Matthew 13b

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.

—------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------------------

 This chapter of Matthew makes its point repeatedly until you can’t miss it. Jesus has adopted a new phase of his ministry. Instead of direct preaching, as in the Sermon the Mount, Jesus tells parables and leaves it to the crowds to interpret the stories. Then he turns to his disciples in private to see if they are able to catch the meaning. However, several times he has to spell it out for them. 

Jesus’ main hope now lies with the disciples and other close followers, not with mass rallies held in front of large crowds. Perhaps this teaches us something about different levels of ministry: large groups and small groups, generic teachings and concentrated discipleship. Both are needed in the church. Without preaching to the crowds, Jesus would not have been able to single out his disciples and other close followers.  

13: 24-30.   He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field, but while everybody was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”

We will take a provisional look at this parable, but later in the passage Jesus provides an interpretation, and we probably won’t question what he says. 🙂 At this point, notice again that a parable, like a proverb, functions by drawing a comparison to something that the listener understands in order to explain something that the listener does not understand. Parables, proverbs, and riddles, which all fall into the category of a mashal in Hebrew, are scattered throughout the Bible, and they were a common method of teaching used by Jewish scribes and Pharisees.

It can be tricky trying to discern the meaning of a parable. Not everything or every action in the story has a counterpart in the thing being explained. Perhaps you remember the movie when Shrek is trying to explain that ogres are more complex than people think. Shrek says, “Ogres are like onions.” Donkey says, “They stink?” Shrek says, “Yes…no!” Donkey says, “Oh, they make you cry?” Shrek says, “No!” Donkey says, “Oh, you leave them out in the sun, they get all brown, start sprouting little white hairs….” Shrek says, “NO! Onions have layers. Ogres have layers… You get it? We both have layers.” 

 In this case, what is the Kingdom of Heaven like? The sower? The seed? The field? The weeds? The householder (owner)? Or, the whole process that is described? We will find out later.

13: 31-32.  He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

This is like that. The Kingdom of Heaven is like, not a mustard seed, but the whole parable. The mustard seed is small, and is used in non-Biblical parables to make that point, even though it is not the smallest seed. The meaning is in the difference between a very small seed and a very large shrub, from the seed comes a rapid and unexpected growth. 

The extension of the parable into the idea of a tree where the birds can come and make nests seems to be a reference to a prophecy of Ezekiel, “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of a cedar, …. I will plant it, in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit, …. Under it every kind of bird will live; in the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every kind. All the trees of the field will know that I am the LORD” (17: 22-24; see also Daniel 4: 12 where Nebuchadnezzar describes his own kingdom this way). In both stories a kingdom grows so large that other nations (the birds) find shelter in it.   

One more note: The mustard plant was a weed in First Century gardens that grew like mint does when it finds root in our gardens; it appears suddenly and spreads quickly. In this sense the weed may be an example of ‘holy mischief’ (as my pastor said a few Sundays ago), or as Representative John Lewis used to say, “Good trouble.” If this is part of the proper interpretation, notice that a weed may have either a negative or a positive function in a parable. You have to figure it out. 

13: 33.  He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in (hid in) with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

Following my last comment, yeast also may be a symbol with both positive (Leviticus 23: 17) and negative (Exodus 13: 3) interpretations. Paul tended toward the negative, warning, for example, that a little yeast, meaning sin, leavens the whole loaf (I Corinthians 5:6, Galatians 5: 9). However, here it seems that yeast has a positive meaning, that a small bit of the Kingdom may spread rapidly. Thus, the gospel can transform people’s behavior for the good. There may be a hint here that the Kingdom seems to turn society upside down. Some Pharisees have already complained that Jesus eats with sinners and tax collectors (Witherington, Matthew, page 269-270).  

13: 34-35.  Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet: “I will open my mouth to speak in parables; I will proclaim what has been hidden since the foundation (of the world).”

This seems similar to Jesus’ answer to the disciples when they questioned why he had switched to teaching with parables (13: 10-17). However, this quote is not from Isaiah but from Psalm 78: 2. The Psalms were considered to be prophetically inspired (Keener and Walton, RSV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, page 1652), as evidenced by the apostles’ use of the Psalms to show that Jesus fulfilled prophecy (see Peter’s second sermon, Acts 3). 

We are at the end of a sub-section that began with the disciples asking Jesus why he is speaking in parables. As such, these two verses are a summary inserted by Matthew, not something that Jesus said. In all these stories, understanding the Kingdom of Heaven involves concealing things and revealing things. Both the mustard seed and the yeast are concealed, but then grow to reveal the unsuspected kingdom.

13: 36-43.  Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin (stumbling) and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears (to hear) listen!

Jesus turns away from the crowds for a while, but must attend to his students, who are still lost in interpretation. What is interesting to me is that preachers tend to focus on not pulling up the weeds until the end when it becomes clear what is wheat and what is tares (weeds, probably darnel). Preachers warn Christians not to be overly zealous in expelling sinners from their congregations. They can overdo it. Indeed, even though Paul told the Corinthian congregation to expel a particular sinner, later he told them that his punishment was enough; they should receive him back into fellowship (II Corinthians 2: 5-8). 

Yet, Jesus does not highlight this feature in his explanation. Instead, he focuses on the judgment that comes at the end when the weeds are revealed, pulled up, and burned in the furnace. The point about not making premature judgments is there, but in Jesus’ interpretation, the main point is about the ultimate meaning of the coming of the kingdom and the urgency of preaching the Gospel. Live it. Preach it. Invite a doomed people to turn away from their final fate.