On this the Lord proceeds to take a step farther, and makes a deeper inroad, if possible, upon Jewish prejudice. Parables may provide a pictorial way to teach truth, but they are more than just illustrations. In Jesus' name, we pray. He is prepared to hear. Oh, for grace so to bow and bless God, even when our little travail seems in vain! The ground in which this seed is sown is the hearts of the children of men, which are differently qualified and disposed, and accordingly the success of the word is different. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. His disciples came to him. Thomson in The Land and the Book writes: "I have seen this plant on the rich plain of Akkar as tall as the horse and his rider." I don't understand them yet, but it's interesting. There was no other way to transport them in freshness over any time or any distance. "For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. (i) Christianity transformed life for the individual man. It is the death-blow to human tradition and ordinance in divine things, and in reality depends on the truth of the absolute ruin of man a truth which, as we see, the disciples were very slow to recognize. The Jew in his morning prayer thanked God that he had not made him a Gentile, a slave or a woman. In order to be understood, every great word must become flesh, every great idea must take form and shape in a person; and the first great quality of a parable is that it makes truth into a picture which all men can see and understand. Want to improve this question? You should not be surprised at my saying, You must be born again. "Henry's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible". The unteachable spirit can result from one of two things. What Does Matthew 13:12 Mean? Blessed are your eyes. The man's walk before them testifies to the reality of his forgiveness before God. Trials which shake some, confirm others, Philippians 1:12. Which, when it was full, they drew it to shore, and they sat down, and they gathered the good into vessels, but the cast the bad away. Nor was the unbelief confined to these religionists of letter and form; for next (verse 14) the question comes from John's disciples: "Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?" In a group or society, or school or factory, or shop or office, again and again it is the witness of one individual which brings in Christianity. The good seed stands for the sons of the Kingdom; the darnel is the sons of the evil one. Now in this the scripture would be fulfilled, Matthew 13:14; Matthew 13:15. It is God's grace indeed that gives the understanding, but it is our duty to give our minds to understand. And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach." If we take the parable as a warning to hearers, it means that there are different ways of accepting the word of God, and the fruit which it produces depends on the heart of him who accepts it. Therefore I speak to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. Nor is this all. Lord, we realize that there is so much to be gained through the work of your Spirit in teaching us Thy ways. Thanks for your time :-), Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. 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 best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? Bibliographical InformationHenry, Matthew. 169-70; Kelly, pp. It is exactly this thought that Paul plays on in Romans 9:11. Set worn-out oxen, blemished cattle, blemished sheep, wool, hides, an old wagon, old tools, an old slave, a sickly slave, and whatever else is superfluous." But he has no root in himself, and is at the mercy of the moment, and so, when affliction and persecution come, because of the word, he at once stumbles. Matthew 19:1-30 brings in another lesson of great weight. They saw the glory of God in Christ's person; they heard the mind of God in Christ's doctrine; they saw much, and were desirous to see more, and thereby were prepared to receive further instruction; they had opportunity for it, by being constant attendants on Christ, and they should have it from day to day, and grace with it. And of course mustard plants can get as high as the pulpit here. Oh, what a heart is ours! Every gardener knows that the weeds grow with a speed and a strength that few good seeds can equal. He has told them that when they . The woman at last meets the heart and mind of Jesus in the sense of all her utter nothingness before God; and then grace, which had wrought all up to this, though pent-up, can flow like a river; and the Lord can admire her faith, albeit from Himself, God's free gift. It only takes a minute to sign up. It causes dizziness and sickness and is narcotic in its effects, and even a small amount has a bitter and unpleasant taste. It is true, we have only one in Mark, as in Luke; whereas in our gospel we have two. He knows quite well that some will be blown away by the wind, and some will fall in places where it cannot grow; but that does not stop him sowing. We have, in Matthew 13:1-23, one of the parables which our Saviour put forth; it is that of the sower and the seed; both the parable itself, and the explanation of it. Sometimes we see our harvest and we are glad; sometimes there seems to be nothing but barren ground, nothing but total lack of response, nothing but failure. But in this parable of the leaven Jesus came nearer home than in any other because he took it from the kitchen of an ordinary house. said the Lord; and then stretched forth His hand toward His disciples with the words, "Behold my mother and my brethren! To the end the events are put together, just as in Matthew 8:1-34, without regard to the point of time when they occurred. What he spake was in parables. Now, why did Jesus turn to the method of parables? And He said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? Observe how soon they fall away, by and by; as soon rotten as they were ripe; a profession taken up without consideration is commonly let fall without it: "Lightly come, lightly go.". They do not say, Why speakest thou to us? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" The birds pluck it up. Thus the end is as the beginning, and even far, far worse. The man who was digging the field was not searching for treasure; it came on him all unaware. That is a mystery; something meaningless to the outsider, but supremely precious to the initiate. And Luke gives us a few more words of Christ concerning it. There is a sense in which the Kingdom, the power of Christ, the Spirit of God, is always working, whether or not we see that work; and there is a sense in which it is plain to see. In Matthew 15:1-39 we have another picture, and twofold. The same day Jesus went out of the house, and he sat by the seaside. The wind blows wherever it pleases. It brings me to the real crisis; that is, the final presentation of our lord to Jerusalem. MANY THINGS IN PARABLES ( Matthew 13:1-58 ). The tares and the wheat are so like each other that the Jews called the tares bastard wheat. From perissos; to superabound, be in excess, be superfluous; also to cause to superabound or excel. Only tradition will not do this work, nor will human thoughts or feelings. It enhances the unity of the discourse and focuses attention on the central element as what is most important. As A. H. Clough had it: For while the tired waves, vainly breaking. The servants said to him, 'Do you wish us to go and collect the darnel?' In truth, this was Emmanuel, God with us. This new truth, revelation not previously given, was a mystery. This parable tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven begins very small but that in the end many nations will be gathered within it. Something happened that day to Rome, for there were never again any gladiatorial games. [3.] I cannot do it at all with any confidence. They have no root in themselves, no settled, fixed principles in their judgments, no firm resolution in their wills, nor any rooted habits in their affections: nothing firm that will be either the sap or the strength of their profession. Thomson in The Land and the Book, which was first published in 1876, tells of a case of treasure discovery which he himself came upon in Sidon. (v) Christianity transformed life for the child. Many taste the good word of God (Hebrews 6:5), and say they find sweetness in it, but some beloved lust is rolled under the tongue, which it would not agree with, and so they spit it out again. That is the experience of every teacher and preacher and evangelist. Parables were a common mode of teaching among the Rabbis, but Christ used them in such a way that heaven shined down upon the most mundane every day practices of life. Descending then upon the plateau, He delivered what is commonly called the Sermon on the Mount. No, not. But our Lord with dignity demands of Peter, "What thinkest thou, Simon?" ", It was the most natural thing in the world that Jesus should use illustrations from fishing when he was speaking to fishermen. You . (ii) When a man sows the seed, he must not look for quick results. But when the Lord was here, no matter what the unbelief of others, it was only an opportunity for the grace of Jesus to shine out. I believe Paul or Peter says something very similar to this in one of their letters, but I cannot find it unfortunately. Their purpose is to make the hearers think about the teaching. (f) One final thing must be remembered. He does not forsake the work of his own hand, (Psalms 138:8.). We have here Christ preaching, and may observe. Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? even what they have will be taken from them. 2. When we come to think of it, we do not need to choose between these two views of the parable, because they are both true. Forward he leaps to meet it. Here is. Peter goes forth, but losing sight of the Lord in the presence of the troubled waves, and yielding to his ordinary experience, he fears the strong wind, and is only saved by the outstretched hand of Jesus, who rebukes his doubt. 2 Five of the virgins were foolish, and five were wise. given more, and they will have an abundance. Reviewing, then, these closing incidents of the chapter (ver. Only a few respond to the message in faith, but when they do their lives are changed and a spiritual harvest results (Matthew 13:3-9,Matthew 13:18-23; Mark 4:3-9,Mark 4:13-20). He also that received the seed among the thorns is he that hears the word; and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word and he becomes unfruitful. Oh they get all excited. This, then, is the judgment:- The Light has come into the world, and people love darkness rather than the Light because their deeds are evil.". (iii) We find in this parable the same point as in the previous one but with a difference. 11 and he said to Moses, "Please, my lord, I ask you not to hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed. The stony ground was not ground filled with stones; it was what was common in Palestine, a thin skin of earth on top of an underlying shelf of limestone rock. The Saviour, while He puts forth His hand, touching him as man, and yet as none but Jehovah might dare to do, dispels the hopeless disease at once. They had shut their eyes against the clear light of Christ's plainer preaching, and therefore were now left in the dark. The language was vague enough to confuse anyone who was self righteous not knowing they needed faith and re-birth, but anyone who longed for forgiveness and felt the strings of their heart moved and warmed by Him whose words were eternal life, the same were drawn in. Many words are not now required for that which is happily familiar to most here. Not even the prophets of old, who desired to understand their own prophetic words, or the holy angels above, were privileged to understand the mysteries of the kingdom, which Christ reveals to Church-age believers. . The plucking of the corn, and the healing of the withered hand, had taken place long before. The same indifference to the mere sequence of events is found occasionally in other parts of the gospel; but I have purposely dwelt upon this chapter 8, because here we have it throughout, and at the same time with evidence exceedingly simple and convincing. To accept it may be to give up certain aims and ambitions which are very dear, to abandon certain habits and ways of life which are very difficult to lay down, to take on a discipline and self-denial which are by no means easy, in a word, to take up our cross and follow after Jesus. Who then gave everything to purchase the world? He, on the contrary, insists not only that He was bound for the cross, but that its truth must be made good in any who will come after Him. What then does the parable say to the preacher who is discouraged? 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. It is a picture of what was about to take place when the Lord Jesus, quitting Israel and the earth, ascends on high, and all assumes another form not the reign upon earth, but intercession in heaven. They had every intention of keeping the find to themselves; but there were so many of them, and they were so wild with excitement, that their treasure trove was discovered and claimed by the local government. "According to your faith be it done unto you.". Away goes the net, expanding as it flies, and its leaded circumference strikes the bottom ere the silly fish is aware that its meshes have closed around him. Often when we preach or teach or discuss things with people, we try to tell them something which to us is relevant, vivid, of absorbing interest and of paramount importance, and they hear it with a complete lack of interest, understanding, and urgency. (v) It teaches us that the only person with the right to judge is God. of their own children, or of strangers?" It may be that, humanly speaking, in this life the sinner seems to escape the consequences, but there is a life to come. And so with the other conversation: "Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father;" it was after the glory of Christ had been witnessed on the holy mount, when man's selfishness of heart showed itself in contrast to the grace of God. Other dispensationalists believe these parables describe the inter-advent period culminating in the messianic kingdom. In other words, it is certain that in the gospel of Luke, in whose preface we have expressly the words "set in order," the Holy Ghost does in no way tie Himself to what, after all, is the most elementary form of arrangement; for it needs little observation to see, that the simple sequence of facts as they occurred is that which demands a faithful enumeration, and nothing more. Even before this he had used a way of teaching which had the germ of the parable in it. The servant thinks he has held onto something. The kingdom of heaven assumes a form unknown to prophecy, and, in its successive mysteries, fills up the interval between the rejected Christ's going to heaven, and His returning again in glory. It would mean that at all times we must take the long view, that we must not compare things of the present day with last week, month, or even last year, but that we must look back down the centuries, and then we will see the steady progress of the Kingdom. The thorny ground was deceptive. The supreme beauty lies in the acceptance of the will of God. His father was hardly ever in the house. To eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man. So it will be at the end of the age. This, of course, is not the moment to unfold it. (iii) It teaches us not to be so quick with our judgments. He replied, "Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. The Time For Judgment ( Matthew 13:24-30; Matthew 13:36-43 Continued). Make the heart of, this people fat, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest, they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand. He can find loveliness in knowledge and in the reaches of the human mind, in art and music and literature and all the triumphs of the human spirit; he can find loveliness in serving his fellow-men, even if that service springs from humanitarian rather than from purely Christian motives; he can find loveliness in human relationships. Note, The devil is a sworn enemy to our profiting by the word of God; and none do more befriend his design than heedless hearers, who are thinking of something else, when they should be thinking of the things that belong to their peace. 3. But often a word dropped into a man's heart in his boyhood lies dormant until some day it awakens and saves him from some great temptation or even preserves his soul from death. What could be said of her intelligence then? He was ignorant of himself, because ignorant of God, and imagined that it was only a question of man's doing good for God. Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. He was horrified. And they were offended at him. In the British Empire it was William Wilberforce who was responsible for the freeing of the slaves. So the servants of the householder came and said, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How can an accidental cat scratch break skin but not damage clothes? 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. In New Testament times this, word mystery was used in a special and a technical way. At the close of this chapter 9, in His deep compassion He bids the disciples pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into His harvest. (ii) They tell of a prophet's despair. The more thought people give to their masters teaching, the more enlightenment and blessing they will receive in return. The Parable of the Sower; Why Christ Taught in Parables; Of the Sower and the Seed. No preacher or teacher ever does. It appears to me, that the nature or aim of Mark's gospel demands this. His pulpit was a ship; not like Ezra's pulpit, that was made for the purpose (Nehemiah 8:4); but converted to this use for want of a better. "Lord, save us; we perish," cried they, as they awoke Him; and He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea. Compare Revelation 22:20. No place amiss for such a Preacher, whose presence dignified and consecrated any place: let not those who preach Christ be ashamed, though they have mean and inconvenient places to preach in. Many a man would have been saved all kinds of heartbreak, if he had simply stopped to listen to the voice of a wise friend, or to the voice of God. To whom he preached; there were great multitudes gathered together to him, and they were the auditors; we do not find that any of the scribes or Pharisees were present. In this he had laboured, as he said, from his youth up: "What lack I yet?" Doubtless, it was contingent upon the utter ruin of Israel through their unbelief; but the fall of the lesser thing opened the way for the gift of a better glory in answer to Peter's faith in the glory of His person. The bodily presence of the Messiah was not needed. It is not the things which are obviously bad which are dangerous. But if the ground be good, and the fruit right, the heart honest, and the life of a piece with it, those who bring forth but thirty-fold shall be graciously accepted of God, and it will be fruit abounding to their account, for we are under grace, and not under the law. One was with the casting-net, the amphiblestron ( G293) . Observe that it is at this point the chapter begins with vindicating the sanctity of marriage. There is being fulfilled in them Isaiah's prophecy which says, 'You will certainly hear, but you will not understand; and you will certainly look, but you will not see; for the heart of this people has grown fat, and they hear dully with their ears, and their eyes are smeared, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I will heal them. 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