Matthew 13


The Parable of the Sower

¹That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. ²Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. ³Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. ⁸Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. ⁹He who has ears, let him hear."

Matthew 13:1-9

Explanation:

PARABLES OF THE SECRET KINGDOM (13:1-52)
Matthew's central discourse section (13:1-52) contains seven or eight parables depicting the present character of the kingdom until the end; his final discourse section contains a roughly equal number of end-time kingdom parables (24:32-25:46). As in Mark, Jesus' parables of the kingdom's present state explain why his kingdom comes first in a hidden way and why Israel's leaders reject him (compare F. Bruce 1972a:69; Ladd 1963). These parables dramatically reinforce that Jesus' first coming was coercive neither militarily nor intellectually (11:25-27); he came as the meek burden bearer (11:28-30), and only the meek could recognize and follow him (11:25, 28).
That the parables address his people's acceptance or rejection of the kingdom message follows from the context: Jesus speaks parables that same day that he has confronted Pharisaic opposition (12:24-45) and offered a culturally offensive statement about his family (12:46-50). The parables section closes immediately with an account of Jesus' rejection by his hometown (13:53-58), so that rejection by his own frames his kingdom parables (compare 10:21, 34-37). This likewise implies that true disciples-those who follow the kingdom message-must be prepared to pay the ultimate price for doing so (13:20-22, 44-46).

Because modern readers often misunderstand parables, it is important to provide some brief comments about their character. Most of Jesus' parables were stories designed to illustrate a particular point or points, something like sermon illustrations today (except sometimes without the accompanying sermon that would clarify the illustration!). We should not read too much into parables; often some details of the parables merely are necessary to make a good story. Nevertheless, parables provide one creative way to explain Jesus' central point or points.





Setting (13:1-2)
In view of the heavy crowds, Jesus entered into a boat and pushed out slightly from the shore, a technique that had enabled him to speak to large crowds at other times (Lk 5:3). Many natural acoustic settings existed in Galilee, including a cove near Capernaum, that would enable thousands to hear the voice of someone properly positioned (Crisler 1976:134-37).


The Sower and the Soils (13:3-23)
Jesus tells the "parable of the sower" (v. 18) in verses 3-9; in verses 18-23 he provides the interpretation, in which only one who "hears the word and understands it"! perseveres to eternal life (v. 23). In the intervening section (vv. 10-17) Jesus emphasizes that only his inner circle will understand, because the parables make sense only in the context of Jesus' ministry. Thus prospective disciples have a measure of choice: only those who press into his inner circle, those who persevere to mature discipleship, will prove to be good soil.


Various Soils Respond to the Seed (13:3-9)
Jesus draws from commonplace agricultural conventions to illustrate his kingdom principles, as one might expect from a teacher sensitive to rural Galilean hearers. Whereas the later rabbinic parables often focus on such settings as royal courts (compare 22:2; see comment on Mt 18:23), Jesus most often told stories about agriculture and the daily life of his common hearers (as in 20:1).

Other ancient writers employed the seed image; perhaps most significantly, 4 Ezra declares that just as not all the seeds a farmer sows survive or put down roots, so not all people will persevere to eternal life (4 Ezra 8:41). But whereas the harvest would be completed in the end time (Mt 13:39; 3:12; 21:34; compare 9:37-38), Jesus portrays the present as a time of sowing to prepare for that harvest.

The sower must sow widely to ensure a good harvest. It made more sense, in a field like the one in Jesus' parable, to plow up the ground before sowing; this was a frequent practice in ancient Israel (Is 28:24-25; Jer 4:3; compare Hos 10:11-12; K. White 1964). Later literature, however, repeatedly speaks of plowing after sowing (although some plowed both before and after sowing); farmers who knew their fields apparently felt comfortable sowing first, then plowing the seed into the ground (Jub. 11:11; Jeremias 1972:11 and 1966b; see especially P. Payne 1978:128-29, contending that both practices occurred). Because we cannot know the conditions of given hearers' hearts before we preach, Jesus uses the second analogy of sowing before plowing; we must sow as widely as possible and let God bring forth the appropriate fruit (compare the agricultural counsel in Eccl 11:6).

Not all ground will yield good fruit. The path probably represents one of the footpaths running through or around the field (A. Bruce 1979:195). Some of the grain accidentally fell on or beside it, exposing the seed there to hungry birds (compare Jub. 11:11). The sower's field in this parable also includes some land where the soil is shallow over rock. Palestine includes much land like this; though seed springs up quickly on such soil, which holds its warmth, the seed readily dies because it cannot put down roots (Argyle 1963:101).

The fruitful soil yields enough to make up for the useless soil. Italy and Sicily averaged fivefold or sixfold return on grain sown; irrigated fields in Egypt averaged around a sevenfold yield for wheat (N. Lewis 1983:121-22). The average Palestinian harvest may have yielded seven and a half to ten times the seed sown. Thus harvests yielding thirty to a hundred times the seed invested are extraordinarily abundant (Gen 26:12; Jub. 24:15; Sib. Or. 3.264-65), and one rarely exceeded one hundredfold (P. Payne 1980:183-84). The fruit from the good soil more than makes up for any seed wasted on the bad soil.

Matthew 13


¹⁰The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?"
¹¹He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. ¹²Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. ¹³This is why I speak to them in parables:
   "Though seeing, they do not see;
       though hearing, they do not hear or understand. ¹⁴In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
   " 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
       you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
    ¹⁵For this people's heart has become calloused;
       they hardly hear with their ears,
       and they have closed their eyes.
   Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
       hear with their ears,
       understand with their hearts
   and turn, and I would heal them.' ¹⁶But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. ¹⁷For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
¹⁸"Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: ¹⁹When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. ²⁰The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. ²¹But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. ²²The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. ²³But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

Matthew 13:10-23

Explanation:

Secrets for Disciples Only (13:10-17)
Jesus reveals special truth to his disciples through parables. Jewish teachers used parables as sermon illustrations to explain a point they were teaching (for examples, see Johnston 1977:507). To offer an illustration without stating the point, however, was like presenting a riddle instead (compare Test. Ab. 12-13A). By articulating his principles only in parables, Jesus offers riddles whose answer can be fathomed only by those who understand them in the context of his own ministry (for example, events like the Pharisees' rejection-12:24-45) or who patiently press into his inner circle to wait for the interpretation (13:12; compare Irenaeus Adversus haereses 2.27.3).
Jesus spoke in parables because the kingdom involved end-time "mysteries" (NIV secrets, v. 11) now being revealed to those with ears to hear. The disciples were more special than the prophets of old only because they lived in a time when they could receive a greater revelation than the prophets, as Jesus' blessing on them makes clear. The disciples' eyes and ears were blessed (v. 16) because of the greater one among them (v. 17). The rest of the hearers, unable to fathom his message, fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah about penal blindness: because of Israel's sin, they would be unable to truly see, hear and understand God's message (vv. 13-15; 15:14; Is 6:9-10; compare Is 29:9-10; Evans 1981). Yet those who did turn to the truth would be "healed" (Mt 13:15); Jesus' physical healings were concrete signs of the spiritual healing of which Isaiah spoke (Mt 8:17; compare Is 6:10; 53:5; Hos 11:3; 14:4).

The disciples alone had pressed close enough to Jesus to understand the rest of what he was giving them. To those who had some revelation, more revelation would be given (Mt 13:11-12). In other words, the disciples alone proved to be good soil (v. 23).





Only Disciples Who Understand Persevere (13:18-23)
The only conversions that count in the kingdom are those confirmed by a life of discipleship. Jesus sowed the Word widely, but not all his hearers persevered in discipleship. What was true of the crowds that followed Jesus is also true of the crowds who claim to be his disciples today. Many who have raised their hands in evangelistic crusades or even attended church regularly will be surprised on the day of judgment that Jesus never knew them (7:21-22). Whether the message went in one ear and out the other (13:19), whether someone began the Christian life eagerly and then abandoned it because it entailed too much hardship or persecution (vv. 20-21), whether one accepted the gospel but then backslid into complacency, seduced by other interests (v. 22), such people prove useless to the kingdom. Yet others will more than make up for the seed invested in them, becoming true disciples of the kingdom and spreading the true message of the kingdom to others (v. 23).
In One Ear and out the Other (13:19)

Jewish teachers exhorted students to listen intently and memorize their teachings (for example, Mek. Pisha 1.135-36; Sipre Deut. 306.19.1-3). Yet many who listened to Jesus would forget the message of his kingdom. Such neglect, Jesus says, is the devil's work. Sometimes in counseling I encounter people who have heard the gospel every week in church yet insist that they do not know how to be saved. Simply hearing the gospel does not guarantee understanding or embracing it.


Shallow Commitment (13:20-21)

Matthew warns us that even disciples who spent years with Jesus proved susceptible to such hardship, although their roots were secure enough to return (26:56, 75). I soberly recall that many friends who became followers of Jesus at the same time I did, including some of my witnessing partners, later abandoned the faith. God is less interested in how quickly we run at the beginning of the race than in whether we truly finish it (compare Jn 8:30-47). Some will fall no matter how plainly we preach the truth, but we definitely set people up for failure when we fail to instruct new believers that suffering comes with following Christ (Acts 14:22; 1 Thess 3:3-4).

The World's Distractions (13:22)

Some embrace the gospel, but gradually other interests-wealth, security, family and the like-choke it out of first place. Christ's apostles proclaimed that Jesus must hold first place in our lives (see 1 Cor 10:31; Col 3:17). The Bible often warns against the dangers of wealth (as in Mt 6:24; Deut 6:10-12), and Matthew provides some examples of would-be disciples lured away by desire for wealth (Mt 19:21-23; 26:14-16). Even in parts of the world that include many professing Christians, many churches are full of barely committed people who never win a soul to Christ, rarely speak a word on his behalf and accept Christianity as a nice addition to their lives-which are devoted to the same basic goals as their neighbors'. Jesus' kingdom demands suggest that such people may not believe the reality of the gospel enough to stake their lives on it, hence may not prove true disciples of Jesus Christ (compare 3:8-10; Marshall 1974:62-63). One reason we may have so many shallow Christians in some churches today is that many of us have preached a shallow gospel rather than the demands of God's kingdom, and they are (to paraphrase a lament of D. L. Moody) our converts rather than our Lord's.

Daring to Believe the Gospel (13:23)

Sometimes daring to believe in opposition to the values around us means believing the gospel even in contrast to the practice of Christianity we see around us! These people dare to make a difference in the world for the name of their Lord Jesus. Jesus already understood what many of us who work for him have yet to learn: in the long run, drawing crowds is less significant for the kingdom than training those who will multiply the work by training others in turn. Perhaps many of us prefer numbers in the short term over spiritual depth because we lack the faith to believe that such depth is essential (compare v. 12); but fifty disciples with spiritual depth will produce greater numbers in the end than a million raised hands without commitment ever could.

We should take careful note, however, of Matthew's description of the fruitful person: the fruitful person is the one who understands the message (v. 23). Only those who press close to Jesus, persevering until they understand the real point of his teaching, will prove to be long-term disciples (vv. 10-17; compare Jn 8:31-32; Marshall 1974:62-63).

Matthew 13


The Parable of the Weeds

²⁴Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
²⁷"The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?'
²⁸" 'An enemy did this,' he replied.
"The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
²⁹" 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. ³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' "

The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast

³¹He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. ³²Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."
³³He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough."
³⁴Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. ³⁵So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:
   "I will open my mouth in parables,
       I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world."

Matthew 13:24-35

Explanation:

The Future Revelation of Kingdom People (13:24-43)
Just as Matthew presents the purpose for Jesus' opaque teachings (vv. 10-17) in the midst of a parable explaining that not all will receive the gospel and persevere for him (vv. 3-9, 18-23), he now presents the parables of the mustard seed and the yeast (vv. 31-33) in the midst of the parable of the weeds (vv. 24-30, 36-43), with more words about the nature of parables (vv. 34-35). The parable of the weeds (vv. 24-30, 36-40) emphasizes that children of the kingdom must coexist with children of the evil one in this world until their vindication at the end. The parable may also reinforce images of conversion, perseverance and apostasy in the parable of the sower (vv. 3-9, 18-23): especially in places where disciples can blend into the world (v. 22), it is hard to know for sure who will persevere until the final judgment. The glorious kingdom of the future is present in this age only in an obscure and hidden way, except to those with eyes of faith (vv. 31-33).




The Enemy's Weeds (13:24-30)
As in verses 3-9, Jesus tells an agricultural story that is relatively realistic. Although the color is local, the central character of the story is not a peasant like many of Jesus' hearers; he is a wealthy landowner (v. 27), whereas the farmer in the parable of the sower could easily have been a tenant farmer, a peasant like many of Jesus' hearers. The main character's authority makes him a clearer analogy for God, as in other Jewish parables (such as Sipra Behuq. pq. 3.263.1.8).
"Tares" (KJV) or weeds (NIV) here are darnel (Lolium temulentum), a poisonous weed organically related to wheat and difficult to distinguish from wheat in the early stages of its growth (Jeremias 1972:224). (Calling them "tares" may tempt a preacher given to puns to title a sermon on this passage a "tare-ible parable.") Given the occasional feuding of rival farmers (Derrett 1973:43), it is not surprising that Roman law would specifically forbid sowing such poisonous plants in another's field (Hepper et al. 1982:948) or that one who found an abundance of such weeds would suspect an enemy's hand (v. 28).

Despite the workers' willingness to try (v. 28)-workers regularly uprooted weeds before their roots were entangled with those of the wheat (Jeremias 1972:225; KG mmel 1957:134-35)-it would be difficult for them to root out the many tares at this stage (Manson 1979:193; Meier 1980:147). The weeds had grown enough that their roots were already intertwined with those of the wheat but not far enough that it would be easy to distinguish them from the wheat; uprooting thus might endanger the wheat (v. 29).

After the wheat and darnel were grown, they were easily distinguished, and reapers could gather the darnel, which did have one use: given the scarcity of fuel, it would be burned (v. 30; Jeremias 1972:225; A. Bruce 1979:200). Wheat was normally gathered and bound in sheaves, then transported, probably on donkeys, to the village (or in this case the large estate's own) threshing floor (N. Lewis 1983:123), then stored.



The Hidden Kingdom of the Present (13:31-35)
Jesus insists that the glorious anticipated kingdom of God is also present in a hidden way in his ministry and that of his followers. These parables most clearly declare that God's kingdom has arrived in some sense in Jesus' ministry, in a hidden and anticipatory way. Far from baptizing the wicked in fire and overthrowing the nations at his first coming, Jesus came as a meek servant (12:18-20), wandering around Galilee with a group of obscure disciples and healing some sick people.

In a world characterized by political turmoil and filled with wandering teachers and magicians, Jesus' initial arrival as a politically inconspicuous servant had rendered his mission as opaque as his parables, except to people of faith. We Christians sound foolish to those outside Jesus' circle when we speak of a final judgment and living for a future kingdom; what does that have to do with the troubles of daily life in the present? But those who have pressed into Jesus' circle today, like those who did so two thousand years ago, know who Jesus really is. Despite the magnitude of the task before us, we dare not despise the "smallness" of our own works, for God's entire program long ago came hidden in a small package.

The Kingdom Is like a Mustard Seed (13:31-32)

Despite some dispute today over which plant Jesus intended, the mustard seed had become proverbial for small size (17:20; m. Niddah 5:2; Toharot 8:8). Although not literally the smallest of seeds, and yielding a shrub rather than a tree in the technical botanical sense in English, the mustard plant hyperbolically conveyed Jesus' point (the inconspicuous becomes mighty) better than any other. (It commonly reaches eight to ten feet around the Lake of Galilee.)

The Power of a Little Bit of Leaven (13:33)

Jewish writers used yeast in a variety of symbolic ways, but Jesus stresses here the factor all had in common: its ultimately pervasive character. One leavens unleavened meal until the finished product is thoroughly leavened. The amount of flour involved here represents roughly fifty pounds, providing enough bread for over one hundred people. A housewife would not normally fix so much meal and could not knead more than this; the unnatural magnitude of the illustration probably suggests that the kingdom far exceeds daily examples to which it may be compared (so Jeremias 1972:147). That she "hid" (NIV mixed obscures this point) the yeast in the dough also exceeds the comparison and reinforces the image of the hiddenness of the kingdom in this age.

Jesus Tells Parables to Reveal God's Long-Hidden Mysteries (13:34-35)

Although the parables were riddles to outsiders, they conveyed God's hidden revelation to his followers (compare 13:10-17; 1 Cor 2:7-10; Col 2:2-3). As in the central section of the parable of the sower (Mt 13:10-17), Jesus justifies this principle from Scripture.

Matthew 13


The Parable of the Weeds Explained

³⁶Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."
³⁷He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, ³⁹and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
⁴⁰"As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. ⁴¹The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. ⁴²They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl

⁴⁴"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
⁴⁵"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. ⁴⁶When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

The Parable of the Net

⁴⁷"Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. ⁴⁸When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. ⁴⁹This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous ⁵⁰and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
⁵¹"Have you understood all these things?" Jesus asked.
"Yes," they replied.
⁵²He said to them, "Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old."

Matthew 13:36-52

Explanation:

Those Who Know the Kingdom's Value (13:44-52)
The kingdom might be hidden to the world (vv. 24-43, 47-50) like a hidden treasure or a special pearl that only a merchant searching for it would find (vv. 44-46; compare 6:20), but a few people would recognize its value and live accordingly. Such people would relinquish everything they had to obtain it (13:44-46; compare 6:19-24; 19:21).
Having made this point, Jesus returns to his earlier theme (13:36-43) about only the final time distinguishing the righteous from the wicked (vv. 47-50), reminding his hearers that a single sacrifice for the kingdom may be insufficient: "It's not over till it's over." Jesus then returns to his theme of the kingdom's value: teachers of the kingdom are like well-to-do householders with new treasure, the kingdom (vv. 51-52). Just as each of the previous parable sections (vv. 3-23; vv. 24-43) contained a central section essential to its interpretation (vv. 10-17; vv. 31-35), so verses 47-50 provide a warning that many will profess to be true disciples but that only the end will reveal whose commitment has been adequate (vv. 44-46, 50-52). This warning may reiterate a recurrent theme of the chapter: the uncertainty of the identity of those who will persevere to salvation (vv. 19-23, 37-43).





The Kingdom Costs True Disciples Everything (13:44-46)
True, the kingdom is available to us only by grace through faith; but genuine faith means genuinely embracing and yielding to God's reign, not simply acknowledging it and then passing it by as if it did not exist. The kingdom is a treasure, and those who really believe it will sacrifice everything else in their lives for its agendas (compare Ladd 1974b:99; Fenton 1977:227; Gundry 1982:276). Professed Christians who desire worldly wealth and status but are far less consumed with the furtherance of God's kingdom must reconsider the true state of their souls. When we preach that people who simply pray a prayer will automatically be saved from hell regardless of whether they truly commit their lives to Christ in trust that he is saving them from sin (from selfishness, from going their way instead of his), we preach a message other than the one our Lord has taught us.
Treasure Hidden in a Field (13:44)

People in Palestine often hid treasures, and a treasure might remain concealed if the hider died before he could retrieve it. Probably the central character of this parable is a peasant working a wealthy landowner's field who when plowing turns up a strongbox or jar containing coins. Once he buys the field, the field's contents legally belongs to him (compare m. Baba Batra 4:8-9), freeing him to later "rediscover" the treasure. Whereas most discovered-treasure stories emphasized the finder's extravagant lifestyle afterward or some compromise between the field's seller and buyer (Gen. Rab. 33:1; Jeremias 1972:200), Jesus lays the entire emphasis on the price the man is ready to pay to invest in this treasure far greater than any he already owns. Although this treasure, like the kingdom, is hidden to most of the world, not only does the man recognize that its value outweighs all he has, but (unlike most of us today) he acts accordingly.

A Prosperous Merchant Seeks Pearls (13:44-45)

In contrast to the tenant worker, the central figure of this story is a merchant, a man with capital, hence of greater means. Ancient reports tell of pearls worth tens of millions of dollars in modern currency (Jeremias 1972:199). This merchant, uniquely sensitive to the value of the pearl, wisely invests all he has to purchase it. Other Jewish accounts of finding expensive pearls typically emphasized the finder's piety; thus a Jewish tailor pays an outrageous price for a fish because he needs it to keep the Sabbath, yet finds in it a pearl that supplies his needs the rest of his life (Pes. Rab. 23:6). Jesus, however, emphasizes only the value of the pearl and the joy of finding it (Jeremias 1972:199).



The Coming Separation (13:47-50)
Jesus closed the last parable section (vv. 24-43) with the coming separation, a theme that recurs here. Only the final judgment will reveal who was truly committed to the kingdom and how wise the committed were to invest their lives in it. Fruits often reveal true and false disciples in the present (7:15-23), but some who seem to be genuine today may not persevere to the end, and some who will become believers may not have yet heard the gospel (13:23).
Of at least twenty-four species of fish counted in the Lake of Galilee, many were unclean or inedible, and the net would not discriminate in its catch. Until the final day, Jesus will continue eating with sinners to seek and save the lost (vv. 28-29, 48-50). The kingdom had not consumed the wicked with fire (3:10-12) or come "with signs to be observed" (compare Lk 17:20); it had invaded the world in a hidden way and would remain hidden until the end. But while the parable probably applies primarily to the world, those who apply the parable to the church are not wholly amiss: the same line between righteous and wicked will ultimately divide Jesus' professing disciples (13:20-23).



Revealing the Kingdom's Treasures (13:51-52)
True teachers of the kingdom display the kingdom's treasure for all to see. Matthew concludes this central discourse of his Gospel with a final, eighth parable. If Jesus' disciples have truly understood his teaching (v. 51), they are prepared to teach others the value of the kingdom (v. 52). Jesus expects his disciples to build both on the biblical teachings that had come before him and on his gospel of the kingdom; the heavy New Testament dependence on both shows that they did so. Because these disciples understand (v. 51), they prove that they are the good soil, those who pressed in close enough to Jesus to know him (v. 23; compare 13:11-12, 16).

Matthew 13


A Prophet Without Honor

⁵³When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. ⁵⁴Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" they asked. ⁵⁵"Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? ⁵⁶Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" ⁵⁷And they took offense at him.
But Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor."
⁵⁸And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

Matthew 13:53-58

Explanation:

THE REJECTED PROPHET (13:53-17:27)
The theme of this section is not hard to discern: even more than in previous sections, it alternates between opposition and miracles, thus showing the spiritual blindness of those who oppose Jesus. Because Jesus is a rejected prophet (13:53-58), John's martyrdom (14:1-12) foreshadows his own. His miracles reveal his identity to disciples (14:33) and even to Gentiles (15:22), but the elite among his own people trifle over irrelevant matters (15:2) and prove unable to recognize his signs (16:1-4). Yet even the disciples fail to understand fully (14:31; 15:15-16, 33; 16:8-12; 17:20), although Jesus' revelation begins to make his identity clearer to them (16:13-17:13).
In contrast to the continuity of material in this section, its only clear structure is on the level of individual paragraphs, but here it will be divided into three rough segments that may help reveal both the development of the opposition to Jesus and his self-revelation to his followers. In 13:53-14:36 Jesus confronts opposition but performs dramatic miracles. In 15:1-39 he confronts more direct opposition from people of influence but again performs dramatic miracles, even for a Canaanite. In 16:1-17:27 Jesus faces opposition from a united political front (16:1) but grapples especially with revealing himself to his disciples.





The Threatened Prophet (13:53-14:36)
Like Moses, Elijah and Jeremiah, Jesus was rejected among his own people (13:53-58); the prophet John's execution thus prefigures his own (14:1-12). But like Moses and Elisha of old, Jesus feeds the multitude (14:13-21) and ultimately reveals himself in an act that characterizes no mere prophet, but God alone (14:22-33); the multitudes continue to seek him for healing (14:34-36).


A Prophet Visits Home (13:53-58)
Himself greater than a prophet (5:12; 11:11-14), Jesus would face rejection greater than the prophets had (23:29-36). Like Jeremiah (Jer 1:1; 11:21-23), Jesus faced the rejection of those closest to him through the ties that usually mattered most in his society-geography and blood (Mt 13:53-58; compare 10:21, 35; 12:46-50).
These accounts of breaking traditional ties frame the kingdom parables (12:46-13:58), forcefully illustrating the message of those parables: the kingdom comes in an obscure way like a mustard seed, and only those with the eyes of faith will recognize it. How could anyone believe that God had stepped into history in the person of a boy who had grown up in their own community? Today we may often have the opposite problem: the familiarity of church tradition too easily obscures the reality that the God we confess as having stepped into history came in the flesh as a little boy in a particular time and place. We may also risk missing the character of Jesus of Nazareth.

Knowing much about Jesus without obeying him leads to taking him for granted. One might cite here the saying that familiarity breeds contempt. The people among whom Jesus had grown up were unprepared to embrace his wisdom and . . . miraculous powers. Those who know most about Jesus without obeying him risk taking him for granted (v. 54; see also Jn 6:42; 7:15). In a town of probably five hundred or fewer inhabitants (Stanton 1993:112), everyone would have thought they knew Jesus already (compare Lk 13:26-28); indeed, Nazareth was a small town from which even Nazarenes would not expect a great prophet (2:23; compare Jn 1:46). They never expected the kingdom to come in a hidden way or to come as close to them as it did (13:31-33); hence those closest to the kingdom did not recognize it, and it passed them by (compare 2:1-12).


Prophets-both Jesus and his true followers-will be rejected. This principle so permeated the early Christian understanding of Jesus' rejection by the leaders of his people that it figures prominently in the Gospels (13:57; Mk 6:4; compare Lk 4:24; Jn 4:44). "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first" (Jn 15:18). Jesus' contemporaries already knew and emphasized that prophets were rejected (as in Mt 23:37; Acts 7:52, 58; CD 7.17-18; 1 Enoch 95:7), but never thought to apply concretely in this case what they professed abstractly.

God allows our unbelief to limit his activity. Mark says that Jesus "could not" do a miracle in Nazareth because of the people's unbelief (Mk 6:5), probably meaning that Jesus refused to act as a mere magician but demanded faith (Goppelt 1981:148). Matthew clarifies the wording: Jesus did not (would not) act because of their unbelief (13:58). Those who are hostile to God's purposes cannot complain because they do not receive the attestations of his power that appear regularly among those who believe him. We should keep in mind, however, that the issue here is the hostility of antibelief, not a young Christian's struggles with doubt (compare Moule 1965:47); sometimes God does sovereignly act on behalf of his own to develop faith, not just to reward it (compare 17:2-7; 28:5-10, 17; Ex 3:2; Judg 6:12-14).