The Gospel according to Matthew
1-2. The ancestry and birth of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.
3-4. Jesus’ ministry begins; John’s baptism, Satan’s temptations, first disciples called.
5-7. A summary of Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, crowds were astounded.
8-9. An account of Jesus’ healings; the authority of Jesus is questioned and defended.
10-12. Jesus sends apostles on a short-term mission; then continues his own ministry.
13. Jesus ministers through parables for the crowds and explanations for the disciples.
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We noticed in the last two chapters that the initial euphoria around Jesus’ teaching and healing ministry was beginning to die down. Some of the Pharisees were shadowing him, asking trick questions, and spreading disinformation in the crowds. He returned from a preaching mission on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee, and had nothing good to say about the villages that rejected him. Some Pharisees even made the nonsensical claim that Jesus was in cahoots with Beelzebul. It got so bad that they “went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.”
Jesus is at an inflection point in his mission on earth. His message is being misunderstood, the Kingdom of God remains unrecognized by most, as does the King himself. Something has to change. What adjustments will Jesus make in his ministry, and how will it affect his mission?
13: 1-9. That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on a path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. If you have ears, hear!”
“That same day;” what day? We have to go back to the previous chapters, though we see no break in the stories there. It appears, then, that this “same day” was a very busy day that included snacking on wheat, healing a man in the synagogue, healing many in the crowds, debating with some Pharisees, and arranging his priorities with his disciples and his family. That’s a long day, but apparently, there is more. Were all of Jesus’ days like this?
Jesus distanced himself from the crowd, perhaps to increase his volume (the hills around the shore make for a natural amphitheater (Keener and Walton, The NRSV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, page 1707), but Jesus also distanced himself from the crowd in another way. Jesus subtly shifted his style; “he told them many things in parables.” Parables are made-up stories that are in the same literary category as proverbs. Jewish teachers also used parables to explain a Scripture text. However, Jesus is not developing sermon illustrations here because there is no scripture text. We’ll have to discover what Jesus is up to.
A parable is interpreted by the use of analogy; ‘This is like that’. Some have several points of contact and thus are interpreted as an allegory, as this one is. The hearer is responsible for figuring the riddle out, but there are some who don’t get it. For example, you remember the children’s ditty: “Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies, ashes ashes, we all fall down.” This seemingly meaningless children’s song comes down to us from the time of the bubonic plague. The ringed rosie refers to the spots that break out on the skin, the pocket full of posies are the flowers used to ward off the smell of death, the ashes are cremated bodies, and given the widespread impact of the plague, eventually we all fall down. Layers of meaning. We will let Jesus offer his own interpretation of this parable.
13: 10-12. Then the disciples came and asked him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.
The disciples noticed the change in preaching style. We will see that, inherent in their question is a plea for help because they themselves do not understand the parable. Yet, Jesus answers their question by implying that they should understand because they have been given the “secrets of the kingdom of heaven.”
Most of the crowd, however, does not seem to have the spiritual perception to grasp the layers of meaning in the story. The disciples should have gained spiritual insight through their association with Jesus and should be able to go further in their discipleship journey with these parabolic teachings. Most of the crowd will only see the surface and thus lose the plot; a few may realize they are missing some deeper understanding.
13: 13-17. The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says: ‘You will indeed listen but never understand, and you will indeed look but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes, so that they might not look with their eyes, and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn— and I would heal them.’
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
These sound like harsh words, and Jesus even offers Old Testament support for his critique of the crowds (see Isaiah 6: 9-13). However, let’s look closer at the layers of meaning in what Jesus says.
First, the crowds, in general, but certainly not all of them, have already demonstrated by their rejection of his person and their misunderstanding of his message that they are “deaf to His claims and irresponsive to His demands” (R. V. G. Tasker, The Gospel according to Matthew, page 134). Jesus didn’t make them dull; they came as they were. They came unprepared to properly interpret what they see and hear.
Second, the disciples seem to be Jesus’ best chance of spreading the gospel and making an impact. So, Jesus tells entertaining stories to the crowds that they may enjoy on a surface level, but most fail to apply to the current situation, that is, the presence of God in Jesus Christ and the emergence of God’s kingdom right in their midst.
Third, given this distinction, Jesus increasingly turns away to his disciples in private to get them to think about further meanings. Perhaps this is in hope that the disciples will soon have the spiritual insight to make an interpretation themselves. The disciples will have to learn not to be ‘literalists’ about everything that Jesus says; that is, Jesus often means more than what he says.
Matthew follows Mark for most of his material, but Matthew does not include certain minor points, such as that the disciples actually ask what this parable means.
When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. … And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?” (Mark 4: 10, 13).
In addition, notice that Mark includes more than the twelve among Jesus’ closest followers. That is why I insist on saying “some of the crowd,” just as I insist on saying “some of the Pharisees” because not all the Pharisees opposed Jesus. It is a good practice for us to be careful not to essentialize categories of people as if everyone in a certain category is exactly the same. They are not. At any rate, Matthew moves on without explanation to Jesus’ interpretation.
13: 18-23. Hear, then, the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet such a person has no root but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.
Some commentators have criticized this parable as being unrealistic since a farmer would not waste seed like that. I guess they are city dwellers. First, there is evidence that in ancient Israel that farmers did not always plow before planting. Israel has plenty of fields on rocky ground cut by paths where people walk.
Second, I can remember helping plant oats or clover with a broadcast method. A sack of seed was slung over the shoulder so the farmer could walk with it. The sack had a metal funnel attached to the lower end, and the funnel had an X of metal across the spout to disperse seed. Then the farmer walked and moved his arm swinging the funnel back and forth, thus dispersing the seed. There was control, but some seeds also went astray. The parable is entirely believable.
But, of course, it is not about improving one’s farming methods, though the crowd may have thought that was the point. Jesus explains that the issue is the condition of the soil; which is why this could be called The Parable of the Soils (Witherington, page 258). The farmer is the same, the method of spreading seed is the same, the seed is the same. What is different in the parable? The place where the seeds land. So, this is a parable about those who hear Jesus speak, and why the message fails to take root in some people’s lives.
Some people have long given over their thinking to the evil one, and the seed just bounces off. No consideration at all. Some people are attracted at first, but not enough to let Jesus change their lives. At the slightest sign of trouble or opposition, they lose interest. Some people receive the word, but the cares of this world, which are many and are real, pull them away from Jesus. Theoretically, cares and troubles should draw us closer to God, but not everyone reacts this way. Finally, there are those who receive the word, begin a program of discipleship and prayer, and grow stronger as they journey along. Through such people, God is able to bring in a great harvest.
About 30 years ago, I was driving a combine during wheat harvest to help a local farmer (some pastors do that). His father was very happy because the field made exactly 100 bushels to the acres. Of course, it was not my combining that did it; the harvest was there, aided along by good soil, a snowy winter, a sunny spring, and timely rains. The seed was the same as other fields, but this one produced abundantly. On another level, the harvest reflected the life of that old farmer who was had a good family and was a leading parishioner in the church where I served.