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.
—------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------------------
We pointed out earlier that Matthew seems to take the stories he has collected and group them together with similar material. Chapters 5 through 7 were a summary of Jesus’ teachings. The material in chapters 8 and 9 was a summary of Jesus’ healings. Chapters 10 through 12 were a summary of how ministry was going; both the disciples’ short-term mission trip and the rising opposition to Jesus’ claims and activities. Now Chapter 13 is a long section composed mostly of parables and their interpretation. Let us see what Matthew had in mind by this grouping.
The parables are made-up stories about everyday life where one or more points of comparison are to be drawn in order to explain what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. They are metaphorical and, as we have said, a metaphor presents something that the audience knows about in order to explain something else that the audience does not know about. The trick is to discover what the intended points of contact are in the comparison.
13: 44. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and reburied; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
‘How shall I explain this mystery’, a first-century scribe would say; ‘What is it like?’ Each parable makes different points, so in all we learn several things about the kingdom. In this story, three points stand out: a hidden treasure, the joy of discovery, and the urgency of possessing the kingdom. Not everyone who hears Jesus preach or watches him heal gets the overall point, which is this: The presence of God’s servant now means that the rule of God has arrived here on earth. That’s major; so people who recognize it should do everything possible to get right with God. Instead, very few in the crowd seem to be enlightened in this way; and some have instead decided to reject Jesus.
13: 45-46. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Jesus often pairs one parable with another (Witherington, Matthew, page 272) and that is clearly the case here. In this way, one parable helps with the interpretation of the other. Notice that there is no mention of ‘joy’ in this parable. However, the characteristic of great ‘value’ or ‘worth’ shows up again, as does the urgency of gaining the kingdom. The phrases “sells all he has” and “sold all that he had” are clearly parallel and central to the metaphor. The clincher is that the protagonist “buys the field” and “bought it (the pearl).” So, these parables are meant to invite the hearer to recognize the value of their experience with Jesus and to consider whether this is God's long-awaited servant who brings the rule of God on earth.
13: 47-50. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus adds more understanding to the apocalyptic ending of the age. What happens when the weeds grow up to be just that, weeds? What happens when the traveler ignores the treasure and instead invests his money in this world? What happens when the seeker misjudges the value of the kingdom?
What happens is that there is an end to everything, for to everything there is a season, including God’s season of Grace. Then comes the harvest, the final judgment or the great assize. “The Great Assize” is a sermon by John Wesley, Number 15 in the book of the 52 sermons that all lay preachers carried around. Wesley preached the sermon in 1758, and he used the metaphor of an English county court, rather like a district court. Wesley made the point that courts with their judgments are useful if we want to have a just and orderly society. However, at the end of time there will be a Great Assize where God himself will preside over the final judgment.
This parable is a metaphor that throws light on the last judgment. Jesus’ audience would have known that the dragnet, one of several kinds of nets, pulls everything in. When it is pulled ashore, the fishermen sort through the fish, keep the good but throw away the bad, that is, the fish that Jews don’t eat. Then the parable breaks down since there is no hint in first century literature that they made a fire and burned them. Yet, Jesus probably adds this note to link this parable with other sayings about ‘hell fire’ where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Fish don’t weep or gnash teeth either, as far as we know).
15: 51-53. “Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.
This question and response is found only in the Gospel according to Matthew. That leads to the question: “Is Matthew talking about himself?”’ If we are correct in attributing this gospel to Matthew, aka Levi, the tax collector, then the author was a learned man, someone who could read and write in Greek, keep books, and do his math. In other words, Matthew was a scribe before he became a disciple, though he was not known as a Pharisaic teacher of the law (Tasker Matthew, page 140).
Still, Matthew must have read the Torah and the Prophets, probably in the Greek Septuagint version, even before he became a disciple. Less than 10% of ancient Jews had these skills. Matthew includes more quotes and allusions to OT Scripture than the other three gospels combined. For example, Matthew uses the title “Son of David” ten times while John does not use it at all. Finally, we have already established that Matthew’s audience is probably the Jewish Christians who lived around Antioch in Syria.
None of the other disciples were like Matthew, though Paul was a Pharisee and thus learned as well. Matthew probably warms to this saying because that is who he is, a scribe. What is old? The Law of Moses and the Prophetic books. What is new? The teachings of Jesus Christ.
I have always thought that there is a more general application: Someone who knows Scripture and lives the life of Christ (that is, carries his or her cross), is like this scribe. However, I have had students say, ‘I don’t need to study, the Holy Spirit will tell me what to say’. My answer is: “Give the Holy Spirit something to work with! Study all you can.”
You see how difficult it is for Jesus to educate the disciples. Why is he doing this if all that is required is to be uneducated and let God speak. I don’t think it works like that. The Incarnation principle applies here as well. Just as Christ was in-the-flesh living in a particular language and particular culture, so much so that he could speak in highly symbolic language such as proverbs and parables, so disciples need to become incarnate in the culture and language that they are supposed to minister to. Jesus took 30 years to learn and develop relationships. How long will the minister or missionary take before starting to preach?
13: 54-58. He came to his hometown and began to teach the people in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor except in their own hometown and in their own house.” And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.
This is a summary statement for this rather long section of material that we call Chapter 13. (Remember that chapter divisions were added to the New Testament around 1220 A.D.; so these chapters are not Matthew’s idea). This section began with Jesus adopting a new style of preaching; he spoke in parables to the crowd and taught the disciples in private. It closes with a statement of the reason why Jesus adopted a new style of preaching; “They (the crowds) took offense at him.” The next chapter will confirm that decision even more.
This looks like a classic case of a young man returning home from university, and the locals thinking to themselves, “Who does he think he is?” Ignorance and jealousy overcome grace and humility.
We learn several things from this summary. First, here and in Mark 6: 3 we have the names of Jesus’ brothers: James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. James we know because he wrote the Letter of James; likewise Judas probably wrote the Letter of Jude. Both introduce themselves as the servant of Jesus, and Jude also says he is the brother of James. James was the lead elder of the church in Jerusalem; we know because he rendered the final decision of the Jerusalem conference in Acts 15. Joseph was probably named after his father, Joseph. The text also says that Jesus had sisters, though, as is typical, the women are not named. These are probably half-siblings of Jesus, the children of Joseph’s first wife who is presumed to have died before Joseph took a younger bride. In this way, Mary has step-children, but her oldest child is Jesus.
Second, we get a hint of how healings and other miracles might work. Repeatedly, Jesus has told people that he healed, “Your faith has made you well” (for example, Matthew 8: 13; 9: 22, 29). So, there would seem to be a kind of synergy between Jesus’ power to heal and people’s faith in God’s ability to heal. I would not like to measure out the amount of faith that is needed, perhaps only faith the size of a mustard seed. We should keep this dynamic in mind while praying for healing or for a miracle.