NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Part I

Verses 1-2: That same day Jesus left His house and went and sat down by the lake. A large crowd gathered around Him. So He climbed into a boat and sat down. All the people stayed on the shore.

Even without giving the name of the town where Jesus was ministering, we can see that it was along the shore of the Sea of Galilee at Capernaum, because it refers to His house. Considering the situation – Christ sitting in a boat a certain distance from the shore; the usual wind, the sound of the tide washing up on the beach, the wide open location, the noise from others on the beach such as fisherman, the tax-collection booth, and the hum of nearby markets, it suggests that Jesus must have had a very strong, resonant voice for the crowd to hear Him, as His words reflected off the water.

There are many incidents in the Scriptures that show Jesus could really bellow when necessary to get attention. I’m sure when He cleared out the Temple he didn’t walk up to the money changers and in a polite and gentle voice say, “May I turn your tables over, please?” And when He cast out demons, He didn’t say to them in a soft tone, “Would you mind going somewhere else, you’ve become a real nuisance to this individual.” I’m convinced that when He reappears in the sky to raise believers who’ve died and transform the living, His voice will be heard like thunder when He bids them come to Him, just like He did in calling Lazarus to come out of the grave alive!

Various early church fathers express what they see in this incident. Origen says that it was our Lord’s love of humanity that caused Him to leave His house and go to those who were not able to come to Him.¹ Chrysostom believes that Jesus wanted to see face to face all those who were interested in what He had to say. In so doing, He left no one at a disadvantage behind His back.² And the early church bishop of Poitiers, France, sees our Lord’s actions as prefiguring the pulpit and the congregation in the church, and that His speaking to them in parables is a form of Homiletics.³ Also, early church theologian Jerome feels it was our Lord’s compassion that inspired Him to leave His house and go to where a crowd might gather. And although the anchored boat may have been bobbing up and down, Jerome says: “The people…stood in rapt attention on the shore to hear His words.”⁴

Verse 3: Then Jesus spoke and used stories to teach them many things. He began with this illustration: “A farmer went out to sow seed.”

Using stories to teach a moral lesson was already an accepted way for prophets in Israel. After all, when Nathan was sent by God to King David to speak about his adulterous fling with Bathsheba, didn’t the prophet begin with: “In a certain city there were two men, one rich, the other poor…”⁵ And don’t we find the same method used in Isaiah: “My loved one had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug up its stones and cleared them away and planted it with the choicest vines...”⁶ And in the Jewish apocalyptic writings we read: “And he [Enoch] took up his parable and said…”⁷ Also, does not the great Jewish writer, Joshua ben Sirach say: “The mind of the intelligent appreciates proverbs.”⁸ And an outstanding Jewish Rabbi named, Akiba, gave an explanation for why he was still teaching the Torah when the Roman government had forbidden it and began with: “I will explain to you with a parable”.⁹

Even early Jewish teachers agreed with Jesus analysis. One of them went so far as to say: “The one who listened and suffered loss therefore was Adam. And what loss did he suffer? Nothing less than eternal life: ‘Dust you are and unto dust you will return¹⁰.”¹¹ So until the thorns and weeds have been depleted because the unbeliever is in constant contact with the living branch from the Living Vine, we should heed God’s instructions to the prophet Jeremiah, “Your fields have not been plowed. Plow those fields! Don’t plant seeds among the thorns. First, become the Lord’s people, that will change your hearts.”¹²

When it comes to teaching truths by way of parables, one Jewish scholar stands out, Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes. Historians say that his real name may have been Nahori or Misha, because the term “Meir” means “Illuminator,” which was given to him because he enlightened the minds of the students in studying the Torah. We are told, that when Rabbi Meir died, the composer of parables ceased.¹³ So even among the Jews, the use of parables was highly regarded. Also, several Rabbis were discussing Scriptural idioms, and one of them mentioned the need to explain such things. So one of them asked him, “How long have you known that? asked Rabbi Ishmael — I heard it in a public discourse of Rabbi Meir, he answered. Even as Rabbi Johanan said: When Rabbi Meir used to deliver his public discourses, a third was Jewish Law, a third Haggadah [Traditional stories], and a third consisted of parables. Rabbi Johanan also said: Rabbi Meir had three hundred parables of foxes, and we have only three left.”¹⁴

This reminds us of the sayings about foxes by both Solomon¹⁵ and Jesus.¹⁶ Also, when Jesus sometimes paraphrased the Old Testament, this was permitted by respected scholars. It is recorded: “Rebbi Meir holds that a person does not have to say table grace verbatim as it was written by the Rabbis, but rather he can give his own version. As long as what he says blesses God and mentions the type of food on which he says grace it is a valid blessing. The reason that Rebbi Meir uses for his examples bread and figs is because the blessing for them are clearly defined.”¹⁷

So when Jesus began teaching by using a parable, the crowd saw this as normal for any Rabbi. The parable Jesus used here was meant to convey a spiritual truth. The key factor is not the farmer or the seed, but the soil in which the seed was planted. So often, preachers and teachers assume that the soil in which their members are planted is fertile and ready to respond to any seed planted there. But too often they forget that sometimes the weeds of sin have taken most of the nutrients out of the soil and there is little left to provide energy for the seed. Also, many times the soil is made toxic by doubt, suspicion, and false teaching.

I remember hearing on the morning of April 26, 1986, about the small town of Chernobyl in the Soviet Union that experienced the meltdown of a nuclear power plant reactor. This city in the Ukraine suffered severe radioactive contamination. Scientists had to develop a soil cleanup method to remove toxins from the soil. A technique called phytoremediation was used.¹⁸ Phytoremediation is a process that takes advantage of the fact that certain green plants can extract and concentrate various elements within their ecosystem. For example, some plants can grow in metal-laden soils, extract certain metals through their root systems, and accumulate them in their tissues without being damaged. In this way, pollutants are either removed from the soil and groundwater or rendered harmless.

We can use this as an illustration for people whose soul-soil is contaminated, and how they need to have seeds of the True Vine planted in their lives to help remove these toxins of doubt, suspicion, and false teaching before they are properly prepared to start receiving the Word of God. So don’t give up if your neighbor doesn’t respond to your testimony the way you’d like. Just like Adam and Eve’s sin caused weeds to grow where flowers once had been, so sin is causing weeds to grow where the seed of God’s Word should bloom and blossom.¹⁹

So Jesus was employing an oft-used and respected way of teaching. Now Matthew continues with the parable by Jesus:

Verse 4: While the farmer was scattering the seed, some of it fell on the road. The birds came and ate up all that seed.

Most commonly, the seed here is taken as the Word of God. But when Jesus gives His explanation, later on, He gives it a different meaning (cf. v. 38). Jesus did not say that the farmer (see verse 37) purposely threw the seed on the road, but that as he was sowing some of it fell by the roadside. In Jewish writings, we find that Rabbis considered the results of seed sown by the hand as being different when harvested than seed that fell through the cracks in the cart being drawn by oxen.²⁰ I’m sure that Jesus knew his audience was aware of such differences and their expectation of how the seed would grow.

Early church patriarch Cyril offers this commentary: “Let us look what it means for the seed to be on the road from a broader perspective. In a way, every road is hardened and useless on account of the fact that it is trampled beneath everyone’s feet. No type of seed finds enough depth of soil there for a covering. Instead, it lies on the surface and is ready to be snatched up by the birds that come by. Therefore, those who have in themselves a hardened mind and as it were, packed tight, do not receive the divine seed but become a well-trodden way for the unclean spirits. These are what is here meant by ‘the birds of the heaven.’ By ‘heaven’, we understand it to mean the sky in which the spirits of wickedness move about, by whom, again, the good seed is snatched up and destroyed.”²¹

Verses 5-6: Other seed fell on rocky ground where there was only a small amount of soil. There it grew very fast because the soil was not deep. But when the sun rose, it burned the plants. The plants died because they did not have enough soil to put down deep roots.

No one expected the seed to sprout and grow on such soil. In Jewish writings, we are told that a man from Meron who lived in Jerusalem, purchased a rocky piece of land near Jerusalem. In the notation, we are told that such rocky land was: “Unsuitable for cultivation and, therefore, for sale at a very low price.”²² I’m sure this farmer did not spread seed in such soil. Therefore, if any seed fell there it was totally by accident or carelessness.

The anonymous writer of one early church commentary offers this explanation: “A rock has two properties of nature: strength and hardness. Therefore, a man is said to be a rock either because of the constancy of his faith or because of the hardness of his heart. The prophet says in this regard, ‘I will take out of them the heart of stone.’²³ What then is the shallow soil? It is the sin nature that remains in the soul of the faithful who are still drawn toward the flesh. For many have a good mind according to nature, but some do not have a faithful mind. Their mind is from God, but their soul struggles from a divided will. But there are people who, if you speak to them about the glory of the saints or the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom, they immediately become joyful and take delight in listening. Being wise according to nature, they readily accept the word.”²⁴

Since Jesus was talking to Jews, and since the farmer would not sow seed on someone else’s property, it appears consistent with the text to accept this writer’s proposition that Jesus was talking about the Word of God being sown in the hearts of those who were believers of the Law. But we will find out that our Lord was referring to the soil receiving the seed of God’s Word as the world. As a matter of fact, the heart of a sinner is not yet ready for the seed of God’s Word until it has been regenerated (plowed) so the seed can take root and bear fruit.

Again, I’m sure the listeners to Jesus did not find this story unusual. He was pointing out the obvious in order to set the scene for what may not have been obvious. The sun can be both helpful and hurtful; It can soften and make hard. But to a struggling plant that has not yet sent down roots to find water, it’s battle against the hot rays of the sun is fatal.

Verse 7: Some other seed fell among thorny weeds. But the weeds also grew and stopped the good plants from growing taller.

Fields that contained thorny plants were treated somewhat different than rocky soil. The Lord told the prophet Jeremiah: “Don’t plant seeds among the thorns.”²⁵ Jewish verbal teachings tell us: “A field from which thorns had been cleared may be sown the next year after Shemittah – the seventh year cycle in which all indebtedness is canceled – but if it comes during a time when they are under threat of capital punishment for non-payment of taxes, the Sages permit plowing and planting in order to pay taxes to the ruling power.”²⁶ Therefore, this sower may have been sowing the seed among thorny weeds in order to pay back taxes. However, his chances of reaping an abundant crop were minimal. Of course, there were plenty of reasons why the seedlings had little chance of producing any significant harvest.

The unknown writer of an early commentary on Matthew gives us his impression of what we read here: “First, I would like to say how a word sown in you is cultivated, as you may well understand, and how it is choked by your neighbors. You cultivate it by listening carefully to the Scriptures and the traditions of the teachers. In this way the word of God is strengthened in you, grows and gladdens you, for thus it is with everything according to your belief.”²⁷

The writer then goes on to share what he feels is the real culprit in choking the seed of God’s Word and keeps it from growing. He says: “You must realize that the pursuit of wealth holds you back from attending worship services to hear the Scriptures and the traditions of the teachers and be fed on the word that you have received. Though you approach with your body, you do not approach with your mind. Though you listen with your ears, you do not listen with your heart. Your heart lies entirely in those things you are concerned about. The desire for wealth does not permit you to do good works. Further, why does it permit you to lend what you own at interest, and what compels you to enrich yourself on another person’s property? Likewise, if the word of God is jeopardized because you desire wealth or fear to lose what you have or wish to acquire what you do not have, you do not openly profess the truth of your faith. Do you see how the concern and desire for riches suffocate the word and do not allow it to yield fruit.”²⁸

Today we would call this a conflict of interest. Many people find themselves in a quandary because the devotion required for them to advance in their careers leaves little time for them to listen to the Word of God. They spend hours upon hours studying and training in order to meet expectations that are part of their career path, and then use that as an excuse for spending so little time being open to receive God’s Word. This then often leads to compromise. When faced with going against their conscience and what they know to be the truth, they convince themselves to allow it for this one time, only to find out that it then becomes many times. At that point, they then begin to look at God’s Word as religious pesticide or herbicide instead of spiritual fertilizer.

Verse 8: But some of the seed fell on good ground. There it grew and produced grain. Some plants produced 100 times more grain, some 60 times more, and some 30 times more.

When Jesus speaks of good ground, He is talking about land that has been plowed, fertilized and prepared for the seed. There is some debate even today as to what the figures 30, 60, 100 mean. However, the simplest way it to compare the number of multiple seeds produced with the number of seeds sown. In that case, if one stock of wheat is produced by one seed, then Jesus says there are some that will give back 30 seeds, some 60, and some 100. By any measure, that is surely a substantial increase. It is interesting that in one apocryphal writing we read: “And others fell on the good soil and it produced good fruit: it bore sixty per measure and a hundred and twenty per measure.”²⁹ But since Jesus was using a parable, these figures should not be taken literally, but only to show a small, medium and large increase.

The anonymous writer of the commentary we just referenced compares this yielding of 30, 60, and 100 fold to how the church saw things in medieval times. He writes: “One who yields thirty-fold, that is, who does no evil but does good things to the extent one can, this is indeed thirty-fold. They are such that do not yield completely. One who yields sixty-fold is not able to show complete contempt for all one’s goods and fast regularly all one’s life, or live in celibacy, or suffer bodily deprivations. That would be sixty-fold. Therefore, the Lord says to His apostles, who are capable of sixty-fold: ‘Sell what you have and give to the poor.’³⁰ But upon those incapable of sixty-fold he enjoins thirty-fold, saying, ‘Give to everyone who asks of you, and do not turn away from the one who asks for a loan.’³¹ Likewise, the one who is capable of sixty-fold cannot completely attain a hundredfold. How many are those who are able to give up all their goods, suffer the complete loss of their possessions, live in celibacy, suffer bodily deprivations and yet do not have the heart to sustain a hundredfold?”³²

However, we learn in Jesus’ later explanation that He is speaking more about how when believers will be scattered around the world, in some places they will have a modest effect on those around them, and some a moderate effect, while others will have a magnificent effect on their neighborhoods and communities. So it must be pointed out that it is not the seed itself, but the condition of the soil. When we go back and look at what Jesus described as being the hindrances to producing a good crop, He spoke about hard ground, rocky soil that was shallow, and soil filled with thorns and weeds. Jesus concludes with a caution:

Verse 9: You people who hear Me, listen closely to what I’m telling you!

In other words, figure it out or come to a conclusion about what you’ve heard. There is no way of evaluating how many in the crowd on the sea shore comprehended what this Master of God’s Word was saying or implying. And apparently His own disciples weren’t too sure what Jesus was teaching, or why He taught the way He did. We might even call this a self-fulfilling prophecy since Jesus would soon find out how many standing there that day had hearts of hard soil, rocky soil, weed infested soil or good soil. But it would be my belief that He was interested in getting those who heard Him and decided to follow Him to understand that it would take significant effort on their part to prepare the soil in their hearts for what He was would be giving them as they followed Him.

So it is today. Many in the world who work alongside or live next door to or associate with believers are not as responsive to their testimony about what God has done in their lives and what He can do for them. This can be disappointing and even demoralizing to those believers who what to see others come to the full knowledge of Jesus Christ as their Savior and Redeemer. Unfortunately, they begin to blame themselves as either not prepare sufficiently or they did not deliver their message convincingly.

Let this parable of Jesus become your guide. It certainly may not be you or your witnessing. If you did not give enough time for study and preparation, then dedicate more time to your effort. But if you did give the time needed for prayer and study, then realize it is the soil that’s causing the problem. In any case, never let the light go out or put a bushel basket over the light of Christ in your life that is shining into the world. Remember, it takes the Holy Spirit to make this effective, so just trust Him to do His job with what you give Him.