Carey's Bible Study Notes
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the parables
life of christ: matthew 13.24-52
galilean ministry: the parables
introduction: matthew 13.34-35
In the first part of the study on the parables, we examined Jesus� purpose in speaking parabolically. Later Jesus returns to a general discussion of the parables. He explains that one of the reasons He speaks in parables is that He is fulfilling prophecy (Ps. 78:2). This may not impress you and me; however, Matthew�s target audience�the Jews�would have been impacted by this statement. You and I who live 2000 years after the Christ-event don�t need someone to point to the OT prophecies about Jesus in order to convince us that He truly was the Messiah; however, the first-century Jew (and even the Jews today) would have wanted to be convinced that Jesus either fulfilled OT prophecies about the Messiah or that His life harmonized with the OT. By referring to the OT which the Jews accepted as God�s Word, Jesus is going onto their turf in order to convince them that He is truly who He says He is, the Messiah in God�s kingdom.
Another element is operating here. According to the Psalmist, God informed the people that He would address them with the use of parables or mysterious, hidden language. This is due to the nature of God Himself. Although the incarnation shows us that God wants to communicate to us clearly, the truth remains though that God is still God who is ultimately beyond our comprehension. When a person writes a composition or thesis, we are pretty much able to analyze it to death and understand it. It is not beyond our comprehension because it was written by a mere mortal like us. As much as we study the life and teachings of Jesus though, the more we recognize that they continue to be beyond our full comprehension. To be sure we do understand His teachings and actions; however, there is a depth to them which still eludes us. Jesus in the parables is ultimately speaking about things which should cause us to marvel and praise Him. Our ultimate goal should not be complete understanding but rather obedience and praise.
the parable of the wheat and tares (matthew 13.24-30)
The next parable Jesus gives is that of the wheat and tares. Again, Jesus shares this parable with the crowds and yet waits until He is alone with His disciples before He explains it. This continues the motif of Jesus speaking truth to unbelievers in such a way they don�t understand it and to believers in such a way they do understand it.
In this parable Jesus says that a man sowed his field with good seed. While he and his helpers slept, the man�s enemy came and sowed bad seed in with the good seed. The enemy was probably sowing a seed which produces poisonous darnel which is a counterfeit wheat. It looks like wheat until it matures completely at which time it produces black grains instead of brown ones. When the helpers realized what had happened, they asked the master of the estate if they should go weed out the bad plants that were emerging. He instructed them not to. One of 2 things might happen which might harm the good plants. First, the helpers might accidentally mistake a good plant for a bad one and uproot it. Second, the roots of the darnel plants get entangled with the roots of the good wheat; when the helpers uproot the darnel, they will accidentally uproot the good wheat also. Instead, the owner of the estate commanded his helpers to wait until the harvest before they separated the wheat from the darnel. At that time they will reap the whole field, separate the wheat from the darnel, and then throw the darnel into the fire.
interpretation of the parable (13.37-43)
According to Jesus, the owner of the estate is the Son of Man, Jesus Himself. The field He sows is the world (this is important!), while the seed represents the sons of the kingdom, that is, those who have responded positively to Jesus� word that He the king has ushered in the kingdom of God. The enemy represents Satan who places into the world his own followers. The harvest represents the end of history when God will judge all people. On that day God will separate the followers of Jesus from the followers of Satan. The former will experience a glorious existence in which they shine like the sun, while those who reject Jesus and follow Satan will perish forever.
Before we look at what the parable teaches, let�s examine what it does not teach. Some have incorrectly interpreted Jesus by claiming that the field represents the church, in spite of the fact that Jesus explicitly claims that it represents the world. Although we see the kingdom of God most clearly in the church, the truth is that after His ascension Jesus was exalted to the position of Lord over all the universe. Although much of the universe may be in rebellion against Him, He is nevertheless still its Lord, and it nevertheless still forms part of His kingdom. These NT interpreters then go on to claim that this parable teaches that we should never judge people within the church (that is, exercise church discipline) because you may accidentally discipline the wrong person. Such an interpretation not only flies in the face of the practice of the early church, it also contradicts the explicit teachings of Jesus concerning church discipline which we find in the Gospel of Matthew itself! (See Matt. 18:15-17 and also 1 Cor. 5:4-5).
Jesus instead is addressing an issue which was a burning one for the 1st-century world and which is coming back into vogue again today: the attitude of Christians towards non-Christians in the world today. In Jesus� day the common practice was to persecute any and all who disagreed with you in matters of religion. Although the Jews were unable to persecute the Christians directly, they were able to stir up the Romans against them in order to carry out their dirty work for them. This practice continued for 1800 years in Western Civilization. When we were in London recently, I took Nathan to Metropolitan Tabernacle Baptist Church where Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached to over 6000 people every Sunday. Spurgeon had the church constructed on that specific spot because it was the site where the Church of England hung Baptists in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Jesus rejected this kind of attitude not only in teaching but in practice. Jesus claimed that His kingdom was not like the kingdoms of this world. For that reason He did not marshal His troops against the Jewish religious leaders and Pilate after He was arrested. His strategy for advancing His kingdom is preaching the gospel to the ends of the world (Matt. 28:19-20). Whenever Christians see wrong in the world, we need to remember that political force is not the best way to convert or deal with a hostile world. Blowing up abortion clinics is never Jesus� strategy for dealing with sinful mankind. The term "Christian Crusades" is a contradiction in terms. Sharing the love of Christ and preaching coming judgment is His way of reaching out to this lost world.
Why? Because although we might be arrogant enough to think we know who will be saved and who won�t be, the truth is that we don�t know. A person who may qualify for being one of the worst human beings ever to walk upon God�s earth may end up experiencing the saving power of the cross. Such a person we would have rooted out and thrown into the fires of hell; however, God had other plans for that person.
One of the best Christian books is Corrie Ten Boom�s The Hiding Place. Corrie and her sister Betsy were carted off to a Nazi concentration camp because they had harbored Jews during WW2 in the Netherlands. While they were in the concentration camp, they experienced unimaginable horrors. At one point Betsy turned to Corrie and said, "We are in hell." Betsy had a weak constitution and as such responded worse physically to the situation than Corrie did. One of the worst aspects of the camp was the female German prison guard who beat Betsy unmercifully because Betsy could not keep up with the other women in their work. Corrie grew more and more bitter as she saw the prison guard repeatedly beat her sister. Often Betsy would plead with Corrie not to be bitter over what was happening to her. All Corrie wanted to do was kill the prison guard. Over a period of months Betsy�s health deteriorated until she finally died. Due to a clerical error Corrie was released before the Germans finally wiped out most of the prisoners living in the camp.
After the war Corrie continued to be bitter over what had happened to her and Betsy. One day while she was in church she noticed next to the outer wall of the church a woman weeping uncontrollably because of being under conviction of sin. When she examined the woman more closely, she recognized her. She was the prison guard. All the rage she had felt for the woman resurfaced. Turning her into the war crimes tribunal sounded like a good idea; however, God dealt immediately with Corrie so that she forgave the woman. The woman became a Christian as a result. This woman qualified as a darnel plant if any ever did,; if Corrie had had her way, the woman would have been dead in the concentration camp. Yet because of God�s delay, the woman became a Christian and became one of the ways God healed Corrie of her bitterness.
the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven (13.31-33)
The next 2 parables Jesus gives contrasts the growth of the kingdom with its obscure small beginnings. (It should interest us to note that whereas men would be able to relate better to the first parable concerning farming, that women would be able to relate better to the second parable about baking. Jesus addresses all members of His audience.) The rabbis proverbially spoke about the mustard seed as being the smallest seed. (Whereas other seeds are smaller, they nevertheless pointed to the mustard seed for its small size). Although its seed was so small, the mustard plant grew to a height of 10 feet. (If Matthew has placed these parables in chronological order, Jesus is speaking this parable near the time of Passover when the mustard plant was in full bloom with its yellow blossoms.)
Jesus compares the kingdom of God to the phenomenon about the mustard plant. The Jews believed that the Messiah would usher in the kingdom of God in a dramatic fashion with great pomp and splendor. People would throng to join His armies which would quickly dismantle Rome�s powerful legions. Instead, Jesus inaugurates the kingdom in the backwaters of the Roman empire, in the land of Israel. Moreover, He launches this kingdom not in Jerusalem, the capital of Judaism, but by the shores of the Sea of Galilee among villages numbering only 1 to 3 thousand . Look who�s following Him! His followers are not the nobility of the Jewish race. They�re fishermen and tax collectors! Moreover, there are only 12 of them. Yet Jesus promises that in spite of its small, obscure beginnings, the kingdom of God will grow to a massive size. Today those who profess Him number 1 billion.
When we were in Jerusalem, a reporter from Fox News Jerusalem interviewed me after I had baptized a few people in the Jordan River. She asked me if I were not disappointed at how small everything was in the Holy Land. She pointed out that when you read the Bible, you get the impression that everything there is bigger than life; however, once you see it, you realize how insignificant it all really is. I responded: "Ma�am, I�m not disappointed. What all this shows me is that Jesus is bigger than life. The fact that Jesus could come from such a small, insignificant place as this and impact the lives of millions proves He truly is God the Son."
The second of these twin parables pretty much has the same meaning as the first: although the kingdom of God is obscure at first, it will develop into a mighty kingdom. In this parable a woman takes some starter dough with leaven already in it and adds to it more flour. The leaven works its way through the entire lump of dough so that it affects the entire lump of dough and produces enough bread for 150 people. (Now some are going to try to make the leaven refer to evil in the church. Whereas in many places in the Bible leaven symbolizes evil, it does not necessarily always do so. See Lev. 7:13) Here leaven is simply referring to the permeating influence of the kingdom of God.
Jesus touched upon this same principle earlier in the Sermon on the Mount. He described His followers as the light set on top of a hill and as salt which permeates the meat. Jesus is basically saying that the world should be a better place because Christians live in it. Our workplace should be better morally because we are in it. No matter how others operate on the job, no matter how they speak, we should be presenting a wonderful image of Christ to them. When our children bring their friends into our homes, they should be affected by the Spirit of Christ in that home. For example, recently Nathan was involved in a contest at school. One of his friends who spent the night with him was also involved in another aspect of that contest. Before they left for the contest, we spent time together in prayer for both boys. Our government leaders should be trying to promote better laws because of the influence of Christians. The idea of a complete separation of church and state simply is not found in the US constitution; more than that though, it contradicts our call from Christ to be the light of the world. Whereas Jesus did not spend the majority of His time with politicians, the truth is that He did speak the truth before Pontius Pilate. Paul spoke before rulers and kings in order to lead them to Christ. John the Baptist was beheaded because he was involved in politics. Although acting like salt and light does not guarantee others will change, it is nevertheless true that these others will not change unless we really live out Christ before their eyes. Our having integrity and living like Christ gives the world a chance to turn to Him.
the surpassing worth of the kingdom of god (13.44-46)
In the first parable a man accidentally finds a treasure in a field. This actually could have happened. Israel was at the crossroads of the ancient world. Armies from the ancient empires were constantly overrunning Israel on their way to better pastures: the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans. Many times when a person received news that an enemy army was approaching, he would take his valuables and bury them in the field. Unfortunately, the man along with his family was often killed so that the treasure remained buried. This man finds such a treasure, reburies it, and then with joy purchases the land from its owner so that the treasure will be his. (Jesus does not discuss the ethical element of this action because it does not affect the point of the story.) In the second parable the merchant is searching high and low for the most precious pearl in the world. When he discovers it, he sells all that he has in order to purchase it.
One common element in both stories is the great worth of the kingdom of God. The first parable compares it to a treasure. The second parable claims that the kingdom of God is so valuable that it is worth all that you and I have. Nothing we have is more valuable than being a part of the kingdom of heaven, of having a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
One of my favorite scenes in Titanic is the one in which Jack Dawson is about to die. For the past 11/2 hours Jack has been trying to save himself and Rose. He would probably have escaped a lot of hardship if he had never gotten to know Rose in the first place. If he had not won that game of poker, he would not have even been on that ill-fated ship. Yet right as he is about to freeze to death, he tells Rose that winning that ticket was the best thing that ever happened to him because he got to be with Rose. Beloved, as touching as that scene is, it is just a movie. A relationship with Jesus is real life. Many times God says that along with having a relationship with Jesus we will suffer terribly. This should not surprise us since it required nothing less than great suffering and pain for the kingdom of God to come into existence�the cross of Jesus Christ. Yet no matter what we suffer or are called to give up as a result of having a relationship with Christ, it is worth it because of the One we are having a relationship with, Jesus.
the dragnet (13.47-50)
The final parable Jesus gives concerns the man who casts his seine out into the lake and brings out both good fish and bad fish. The good ones (the large ones) he keeps; the bad ones (the smaller ones) he casts back into the lake. Jesus means for us to understand that this refers to the day of judgment. When He keeps the good ones, He is keeping for salvation those who enter the kingdom of heaven. Those He rejects as bad, He is casting into hell. The ones He rejects are those who refuse to enter the kingdom of God because they are refusing to accept Jesus as the Messiah, as the treasure in the field, as the pearl of great price, or as the Master who sowed the good seed. Our study of the parables should by no means ever be purely academic. Rather they should call us to respond positively to the claim Jesus has upon our lives.