He is never either too proud or too busy to listen. It is the fact of history that the greatest things must always begin with the smallest beginnings. "Explain to us," they said, "The parable of the darnel in the field." "Then," said the Lord, "are the children free. So now He is sitting. When Christ preached this sermon; it was the same day that he preached the sermon in the foregoing chapter: so unwearied was he in doing good, and working the works of him that sent him. In the parable of the talents the worthless servant hid his talent in the ground, lest he should lose it ( Matthew 25:25). He healed, and bore its burden on His heart before God, as truly as He took it away from men. Who has ears, let him hear. He told his brother, hey, you know Elimelech's our brother, sold the field that's coming up for redemption, the right of redemption. To some they may convey enlightenment, but for others they may only deepen confusion. I have difficulty with that particular interpretation. They could not conceive that anyone who had lived among them had any right to speak as Jesus was speaking. In modem civilization life is almost butt round the child; in ancient civilization the child had a very good chance of dying before it had begun to live. Now again there are two interpretations. Seeing Christ's person, they see not his glory, see no difference between him and another man; seeing his miracles, and hearing his preaching, they see not, they hear not with any concern or application; they understand neither. Such is the perversity of man, that he who is not called thinks he can follow Jesus whithersoever He goes. When he does that, what he knew before becomes a greater treasure than ever it was. There were so many who came to Jesus only for what they could get. "Though few and small and weak your bands, The Transforming Power Of Christ ( Matthew 13:33), 13:33 He spoke another parable to them: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened.". There was introduced into the church this leavening agent back at the time of Constantine, as he sought to bring together the pagan world and Christianity by bringing the pagan holidays, the pagan celebrations, and the pagan rituals and all, right into the church, taken from the old-aged mystery Babylon religion and incorporating that into the church. They had shut their eyes against the clear light of Christ's plainer preaching, and therefore were now left in the dark. There was no other way to transport them in freshness over any time or any distance. But, from first to last, what a trial of spirit, and what triumph! Matthew is later than Mark and makes one significant change: This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do. how is it that ye have no faith? (ii) A witness must begin with one man. Were these men slaughtering each other not also children of God? Sometimes his disciples must have despaired. My object, of course, is to point out as clearly as possible the structure of the gospel, and to explain according to my measure why there are these strong differences between the gospels of Matthew and the rest, as compared with one another. It is abundantly true that there is nothing in this world so disturbing as Christianity; that is, in fact, the reason why so many people resent it and refuse it, and wish to eliminate it. Whatever might be the Church or the kingdom, it is precisely when the Lord unfolds His new glory in both the kingdom and the Church that He maintains the proprieties of nature in their rights and integrity. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: but others fell on good ground, and brought forth fruit, some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirtyfold. But if Matthew here laid aside all question of time, it was in view of other and weightier considerations for his object. The question was not who or what came in the way; whoever appealed to Him, there He was for them. Every good thing we do, every act of self-discipline and of service, makes us better able for the next; and every time we fail to use such an opportunity we make ourselves less able to seize the next when it comes. Self-explanatory.Shall we pray? In eastern language and in the Old Testament itself one of the commonest pictures of a great empire is the picture of a great tree, with the subject nations depicted as birds finding rest and shelter within its branches ( Ezekiel 31:6). "Lord, save us; we perish," cried they, as they awoke Him; and He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea. The difference lies in the hearers ability to rise to the challenge. Some fell upon stony places (Matthew 13:5; Matthew 13:6), which represents the case of hearers that go further than the former, who receive some good impressions of the word, but they are not lasting, Matthew 13:20; Matthew 13:21. First of these comes the treasure hidden in the field, for which the man sells all he had, securing the field for the sake of the treasure. Thus it is shown that, though we have rich grace to the Gentile, there is the remembrance of natural relationship still. With God, as nothing is impossible, so no one, small or great, is despised: all is seen and put in its just place; and grace, which rebukes creature pride, can afford to deal divinely with the smallest as with the greatest. There are certain most suggestive truths hidden in this parable. Start for FREE. ', To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary, Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Ils disent quil guarit, et remet en sante, Il ne faut pas conclurre par cela que la repentance, ou conversion, soit cause de nous faire avoir remission et pardon de nos pechez; comme si Dieu prenoit a merci ceux qui se convertissent, pource quils en sont dignes, et le meritent, Jesus stopped saying that when Israels rejection of Him was firm. In every sphere of life more is given to the man who has, and what he has is taken away from the man who has not. Parents, and the disciples, like the Pharisees, were shown that grace, just because it is the expression of what God is to a ruined world, takes notice of what man in his own imaginary dignity might count altogether petty. There is something very suggestive here. 33), it is added, "And with many such parables spake He the word unto them . People desired to possess a lovely pearl, not only for its money value, but for its beauty. There are those to whom this knowledge is not given, and a man can receive nothing unless it be given him from above (John 3:27); and be it remembered that God is debtor to no man; his grace is his own; he gives or withholds it at pleasure (Romans 11:35); the difference must be resolved into God's sovereignty, as before, Matthew 11:25; Matthew 11:26. [1.] If we apply that to the Church, which is the instrument of God's Kingdom upon earth, it means that the Church cannot be discriminative but is bound to be a mixture of all kinds of people, good and bad, useless and useful. 23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. So, then, it is worth anything to do God's will. In point of fact this man had a prior right to what he had found. We should aim at the highest degree, to bring forth a hundred-fold, as Isaac's ground did (Genesis 26:12), abounding in the work of the Lord,John 15:8. The supreme beauty lies in the acceptance of the will of God. Thereon the Lord also has His word to say, first reminding Peter of his new name suitably to what follows. To us a, mystery means simply something dark and difficult and impossible, to understand, something mysterious. Where there is not a principle, though there be a profession, we cannot expect perseverance. To be strictly accurate the mustard seed is not the smallest of seeds; the seed of the cypress tree, for instance, is still smaller; but in the east it was proverbial for smallness. But at the same time it is plain, although He bore the consciousness of the vast change He was introducing, and expressed it thus fully and early in the history, nothing turned away His heart from Israel. But the single eye of Jesus at once detects the snare of Satan into which natural thought led, or at least exposed, Peter to fall. He is the one, who gave everything, in order that He might redeem you. Jesus words are a quote from Isaiah 6:9-10 as found in the Septuagint (LXX). Where did this tares come from? So then the darnel in its early stages was indistinguishable from the wheat, but in the end it had to be laboriously separated from it, or the consequences were serious. And when he was coming to his own country [that is the area of Nazareth], he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and they said, Where did He get this wisdom, and how is he doing these mighty works? And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so he went into his ship, and he sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore ( Matthew 13:1-2 ). Many are called with the common call, but in few is the eternal choice evidenced by the efficacy of that call, Matthew 20:16; Matthew 20:16. The soldier came to the graveside for the ceremony; when it was over he stepped forward and before the open grave swept his hand to a salute that might have been given to a king. Wisdom crieth without,Proverbs 1:20; John 13:20. When a person cannot understand, when a person cannot see, then you use a story. Now Jesus is beginning to show that the kingdom of heaven, the church is not going to be a perfect representation, that there are going to arise within the church, that which is not true, that which is not genuine, that which is false, the tares will be there with the wheat. The earth might be only a very few inches deep before the rock was reached. Matthew gives no such details, but call and mission are together here. They take no heed to it, take no hold of it; they do not come with any design to get good, as the highway was never intended to be sown. "This man blasphemeth." Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." To visit all the towns of Galilee was a huge task. Then, after the parable of the mustard seed (ver. But Israel had no sense of their leprosy; and they valued not, but despised, their Messiah, albeit divine I might almost say because divine. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and understands it not, then comes the wicked one, and catches it away that which was sown in his heart. It is easy to make a garden look clean by simply turning it over; but in the ground still lay the fibrous roots of the couch grass and the bishop weed and all the perennial pests, ready to spring to life again. Now. The parable puts truth in the form of a story; the simplest definition of a parable is in fact that it is "an earthly story with a heavenly meaning." They begin some new hobby or begin to acquire some new accomplishment with enthusiasm, but the thing becomes difficult and they abandon it, or the enthusiasm wanes and they lay it aside. The parable of the sower draws its lessons from the four different kinds of soil rather than from the work of the sower. At first sight this seems nothing less than cruel; but so far from being cruel, it simply states a truth which is an inescapable law of life. And that is a theological phrase used in Hermeneutics whereby in interpreting scripture, if a figure is used to represent something in one passage, every time that same figure is used in a figurative way, it represents the same thing. The gospel comes from that kingdom, and conducts to that kingdom; the word of the gospel is the word of the kingdom; it is the word of the King, and where that is, there is power; it is a law, by which we must be ruled and governed. They mock the calm utterance of Him who chooses things that are not; and the Lord turns out the unbelievers, and demonstrates the glorious truth that the maid was not dead, but living. "Suffer me first," he says, "to go and bury my father." Now according as we are, so the word is to us: Recipitur ad modum recipientis--The reception depends upon the receiver. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world. But to Nazareth Jesus went. A parable is like a lamp, which is put on a stand to give light, not hidden under a bowl or under a bed. Just so, it is said, we cannot see the work of the Kingdom, but always the Kingdom is working and drawing men and the world ever nearer to God. We may be certain of one thing--whatever else this passage means, it cannot mean that Jesus deliberately delivered his message in such a way that people would fail to understand it. Is not this the carpenter's son? What could be said of her intelligence then? Observe, Persecution is represented in the parable by the scorching sun, (Matthew 13:6; Matthew 13:6); the same sun which warms and cherishes that which was well rooted, withers and burns up that which wanted root. I look at a sick world; a world that seems to me is getting sicker every day. Forward he leaps to meet it. [Note: Edersheim, 1:581. The soul is the proper place for the word of God to dwell, and work, and rule in; its operation is upon conscience, it is to light that candle of the Lord. Why are they in the pulpit, if they do not believe the Word of God, to be the Word of God? . Observe, It is God's work to give an understanding heart, and he often, in a way of righteous judgment, denies it to those to whom he has given the hearing ear, and the seeing eye, in vain. None the less does the Lord uphold it, purged of what accretions had come in to obscure its original and proper character. Leaven was a little piece of dough kept over from a previous baking, which had fermented in the keeping. Years ago Thomas was my Sunday School teacher; I was a wild lad and a sore trial to him. Oh they get all excited. But the mission is given here in strict accordance with what the gospel demands. (i) There is the hearer with the shut mind. Had there been a single thing good in Israel, their choicest guides would have stood that test. The details, found elsewhere, of her being at the point of death then, before reaching the house, the news that she was dead, are not here. Finally, we have all wound up, after the going forth of a testimony which was truly universal in its scope, by the judicial severance at the close, when it is not only the good put into vessels, but the bad dealt with by the due instruments of the power of God. But that explanation is not given to everyone, but only to the disciples (Matthew 13:10; Matthew 13:36), and Matthew not only makes the point explicit in Matthew 13:34 (only parables for the crowds, not explanations), but also confirms it by a formula quotation in Matthew 13:35: parables are hidden things. In this way the medium (parables) is itself integral to the message it conveys (the secrets of the kingdom of heaven)." He was then taken to see the play; the atmosphere, was carefully constructed; there was cunning lighting; there were, incenses and perfumes; there was sensuous music; there was in, many cases a noble liturgy. Even yet in the synagogue he would find a welcome from the common people; but the official leaders of Jewish orthodoxy were now in open opposition to him. Here we see Jesus telling men, not to abandon their gifts, but to use them even more wonderfully in the light of the knowledge which he has given them. There never can be strength in the soul till forgiveness is known. The enemy who sowed it is the devil. If Jesus was really pointing at an actual sower sowing seed, that does not seem a valid objection; and, in any event, the interpretation which identifies the different kinds of soil with different kinds of hearers has always held its place in the Church's thought, and must surely have come from some authoritative source. 14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: 15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Jesus laid down the truth that the nearer a man lives to him, the nearer to the Christian ideal he will grow. The unteachable spirit can erect a barrier which cannot easily be broken down. This is a passage full of difficult things; and we must take time to try to seek out its meaning. Its contents are bound to be a mixture. That is what Isaiah was feeling. Many an individual life is manifestly and violently changed by Christ; and at the same time there is the silent operation of the purposes of God in the long road of history. Now there are those expositors who say that this is a parable that is illustrating how that the kingdom of heaven will have a small beginning. Writing to the Corinthians concerning an incestuous relationship he said, "purge out the old leaven" ( 1 Corinthians 5:7 ). It reveals truth to him who desires truth; it conceals truth from him who does not wish to see the truth. Prejudice can make a man blind to everything he does not wish to see. When the sower was sowing, the ground would look clean enough. Their eyes they have closed Totally and obstinately resisted the truth of God, and shut their eyes against the light. Note, 1. On the other hand, it is not too much to say, that the same Scriptures which convince one unbiassed mind that pays heed to these notes of time, will produce no less effect on others. Note, It is possible we may be a great deal better than some others, and yet not be so good as we should be; may go beyond our neighbours, and yet come short of heaven. This would not be a legal claim on man, but the scattering of good seed, life and fruit from God, and this in the unlimited field of the world, not in the land of Israel merely. The man that was not called promises to go anywhere, in his own strength; but the man that was called feels the difficulty, and pleads a natural duty before following Jesus. and when they were alone, He expounded all things to His disciples [in both the parables and the explanations alluding to what we possess in Matthew 13:1-58.]. "Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof" He had only to say in a word, and his servant should be healed. The people of Israel are amazed at the power of Jesus and His speech, but they fail to recognize Him as their King. The sowing of the word is the sowing of a people for God's field, the corn of his floor,Isaiah 21:10. The apostles were to teach others, and therefore were themselves blessed with the clearest discoveries of divine truth. Let those who have so little experience of what man is, even in the regenerate, beware lest they impute to the Baptist such an acting of a part as shocks us, when Jerome imputed it to Peter and Paul in the censure of Galatians 2:1-21. I say that because we still celebrate Christmas and Easter, which have their pagan origins, not Christian origins, it's a part of the leaven that leavened the whole lump. In short, he had a question because he was a man. And they said unto him, Yes, Lord ( Matthew 13:48-51 ). It has a way of rotting, it has a way of destroying, its influence is permeating and rotting; not destroying necessarily, but rotting, and permeating. Have we, spite of superior privileges, such unwavering faith, that we can afford to treat the matter as incredible in John, and therefore only capable of solution in his staggering disciples? Nothing else in the parable really matters. Well, the Lord said, let them grow. If He offers to go to his house, it was to bring out the faith that He had created in the heart of the centurion. Who has ears let him hear.". Hugh Martin quotes H. G. Wets as saying, "His is easily the dominant figure in history. A historian without any theological bias whatever should find that he simply cannot portray the progress of humanity honestly without giving a foremost place to a penniless teacher from Nazareth." Obviously it was a beginning of a new method of teaching by Jesus. The parable of the sower is plain. 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