponding chapter in the other Gospels – that have given guidance and direction to mentoring and discipleship like no other.

What has made this change?  The discussion on the purpose of parables is phenomenal.  Jesus teaches in parables so that people won’t understand.  Jesus uses parables to weed people out.  Jesus teaches in parables to discover who it is that wants to truly follow and who simply wants to give lip service.

There is more to it, though.  Jesus isn’t trying to keep people in the dark.  The way Jesus teaches draws out questions.  Good mentoring is like good teaching.  The best teachers in the world don’t tell facts.  That’s simply creating human encyclopedias.  The best teachers ask questions that cause students to discover the world around them for themselves, which leads to even deeper questions.  Jesus uses parables to sort and draw more out of His followers than He could ever get by simply spitting facts at them!

At the end of this chapter, the religious leaders prove that they just don’t get it.  They take offense at Jesus’ teaching.  Instead of being drawn into greater thought, they duck behind the walls of their making and shut down.  Once more we see the contrast in leadership.  Jesus teaches in a way that invites people out of their shell.  The religious leaders are content staying within their shell.

Before leaving the chapter, a new discovery happened for me today.  Clearly I’ve read these words often as this is a significant chapter for me.  The power behind the soils parable, the weeds parable, the mustard seed is amazing.  Yet in the middle of this chapter there is a clear teaching that gets overlooked.  Twice Jesus reminds us that it is the angels who will be sent out by God to sort the good from the evil.  It isn’t our job to sort them out, it is God’s angels!  Our job is to simply help people to find relationship with God.  Our job is to help people see truth.  Our job is to love the world.  God – and His angels – will sort it out in the end.

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