Down an Unfamiliar Road

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Part II (con’t)

Verse 23: But what about the seed that fell on the good ground? That is like the people who hear the teaching and understand it. They grow and produce a good crop, sometimes 100 times more, sometimes 60 times more, and sometimes 30 times more.

Our Lord’s explanation of the parable of the farmer sowing seed is clear and precise. We find similar math in counting a harvest in Jewish writings where it says: “There was the case of someone who sowed a one fourth bushel of beans. These yielded seventy-five bushels. They said to him, ‘The Holy One blessed be He has began to bless you’.”¹ This shows how figurative language can be translated into a literal understanding. For the disciples, it presents them with the option that Solomon described: “Knowledge begins with reverence and respect for the Lord, but stubborn fools hate wisdom and refuse to learn.”² In other words, although God’s Word is good medicine for spiritual ignorance, not everyone likes its taste.

Now, for the doubters and skeptics Solomon has a different message that applies to Jesus’ efforts here, “Fools, how long will you love being ignorant? How long will you make fun of wisdom? How long will you hate knowledge? I wanted to tell you everything I knew and give you all my knowledge, but you didn’t listen to my advice and teaching”.³ But for those willing to listen, Solomon said, “Even the wise could become wiser by listening to these proverbs. They will gain understanding and learn to solve difficult problems. These sayings will help you understand proverbs, stories with hidden meanings, words of the wise, and other difficult sayings.”⁴

In other words, learning is like assembling building blocks where ideas is built upon facts. It can only go as high as a good foundation will support. But there are times when it takes quite a bit of digging to find a solid rock for the foundation. Solomon mentions this in his own way: “Listen to wisdom, and do your best to understand. Ask for good judgment. Cry out for understanding. Look for wisdom like silver. Search for it like hidden treasure. If you do this, you will understand what it means to respect the Lord, and you will come to know God. The Lord is the source of wisdom; knowledge and understanding come from his mouth”.⁵ We see how this applies to our Lord’s teaching and ministry.

Oft times I have found in talking with fellow ministers that they are familiar with the latest books on the shelves down at the local Bible book store, but when I bring up words like Concordance, Lexicon, Bible Word Studies, Bible Encyclopedias, Bible Dictionaries, etc., they look at me as though I am talking about Einstein’s theory of relativity. There is a big difference between words and concepts being planted in your head, and those that germinate and grow in your heart. Yes, read, and read a lot, but don’t always take the author’s word for it. Research it yourself and see what you find.⁶ But beware of this method, sometimes you will need the courage to throw away old, faulty concepts and ideas based on things you’ve heard to make room for ones that are more solid and explainable because you’ve done the research and study. That’s where commentaries come in, written by reputable scholars who know more about the subject than you do.

That’s what Ezekiel told the people of Israel, “Throw away all the terrible idols with which you committed your crimes! Change your heart and spirit”⁷ so that God can do what He said He would do, “I will also put a new spirit in you to change your way of thinking. I will take out the heart of stone from your body and give you a tender, human heart.”⁸ When one is willing to take the time to study God’s word, then, says the Psalmist, “You will grow strong, like a tree planted by a stream—a tree that produces fruit when it should and has leaves that never fall. Everything you do will be purposeful.”⁹

Verse 24: Then Jesus used another story to teach them. Jesus said, “God’s kingdom is like a man who planted good seed in his field.”

In the first parable about the farmer, Jesus spoke of the soil in which the seed was planted as critical to its possibility for germinating and growing. But in this parable our Lord extrapolates to the idea of the seed that fell on good ground continuing to grow even among the weeds. In such a case, it will have to fight to grow and live, and this will not only make it stronger, but will also allow for it to develop immunity to the pollen from nearby thorns and thistles that may try to attach themselves. This brings to mind what our Lord said about us being in the world but we are not of the world.¹⁰

One of the earliest church scholars, Origen, gives us this to consider: “You can also take the good seed to be children of the kingdom, because whatever good things are sown in the human soul, these are the offspring of the kingdom of God. They have been sown by the Word who was in the beginning with God. Wholesome words about anything are children of the kingdom.”¹¹ And a later church writer gives us this: “The Lord clearly points out that He is the sower of good seeds. He does not cease to sow in this world as in a field. God’s word is like good seed in the hearts of people, so that each of us according to the seeds sown in us by God may bear spiritual and heavenly fruit.”¹²

Taking both of these thoughts and carrying them through this parable will give you a different vista of what a difference it makes in a person’s life to have the good seed sown in their hearts, and what effect it has on any community when good believers are planted in their midst. It also gives us a new view on why the enemy is so intent and dedicated to snuffing out any benefit a person or community may receive from such good seed planted among them.

Verse 25: That night, while everyone was asleep, the man’s opponent came and planted weeds among the wheat and then snuck away.

Only a person with a diabolical character would want to do such a thing. It may have been done out of envy, spite, hatred, jealousy, or pure evil. The Greek word translated here as weeds is “zizanion”, and refers to a type wild wheat called darnel or ryegrass that resembles wheat, but its grains are dark purple, so it is considered a weed. Jews understood “zunin” not to be a different plant from wheat, but a degenerate form of it.¹³ So we can see why this farmer’s jealous neighbor chose this to sow among his real wheat, hoping, no doubt, that the farmer wouldn’t be able to tell the difference until he tried to eat it or make bread from it. This Greek word for weed is found only here in Matthew.

The Ethiopian Version uses a word that is translated as “thistles.” The Jews were fully aware of this type of fake wheat, so they clearly understood what Jesus was describing. In Jewish writings we are told: “When wheat and darnel, which is an inferior quality of wheat usually not eaten by humans, are sown together in the field it does not constitute crossbreeding of unlike seeds, which are forbidden to be sown together.¹⁴ That’s because they have similarities.”¹⁵ So in this case, the man sowing these weeds was not breaking the law. However, not all Rabbis saw it this way. In one Targum we read: “It is forbidden to sow different species of seed to produce seeds in the fields; even if in different furrows, as it would still have the appearance of crossbreeding.”¹⁶ The mixing of such seeds in making products was also forbidden by many other Jewish Rabbis. They taught: “Whatever is of a different species than the other, may not be taken for offering sacrifices, even if it is a mixture of superior with inferior.”¹⁷ One Rabbi gives a list of items that cannot be mixed or substituted one for the other, and includes “wheat and wild wheat”.¹⁸

So we can see what Jesus was trying to explain about how those who are not watching and alert may be fooled by what they are told is the true Word of God, but in fact it is an imitation produced by man. So by Jesus comparing wheat and weeds, He is comparing the seed of the genuine Word of God with the look-alike word of man. From this we can extrapolate that since the word “seed” is also used of descendants, then we can say that the genuine Word of God will produce genuine believers, while the look-alike word of man will produce look-alike believers.

Origen makes this comment: “At that point the roaming devil sows what are called weeds—that is, faulty opinions—over and among the good seeds that are from the Word. According to this, the whole world might be called a field, and not the Church of God only. For the Son of Man sowed the good seed throughout the entire world, but the wicked one sowed weeds—that is, misleading words—which, spring from the distorted minds of the children of the evil one.”¹⁹ In other words, the method that Satan uses to bring confusion and disharmony among believers is by sowing deeds of discord among them. And he doesn’t use atheists or agnostics, but so-called ministers of the Gospel who put their ideas above those that the Holy Spirit brings into the heart and mind.

As for the believers, they can either seek to explain why these doctrines do not conform to the Word of God so that others are enlightened, or they can sit by and allow others to make up their own minds on whether what they hear is true or not, or one can react by wanting to destroy and eradicate these bad ideas by getting rid of the weeds. These are the options that our Lord now addresses.

Verse 26: Later, the wheat grew, and heads of grain grew on the plants. But at the same time, the weeds grew alongside.

One thing we should notice here is that both the good seed and bad seed are planted in the same soil. So we might ask once a person becomes a believer in the Word and accepts the Lord’s message with all their heart, is it possible that they might become susceptible to bad seed? The biggest factor in such consideration is that oft times the weeds may mimic the wheat. In other words, it looks right and sounds right so it must be right. If there is anything that the devil is good at, it is deception. Many false doctrines have infected the body of Christ because they seemed to make sense. But upon closer examination they were found to be defective. This does not mean that the good wheat is contaminated. The good wheat can still grow and produce.

Many of the things that are causing great confusion in the church today are all supposedly based on Scripture. But they are selected verses drawn from different contexts and combined with uninspired interpretations. Such as the overemphasis on prosperity, which the apostle Paul sternly warns against.²⁰ Then we have the exaggerated view of God’s grace. It teaches that we no longer have to deal with sin because while good works cannot get us into heaven, bad works cannot keep us out. But the apostle John says such things are nonsense.²¹

There are many other questionable doctrines that led to such things as the “Jesus Only” movement, rejection of a literal hell, universal reconciliation that teaches all souls will wind up in heaven because of what they interpret being said in Colossians 1:20 and Romans 5:12-21. One of the best ways to test any such doctrine is to see how consistent it is with all the other scriptures on the same subject. That’s why I always follow this rule: If a minister starts his sermon by reading a verse of Scripture but then never gets back to it until the end, examine carefully what you hear in between.

Verse 27: Then the man’s servants came to him and said, “You planted good seed in your field. Where did these weeds come from?”

Here our Lord gets to the core of the problem: Where did this bad seed originate? Who was the inventor of this lookalike seed that many mistake for the real seed? Augustine has an interesting take on this subject. He writes: “The Lord then explained for us what He had said. See what we choose to be in His field. See which of the two we will be at harvest time. The field is the world, and the church is spread throughout the world. Let the one who is wheat persevere until the harvest; let those who are weeds be changed into wheat. There is this difference between people and real grain and real weeds, for what was grain in the field is grain and what were weeds are weeds. But in the Lord’s field, which is the church, at times what was grain turns into weeds and at times what were weeds turn into grain; and no one knows what they will be tomorrow.”²²

What this early church teacher has to say seems more anecdotal than exegetical. When Jesus spoke to the crowd He did not seemed to be speaking to the Gentile world at large, but to those who already believed in God and needed to understand why what He came to say was important because He was sent by God to deliver the message. Remember, this comes on the heels of His opponents accusing Him of doing His miracles by the power of Beelzebub, and then asking for a sign to prove that it was God who really anointed and inspired Him.

Then when His own mother and brothers came to get Him because it was rumored that He was becoming disillusioned,²³ our Lord then begins with His parable of the sower, illustrating why some would be able to accept Him for who He really is and others will find it difficult to do so. And yet, even among those who do accept Him, Satan will try to plant seeds intended to confound and confuse such believers. So it will be important to find out whether the Church or the World is the field in which the devil sows his heresy and misbelief, which then spawns weeds growing next to the wheat. So to answer the question asked early, “Where did the weeds come from”? Our Lord offers this explanation:

Verse 28: The man answered, “An enemy planted weeds.” The helpers asked, “Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?”

A small but interesting dissertation can be made here. The farmer directed the sowing of the seed, not his servants. And aspiring reapers were his helpers, not his servants. As such they were untrained, so their request to pull up the weeds was denied, because it wasn’t the right time. Though they are not idly standing by, the duties of God’s children involving the harvest are still contingent upon God’s plan. As such, we are only tools in the Master’s hands, He is not a tool in our hands. Perhaps there were some in the crowd that started wondering if this story by Jesus was a secret attempt to identify them as the planters of the weeds.

To me, this explanation by Jesus is a clue on how we should all respond to any doctrine blossoming in among believers that does not bear the exact image of the doctrine that has been a long held belief by the congregation and one that is also believed to be founded firmly upon the teachings of Jesus and His apostles. The best way to counter many of these impromptu doctrines is to look at the seed it produces. Is that seed interested in self, or in others? Does it produce those who love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, and there neighbor as themselves, or is it all about them? Do those produced by this seed seek first the kingdom of God, and then let Him add to their lives what He considers important, or do they spend most of their time asking for blessings they do not need? Sometimes, internal fighting within the church has done more to harm than the preaching of the true gospel has done to heal. Therefore our Lord gives us this answer through what the farmer has to say.

Verses 29-30: He answered, “No, because when you pull up the weeds, you might also pull up the wheat. Let the weeds and the wheat grow together until the harvest time. At the harvest time I will tell the workers this: First, gather the weeds and tie them together to be burned. Then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.

Early church theologian Chromatius offers this commentary: “When the servants of the householder, namely, the apostles, ask the Lord whether they should separate the weeds from the wheat, He allowed them both to grow together until the harvest—that is, until the end of time. He clearly indicated that He would send reapers at that time, namely, angels, so that, once they have separated the wheat from the weeds—that is, once the holy ones have been separated from the wicked—they may gather the righteous in heavenly kingdoms, like wheat in barns. All the wicked and sinners will burn amid the punishments of hell like weeds in the fire, where the Lord declares they will forever weep and grind their teeth.²⁴ And when the Lord says there will be weeping and grinding of teeth, he is undoubtedly pointing to the future resurrection not only of the soul (as certain heretics would have it) but also of the body. Indeed, weeping and grinding of teeth are properly so-called punishments of the body. Therefore the gravity of the error that has a hold on heretics of this type can be seen from these words of the Lord, for they do not believe in the future resurrection of the body.”²⁵

I’ve always tried to follow this same principle when talking to Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Moonies or other cults that have basic Christian roots, as well as Roman Catholics and Protestants such as Seventh Day Adventists, also Unitarians, Christian Scientists, etc. Instead of trying to pull out the false wheat and thereby run the risk of harming the truth they adhere to, I try to do what these servants of the farmer did and that was point out the difference in the grain.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Part II

Verse 13: This is why I use these stories to teach the people: “They see, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really hear or understand.”¹

Moses chided the children of Israel by saying: “You saw the miracles and amazing things He did. But even today, you still don’t understand what happened. The LORD has not let you really understand what you saw and heard.”² In other words, human logic is not enough to comprehend the things of God. It takes insight from the Holy Spirit through faith. Jeremiah ran into the same obstacle,³ as did Ezekiel.⁴ Many do not seem to grasp the real underlying meaning of what often appears to be a paradoxical attitude on the part of Christ in His attempt to teach the people. They question: “Why should Jesus speak using such parables that are easily understood for their pragmatic value but still require an explanation for spiritual application?” And, “Why does He then point out their inability to grasp what He’s trying to say, and seems to declare that it may have been His intended purpose?”

An early church scholar offers this explanation: “It was Jesus’ habit to frequently make use of parables for at least two reasons: either because He would be speaking about things unseen, and by using the parable would make invisible things seen, so far as this was possible. Or, it was because of the unworthiness of the hearers, when [without the parable] nothing beneficial would come to them from the things that were said. But there was a third cause for using parables. Frequently, when He was saying something by way of refutation, He would by means of a parable temper the harshness of the refutations for the sake of the hearers, as when He tells the parable of the vineyard.”⁵ And when He asked the Pharisees what will happen to these terrible men who rented the vineyard, that said to Him: “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers.”⁶ In saying these things to the Pharisees, Jesus clearly avoided harsh language.”⁷

The best analogy may be obtained, not by examining Christ’s motives but rather the hearer’s reaction to what they perceived Him to say. Hasn’t man often proven that anything he discovers, learns, develops or invents, he immediately attributes to his own intelligence rather than God’s revelation? But those who must be taught are humbly respectful of their teacher. If the people would have sensed the real meaning of Christ’s parables without the aid of His own explanation, their smug reply would have given honor to their own intellect. However, faith plays a major roll in our acceptance of God’s Word. Despair not if the Bible is never completely and fully understood by everyone.

Had all that Jesus said been easily assimilated, today the Bible would be a dead and unread book. After all the centuries of exegesis, study, and expounding of God’s Word, man’s extensive efforts have still not been able to uncover all the truths contained therein. It is a living document and grows as the world grows in order for it to remain relevant throughout each generation. I am on a mission to fully understand God’s Word in order to proclaim it, but each time I read it, I end up discovering more of what I did not know than what I did know. I hope that never ends.

Jesus then backs up His statement by quoting the Old Testament:

Verses 14-15: So they show that what Isaiah said about them is true: “You people will listen and listen, but you will not understand. You will look and look, but you will not really see. Yes, the minds of these people are now closed. They have ears, but they don’t listen. They have eyes, but they refuse to look. If their minds were not closed, they might see with their eyes; they might hear with their ears; they might understand with their minds. Then they might turn back to me and be healed”.⁸

This text used by Jesus was not a prophecy of Isaiah that would be fulfilled in some form of a curse. The problem of seeing but not understanding already existed in Moses’ day. But God did not intend for it to stay that way. That’s why the same prophet was given this word of hope and promise, “Then I will lead the blind along a path they never knew to places where they have never been before. I will change darkness into light for them. I will make the rough ground smooth. I will do these things for them; I will not abandon my people”.⁹

The people’s eyes were not deliberately blinded by God so they could not see the light, nor did He plug their ears to keep them from hearing the Word. It was rather a prophecy that indicated the difficulty of trying to communicate God’s message to the world that had no interest in hearing it and were easily distracted by their own philosophies.

The great Chrysostom offers this insight: “After this, lest anyone should suppose His words nothing more than an accusation, and lest people should say, ‘Being our enemy He is bringing these charges and calumnies against us,’ Jesus introduces the prophet, Isaiah. The prophet pronounced the same judgment as Jesus himself: So it is the prophet himself who accuses them with the same precise point. He did not say ‘You see not’ but ‘You will indeed be able to see but never perceive.’ He did not say ‘You do not hear’ but ‘You will indeed hear but never pay attention.’ So they first inflicted the loss on themselves, by stopping their ears, by closing their eyes, by making their heart impenetrable. For they not only failed to hear but also ‘they took it hard, and they did this, he said, ‘so they would not turn so that I could heal them.’”¹⁰

The preacher then goes on: “Thus, Jesus described their aggravated wickedness and their determined defection from Him. But He actually said this to draw them closer to Him, and to provoke them and to signify that if they would convert He would heal them. It is as if someone would say, ‘He would not look at me, and I thank Him; for if he had given me even a glance, I would have quickly given in.’ He spoke in this way to signify how He wanted to be reconciled with them. He implied that both their conversion was possible and that upon their repentance they might be saved. It was not for His own glory alone, but for their salvation, that He was doing all things.”¹¹

It is very much along the lines the prophecy that says it would be so: “Just like the days of Noah…they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away.”¹² We call this, “learning the hard way.” There are some who will sit and hear the Gospel but dismiss it because of unbelief, and that it does not pertain to them because of their ability and talent to cope without it. Since Jesus faced this but did not let it discourage Him, we must do the same.

Verse 16: But God has blessed you. You understand what you see with your eyes. And you understand what you hear with your ears.

This form of speech was common among Jewish speakers, especially when they talked about attaining wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. One Rabbi expressed his joy this way: “You are happy, and she that gave birth to you is happy; happy are my eyes because of what I’ve seen.”¹³ This is another way of saying, “I was happy when I heard about it, but my joy was increased by being able to see it.” Therefore, the joy that comes to every believer’s heart when they hear about the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be increased many times over when they actually get to see it happen!

As one early church writer puts it: “God blesses them, accordingly, as hearers of the Son’s voice and as having been made ready to see Him, through whom and in whom they saw, intellectually, the nature of God and the Father. Of these things the saints of old were accounted worthy, those, namely, who most completely possess a joy in good things.”¹⁴ And so it should be the desire of every current follower of Jesus to join this blessed group as eager listeners and joyful hearers of what the Lord said then, and what He, through the Holy Spirit, is saying today. We should never allow ourselves to become so complacent that we no longer expect to hear from God again.

Verse 17: I can assure you, many prophets and godly people wanted to see what you now see. But they did not see it. And many prophets and godly people wanted to hear what you now hear. But they did not hear it.

Christ was speaking of Himself, of course. The rejection of the prophets was inexcusable, but the rejection of Christ and His message of salvation was even more unpardonable. Jesus must have made this exclamation with a sense of exasperation. But instead of angrily turning and walking away, He calmly tells them the story of the sower. So, whether or not a person receives or rejects the good news is not contingent upon what they hear, but the condition of their heart to accept it.

The Early Church preacher Chrysostom had this to say: “Do you see that what has been given them is a free gift? Yet they would not have been blessed unless they had cooperated with the gift with good intentions of their own. Do not tell me this is spoken vaguely. Those who did not hear might have come and asked Him for further clarification, as the disciples did. But these listeners did not will to do so because they were careless and apathetic. Why do I say that they did not want to do this? They were doing the very opposite, not only disbelieving, not only not listening but even waging war. They were disposed to be very bitter against all He said. So Jesus brings before them the charge of the prophet: ‘Their ears were unwilling to hear.’”¹⁵ As strange as it may seem, there were those who simply refused to listen to the Son of God when He was here on earth. It should not surprise us if there are some of them still around today.

The preacher goes on: “But the hearers were not like this, and this is why they were blessed. In yet another way He assures them again, saying, ‘Many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it,’ that is, hear of My coming, My miracles, My voice, My teaching. Here He compares the hearers to the non-hearers. He affirms the hearers as blessed not only because they have seen what the prophets did not see but even what those of old desired to see but did not. For they indeed beheld by faith only, but these were beholding by sight too, and much more distinctly.”¹⁶ How blessed everyone who has heard the Good News should be that they were not born someplace the Gospel has not yet reached. It is reported that there are still places on earth where the name, “Jesus”, has never been heard or uttered. Oh, how blest are those who have!

If you are a minister, have you ever preached a salvation message and no one responded, even though you knew sinners were present, and the substance was easy to understand. Do not be perplexed, Jesus wasn’t. You must trust the Holy Spirit, just as David sang: “The LORD is good and always does the right thing. He shows sinners the right way to live. He teaches His ways to humble people. He is understanding as He guides them. The LORD is kind and true to those who obey what He said in His covenant”.¹⁷

Verses 18-19: So listen to the meaning of that story about the farmer: What about the seed that fell beside the road? That is like the people who hear the teaching about God’s kingdom but do not understand it. The Evil One comes and takes away what was planted in their hearts.

Now that we, along with many of those in the crowd that day listening to Jesus, have surmised and considered what the interpretation of this parable might be, our Lord gives the true meaning. It is worthy to note that Jesus identifies Satan as the one who comes to steal any seed that fell where it is not usually sown, just to make sure that it has no opportunity to take root and sprout. This was no surprise to His Jewish listeners.

It is reflected in various Jewish writings that explain how evil entered the world. We read: “The wicked Samael [the Devil] made a bond with all the host on high against his Master. This was because the Blessed Holy One said regarding man, ‘and let him rule over the fish of the sea and the flying things of heaven.’¹⁸ [Samael] said, ‘How can we cause him to sin and be exiled from before God?‘”¹⁹ This was how evil started because it goes on the say that Samael (the Devil) told Adam and Eve not to believe everything God had said. So it was just like Satan to come steal any seed of God’s Word that may have fallen into a person’s heart, no matter how hard or barren.

Early church scholar Jerome offers a commentary on how this was understood by scholars in his day. He writes: “The wicked one snatches away the good seed. You must also understand that it was sown in the heart. The diversity of soils stands for the diversity of the souls of believers. Hence, there is some distance between the one who is constrained by many troubles and sufferings to deny Christ and the one who in the face of persecution immediately falls away and succumbs.”²⁰

To this, we may add that the term “wicked one” is used here as a metaphor for Satan. When we look back at the Garden of Eden, what was it that Satan did that caused Eve and then Adam to let God’s word to them about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil be stolen from their hearts? He created doubt in their minds for the first time. Up until then they believed everything God told them. So it is doubt in the soil of a person’s mind that makes it impossible for the seed to take root and, therefore, it is easily stolen by skeptics or dies for the lack of nutrients.

Verses 20-21: And what about the seed that fell on rocky ground? That is like the people who hear the teaching and quickly and gladly accept it. But they do not let the teaching go deep into their hearts, minds, and souls. They keep it only a short time. As soon as trouble or persecution comes because of the teaching they accepted, they give up.

Here we have a situation where doubt was not completely successful in keeping the seed of God’s word from taking root. But soon conditions that were favorable before now become unfavorable. For instance, a son or daughter is told by their parents that they can make up their own minds about accepting the religion they were raised in such as Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Mormonism, etc. But when they tell their parents that they have converted to a new religion, suddenly they are treated with disbelief and anger and told to stop pursuing that new faith. For instance, my father who was raised by his father who was a Lutheran minister was severely criticized for becoming a Pentecostal, even though it changed his life dramatically for the better.

As we have seen from those who have investigated and those who have given their own testimony, there are some cults and fringe groups claiming alliance with Christianity who forbid their new converts from talking to or even associating with their family and former friends such as those who belong to the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon, better known as “Moonies.” They also know how vulnerable the seed is that they planted in the heart of this new follower. For those listening to Jesus, it was a case of accepting the new agreement of salvation by faith through grace, but then allowing persecution to make the fall back into the prison of believing in salvation by works through the Law.

Verse 22: And what about the seed that fell among the thorny weeds? That is like the people who hear the teaching but let worries about this life and love for money stop it from growing. So it does not produce a crop in their lives.

For the Jews, there were few things worse than what they called “the pleasures of this world.” They feared when a Rabbi left Israel to go live in another country, that he would become so absorbed in the pleasures he found there that his dedication to the Torah would suffer. Rabbi Judah the Prince said: “He who accepts the pleasures of this world shall be denied the pleasures of the world to come, but he who does not accept the pleasures of this world will be granted the pleasures of the world to come”.²¹

Also, another venerable Rabbi commenting where David said of ADONAI: “’You are my LORD; I have no other portion beside You,’ as these men have, whose inheritance and portion is silver and gold and the pleasures of the world; but, as for me, ‘the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and my cup,’”²² says: “The portion, the inheritance, the cup,and the lot are identical; it is simply a repetition of the idea with a change of terms to give emphasis, as is the custom of the language; the meaning being, in all my words and in all my affairs He is my inheritance and to Him is my devotion directed.”²³

In other words, anything that distracted and took the listener away from the source of spiritual nutrition – God’s Word, these were the thorns that Jesus talks about here. In clearer words, one Rabbi stated there was a proverb that said: “When you are kept from receiving kindness, it’s because the thorns kept it from reaching you.”²⁴ How true that is for many believers who have been given such wonderful things from the Lord that are meant for their blessing, but they waste them on the things of this world and thereby forfeited any intended blessings because of the thorny weeds that cohabit their home, work place, or neighborhood.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Part I (con’t)

Verse 10: The disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Why do you use these stories to teach the people?”

It is somewhat odd that the disciples would ask this question, seeing that one of the first people to use a parable in illustrating a moralistic idea was Jotham in the Old Testament when he addressed the leaders of Shechem. It involved an olive tree, a fig tree, a grapevine, and a thornbush.¹ And what about the prophet Nathan’s famous story to King David about the man with many sheep stealing his neighbor’s one sheep to feed some visitors.² And the Psalmist used a parable in Psalm 49, as well as Asaph in Psalm 78. So this method of teaching was not new.

King Solomon was quite emphatic about the intent and purpose of his own nuggets of wisdom: “These sayings will help you understand proverbs, stories with hidden meanings, words of the wise, and other difficult sayings.”³ From the earliest times, we have been told that “A parable has been justly defined to be a comparison or similitude, in which one thing is compared with another, especially spiritual things with natural, by which means those spiritual things are better understood, and make a deeper impression on an honest and attentive mind. In a parable, a resemblance in the principal incidents is all that is required; smaller matters being considered as a sort of drapery.”⁴

Even the prophet Isaiah found parables useful.⁵ Likewise, in Ezekiel, we find these instructions from God to the prophet, “Then the word of the LORD came to me. He said, ‘Son of man, I have a story with a hidden meaning for you to tell the family of Israel.’”⁶ And the Lord admitted that He had given many similitudes to His prophets to make His word clearer.⁷ I found an interesting discussion on parables by the great Jewish thinker, Maimonides, who said “…One of our Sages said, ‘If a man loses a pebble or a pearl in his house, he can find it by lighting a candle worth only one bronze coin. Thus, the parables in themselves are of no great value, but through them the words of the holy Law are rendered more understandable.’”⁸

Early church preacher Chrysostom has this to say in complimenting the disciples when they came to Jesus to seek a better understanding of these parables. He writes: “We have good cause to admire the disciples. Longing as they do to learn, they know when they ought to ask. They do not ask in the presence of the crowd. Matthew shows this by saying, ‘And they came.’ But to show that this is not a conjecture, Mark has expressed it more distinctly by saying that ‘they came to Him privately.’⁹ This is what His brothers and His mother should have done. It would have been better if His family had not called Him out and made a scene. But observe the disciples’ gentle affection, how they have much regard for the others and how they seek the other’s good first and then their own. ‘For why,’ they ask, ‘do You speak to them in parables?’ They did not say, ‘Why do You speak to us in parables?’ On other occasions as well we can see their kindness in their human relationships, as when they said, ‘Send the multitude away,’¹⁰ and ‘Do you know that they were offended?’¹¹”¹²

In other words, a parable, like an inexpensive candle, is worth far less than the nugget of wisdom one is searching for, but it becomes very valuable when we understand that by using its light such nuggets can be found. Very few of today’s disciples seem to be cognizant of the implications in Jesus message here. So often believers speak to the worldly people about heavenly secrets and mysteries that even they themselves don’t understand nor have had explained to them. No wonder it’s so hard to attract the sinner’s attention. Why would someone sit on a hard pew and listen to a loquacious speaker for an hour when they understand very little of what is being said? We can successfully communicate God’s Word by using the vernacular of the listener. By the way, there is a big difference between vulgar and vernacular speech.

Jesus used the common dialect of His day to explain heavenly things, even though He still left some of them scratching their heads wondering what it meant? Believe it or not, I have been criticized for reading English translations of the Bible that do not contain, “Thou,” “Thee,” and “Thus.” I’m sure the day will come when those old translations of the Bible written in earlier forms of English will still be used and even believers in the audience will not know what the words spoken here by Jesus really meant. The impact made by God’s Word on the listener is not necessarily in its classic pronunciation but in its everlasting power.

Verse 11: Jesus answered, “Only you have been given the opportunity to know the secret truths about God’s kingdom. Those other people cannot know these secret truths yet.”

When our Lord speaks here of secret truths, it is not something that was hidden on purpose, which God is reluctant to reveal, but it refers to truths and wisdom that are only attained through instruction and study. The Aramaic Version uses the term “mystery,” which clearly suggests something that needs to be explained. And the reason those others could not comprehend these mysteries is because their minds had not yet been opened by the Holy Spirit.

I like the way one Hebraist scholar puts it: “A number of religions both then and now claim to make available special knowledge or mysteries to an inner circle. Biblical religion is not so. Its truths are available to all who read and believe the Bible. While Yeshua walked the earth there was an inner circle of disciples who received precisely the knowledge necessary to disseminate God’s truth to all men throughout all generations. But nothing in Scripture supports the notion, found today in cultish, occult and New Age circles, that true Christianity depends on teachings that are supposedly above or beyond the Bible.”¹³ As we have already seen, Jesus did not teach anything that went beyond what the Word of God had already spoken of, but revealed and expanded its mysteries such as no teacher before Him had ever done, or will ever do.

There is an interesting story in Jewish writings that pertains to this concept of exploring what God has already given us, instead of looking for something new and novel. Read the whole story slowly and absorb its meaning: “A certain synagogue reader went to stand in front of the Ark in the presence of the Rabbi, and began by praying: O God, You are great, mighty, terrible, majestic, powerful, awful, strong, fearless, faithful, revered. He prayed on and on and on. The Rabbi finally cut the prayer short and said to him, ‘We don’t need to hear all this? Has not Moses our Master already mention them in the Law,¹⁴ and have not the men of the Great Synagogue come and inserted them in the Tefillah,¹⁵ so that we need not recite them, and yet after you recite them once you still keep on going! It is as if an earthly king had a million denarii of gold, and someone praised him for possessing silver. Would that not be an insult to him’?”¹⁶ In other words, repeating what we already know is not how one grows in the knowledge of God, it is letting God speak to us through those words that can impart greater wisdom.

The Rabbi continues: “Everything is in God’s hand except reverence for God, as it says, And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to have reverence.¹⁷ Is reverence for God such a little thing? Has it not been said: The Holy One, blessed be He, stores nothing in His treasury except the reverence He receives, as it says, Reverence for the Lord is His treasure?¹⁸ — Rabbi Hanina illustrates this with a parable: if a man is asked for something big and he has it, it will seem like a small thing to him; but if he is asked for something small but does not possess it, it will seem like a big thing to him”.¹⁹

In other words, if God asks us to use any talent or ability we already have, we should not make a great deal out of it because it will come naturally. But if God asks us for something small, like being faithful and honest or committed and dedicated and we lack such virtues, that should become a big deal to us and motivate us to acquire it. This should give all of us something to think about because this is what Jesus was trying to say to His disciples.

We find a similar thought in Jewish writings: “Many have discerned sufficiently with their mind’s eye to expound on the Chariot in Ezekiel and yet they never saw it? — What says Rabbi Judah to this? — It all depends on the discernment of the heart, and the expounder by focusing his mind to comprehend.”²⁰ In other words, perception must accompany enlightenment in order for hidden truths to be seen. And from what Jesus said concerning His disciples, their understanding is based on who they are listening to, and He is the Son of God. Therefore, God reveals His secrets to whom He chooses. And as He has said in His Word, the ones He selects are those who keep asking, seeking and knocking.²¹

One early church writer wants his readers to focus on this: “Notice how Jesus says, ‘To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.’ He did not say ‘to you it is given’ to someone who has no knowledge whatever of good and evil. All rational souls are given a chance to understand the difference between good and evil. Yet not all have the grace of knowing the mysteries of the kingdom. It is not the fault of God who does not give, because this general rational knowledge is available, but of the person who does not ask or make haste or work in order to be ready to receive the kingdom. If you pursue this general knowledge of good and evil—that is, if you make good use of what you can know—you will be ready to receive the special knowledge of knowing the mystery. But if you have hidden that general knowledge in the ground, that is meant to supply nature’s needs, how will you merit the special knowledge that is meant as a reward for good will or works?”²²

So to make this somewhat clearer to believers today, Jesus is saying that the true understanding of God’s Word is not given to the unconverted sinner. Only those who have become new creatures in Christ possess the spiritual insight necessary to comprehend what God says in His Word. Never ask an atheist, agnostic or unbeliever to explain the Bible to you, they can’t. However, unless believers use their ability to study and absorb God’s Word, they will be equally lacking in knowledge of the Scriptures. To show the necessity of being student’s of God’s Word, Jesus now offers more insight as to its benefits.

Verse 12: The people who have some understanding will be given more until they have all they will need. But those who do not have much understanding will lose even the little understanding that they already have.

In the manuscripts found in the cave at Qumran near the Dead Sea in Israel, there is a reference to the “Teacher of Righteousness” in one of the fragments that goes like this: “He was the Priest [in whose heart] God set [understanding] that he might interpret all the words of His servants the Prophets, through whom He foretold all that would happen to His people.”²³ But with that understanding comes responsibility. This is not a matter of greed, but a case of hunger for more understanding of God’s Word.

An Early Church teacher and writer made this comment: “In people who are teachable and well disposed to receiving the divine words, the Holy Spirit will make His abode, increasing in them His gifts. But in those who have acquired only a tiny spark of light and have been negligent even with that, even the little that they formerly had becomes utterly quenched and is taken from them. This is what some Jews have experienced, who received a light from the law but gained no increase from it. When the Truth arrived, they became dim-sighted toward it; even what they had has been taken away.”²⁴

And the anonymous Early Church writer we mentioned before adds this thought: “It is certainly possible for something to be added to someone who has. But it is impossible to take away from him who does not have. How are we to understand this? If something is taken away from him who does not have and yet he does not have anything to begin with, what is taken away from him? Here is how we should understand this. He who has a mind and does not do justice with it pertaining to God’s glory but rather occupies it with earthly things, of him we say: having he does not have. For though he has a mind and can see, he is said to be blind. That person already has nothing who brings nothing to God.”²⁵

As a seminary professor, when I taught Hermeneutics I encouraged my students to always look for more to learn. For example, if they spotted an important word in the text, and went to a Bible concordance to see what the original word was behind it, don’t stop there. After they found the translated Hebrew or Greek word, then go to the Bible lexicon to find out how it is used in that particular verse. Find out if it was used as a verb, noun, adverb, etc. Then see if it is in the past, present or future tense. Once that is determined, find other verses where this same word is used in different contexts until they are firmly convinced that their exposition will be correct because they understand what the author of the text was saying, to whom it was addressed, why he said it, how he said it, and how it can be understood and used today.

I wanted them to take what they already knew, but because of their hunger and thirst for more they would be motivated in wanting to know more. On the other hand, those who only take a cursory look at the text, then preach what they think it says, will find that as they add to it by way of speculation and assumption they will get further and further from the truth. Don’t let that become a habit, or it will destroy your own confidence and the assurance others have in you.

This is not wishful thinking, it is the promise Jesus made in this verse. But there is also a downside to not having any interest or motivation to become more efficient and schooled in the Word of God. Our Lord says that if any of His children are not interested in learning, then He will have little interest in teaching them. Not only that but what they did learn at one time will not be kept alive by the Spirit in the hearts and minds. Instead, they will turn to the simple teaching of men and be led further and further away from the One who is called the Way, the Truth and the Life.²⁶

Let’s look at this through the eyes of an illustration: Let’s say that when you were young you learned to play a musical instrument, or you were interested in building up your muscles at the gym, or even played a certain game with expertise. But as time went by you used this talent less and less. As many have discovered, after awhile you become less and less proficient in playing that instrument; your muscles turn into fat; so even a child can beat you at the game you once mastered. Elsewhere, Jesus made it quite clear: “Blessings will fall on those who hunger and thirst to know how to live and do what’s right, for they will be satisfied.”²⁷ And the apostle Paul told young Timothy: “For yourself, concentrate on winning God’s approval, on being a workman with nothing to be ashamed of, and who knows how to use the word of truth to the best advantage.”²⁸

There are some 75 references in the Bible to the need to study God’s Word. So if God thought it was important, and Jesus tells us that it was important, and the Bible points out how important it is, then ask yourself: “Shouldn’t it be important to me?”

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.

I once read an ancient African proverb that went like this: “When there is no enemy within, the enemies without cannot hurt you.” It was derived from the fact that when a village remained strongly united and everyone was in harmony they would be strong enough to resist any attempt by an enemy to be overrun.

The same is true of an individual. When your inner resolve is steady and sure; when you heart and mind are united in harmony; when your spirit and God’s spirit are as one, there is nothing the devil can bring against you that will conquer your soul. The secret behind this is not just commitment, but communication. When you let your heart and mind seek agreement, and when you keep the conversation between you and the One you love most always fresh, a sudden jolt will not knock you off balance and an unexpected confrontation will not cause you to crumble.

And what is true of an individual is true of a relationship, a family, a neighborhood, a city, and a nation. But there must be a common bond that holds all of this together. That brings to mind an old Irish saying that goes: “The family that prays together, stays together,” which is said to be based on Proverbs 15:29. So in this time of fighting, factions, friction, and fault-finding, the one place where all can find agreement is at the feet of Jesus. – Dr. Robert R. Seyda

I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS

While serving as a hospital chaplain in Miami, FL, on one of my daily rounds I walked into an inpatient room at the prestigious Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and introduced myself to a newly arrived patient.  I introduced myself, and after only a few sentences she suddenly looked me in the eyes and said, “You must be a real man of God.” While it didn’t embarrass me, it did make me feel very humble. I smiled told her that I was happy to be a born again believer. Then she said, “I knew it! Just by the way you talk, I could tell you were a real Christian.” That quickly told me that often people see us for what we are, not necessarily who we are.

We chatted some more and she told me about her situation and how she was trusting God for healing and wanted to get well so she could continue serving her church like she had been doing for years. In accordance with the hospital rules of not asking patients if we could pray with them, I thanked her for the visit and started to leave. But she stopped me and asked if I could have a word of prayer with her, which is fine under the rules. We held hands and began to pray. The presence of the Holy Spirit instantly became very real in that room as we prayed. You could feel the power of the Holy Spirit all around the bed. When we finished, this precious child of God kept saying; “Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Jesus!”

About that time the woman in the next bed who observed everything that went on, asked in a rather timid and quivering voice, “Can I have that Jesus too?” My heart leaped, and the woman I just prayed with jumped out of bed. We went over, and taking the woman’s hands began to pray with her. When we finished her face was bright with joy and she thanked us repeatedly. We all felt so good that I didn’t want to leave the room to finish my rounds.

Through this I learned to never be ashamed when asked to express my faith and love for God in prayer, whether it was in a hospital, restaurant, or on an airplane. When I share this testimony I tell others that You never know when it just may touch someone who only knows about Jesus, but after they hear you pray they want to know Him personally. Don’t do it in pride, but in humility, knowing that Jesus our high priest gives us the freedom to enter God’s throne room of grace and mercy in His name, at an hour of any day. By so doing, you may be the light in the darkness that someone who is lost there has been looking for a long, long time.

UPDATE FOR ALL MY WONDERFUL READERS

We have just finished the enlightening Chapter 12 in Matthew’s Gospel, where we saw how Jesus handled the criticism of the Pharisees that His disciples were picking up grain to eat on the Sabbath. He showed them what hypocrites they were to complain about Him and His followers when the great King David did the same.

But they weren’t through because they also criticized Him for healing a man with a shriveled hand on the Sabbath.  Once again Jesus pointed out that they would help a sheep that had fallen into a hole to get free, so why should they be against a man with a withered hand being set free.

Still they did not stop pestering Him.  A man who was blind and could not talk was brought to Him, and when Jesus set the man free these same critics blasphemed by saying He did so by the power of the prince of demons, Beelzebub.  Jesus quickly pointed out their foolish thinking by asking why would the devil throw out one of his own demons? That didn’t make any sense.

When the Pharisees saw that their criticisms didn’t work, they then asked Jesus for one more miraculous sign to prove that He was the Messiah.  So He told them to look for a sign similar to the one the prophet Jonah experienced.  That is, Jonah spent three days and nights in the belly of a sea monster created by God especially for that occasion, and in the same way, He would spend three days and three nights in a tomb before He too would emerge alive for ever and ever.

Then we were told that Mary the mother of Jesus, and some of His brothers showed up to talk with Him.  So Jesus used that occasion to talk about who His spiritual mother and brothers.  In other words, that His followers can be part of two families, their physical family, and their spiritual family.  Jesus did not come to earth to produce physical children, but spiritual children.  And just as He was the Son of God, they too would become children of God.

Next week we will have a pleasant walk through Chapter 13 of Matthew. All of what happened here in Chapter 12 would motivate Jesus to share some more important truths about this spiritual family of God He came to redeem from sin and release from the burden of the Laws of Moses which had become impossible to obey.  We are going to learn a lot, I hope you will walk with us.

God bless you for all your dedication and love for His Word.  I pray He will bless you with understanding, wisdom and love.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER TWELVE

Part VI

Verse 43: When an evil spirit comes out of a person, it travels through dry places looking for a place to rest, but it finds none.

Now, we must go back to verse 24 to see where this statement by Jesus is connected to His discourse. Our Lord was casting out demons, and the Pharisees and others claimed He was doing so by the power of the prince of demons, Beelzebub. So Jesus is now cautioning them to be careful when dealing with demonic spirits. Of course, in their own writings, it says: “A righteous person–what does he do? He watches his step on the path so the Divisor of Evil cannot cling to him, as it is written: ‘Though she urged Joseph day after day, he did not yield to her,’ to what she proposed day after day. For the unclean spirit, the Divisor of Evil, seduces a man ‘to lie beside her’ in hell, to be condemned there ‘to be with her’.”¹ What they are pointing out is that demons are never idle, they are always active, seeking victims to control.

But our Lord uses an interesting term when telling what demons who have been expelled do, in that they wander in “dry places” looking for rest. Some English translations use the term “waterless places.” This is the way the earliest Hebrew version of the Gospel puts it.² Scholars believe that this idea comes from what we find in Isaiah where it says that the kingdom of Babylon would become like a desert, with wild animals and birds living in their houses.³ The same thing is repeated when God will punish Edom, where snakes are added to the list.⁴ So it became a metaphor for areas that were haunted by eerie creatures. Bishop Hilary sees this spiritual application by saying: “When God’s grace was imparted afresh to the nations, flowing as a living fountain through the cleansing water [of baptism], there was no place for the spirit to continue living among them, and indeed he had no rest with them.”⁵

Interestingly, we find in ancient Greek Orphic demonology that evil spirits were divided into different classes based on where they functioned best. There were Celestial demons, Aerial demons, Aquatic demons, Terrestrial demons, and Subterranean demons.⁶ In one Jewish apocryphal book found in the Catholic Bible, we read this: “Then the angel Raphael took the devil, and bound him in the desert of upper Egypt.”⁷ Then in another Jewish apocryphal book we read: “No seducer corrupted me on a desert plain, nor did the destroyer, the deceitful serpent, defile the purity of my virginity.”⁸ Then in another such book, we find this: “And further the Lord said to Raphael: ‘Bind Azazel by his hands and his feet and throw him into the darkness. And split open the desert, which is in Dudael, and throw him there’.”⁹

This may help us understand why this legion of demons kept the man in Gadarea out in such a forsaken area. But when the demons asked to enter the swine, our Lord knew their intentions so He had the swine run over a precipice into the water. Therefore, even when a demon is cast out of one human dwelling, our Lord tells them this:

Verse 44: The wandering evil spirit says, “I will go back to the home I left.” When the evil spirit arrives back to that home, it is still empty. It is all neat and clean.

Does this then discourage the unclean spirit from moving back in? Is it sympathetic and decide not reoccupy its old habitat since it is now clean and tidy? In his commentary, Bishop Hilary gives us this: “Because of the concern of those who were living there before, the place had been kept clean and adorned for the incoming dweller. Then seven spirits even more evil entered in—as many as there were the gifts of grace offered by Christ which God’s all-embracing wisdom had placed there with a sevenfold glory.¹⁰ In this way the possession of wicked spirits was as great as the possession of grace would have been. Thus ‘the last state of that man becomes worse than the first,’ because the unclean spirit left the house for fear of the law but now returns with a vengeance because of the grace that was rejected.”¹¹

Verse 45: Then the evil spirit goes out and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself. They all go and live there, and that person has even more trouble than before. It is the same way with the evil people who live today.

You talk about being vindictive! A demon exorcised from its habitat is so mad and irritated in having to roam around homeless, that when it does get the chance to move back in, it brings in all of the most menacing fellow evil spirits it can find. I often heard my father, who was a minister, talk about people who were once believing and practicing Christians who backslid and returned to their sinful ways as being worse than they were before they got saved. So you don’t especially need to be demon possessed to experience this phenomenon, evil has a way of duplicating itself no matter at what level.

Thereby we can comprehend their methods to possess and repossess former victims. Here’s something to consider: some skeptics today dismiss the existence of demons and demonic power, saying that such actions as those described in scripture are signs of epileptic and manic-depressive behavior. However, demon possession as a plague appears to have diminished after Christ’s victory over the power and prince of the air (Satan.) Consequently, the diseases of epilepsy and manic-depression are still with us, but without demonic powers having the ability to evoke them into action. Nonetheless, there are serious acts committed to this day by people which are so hideous that we cannot help but believe that demonic powers are at work in these individuals. I personally have witnessed several people being delivered from what they called demonic possession. It is so real. But the power of Christ is just as real. Therefore, they should fear us more than we fear them.

The early church Patriarch of Alexandria gives us his understanding of those who are repossessed and thereby become souls of the lawless. He writes: “Now remember how the evil spirit inhabited the people when they were in Egypt, how they lived according to Egyptian customs and laws and became filled with all kinds of uncleanness. When they had been delivered by Moses and had received the law as a guide calling them to the light of true divine knowledge, the wicked and unclean spirit left them. But what happens when someone who has believed now disbelieves? The demons again take up their abode there with a vengeance. For just as the Holy Spirit, when he sees a person’s heart desisting from all uncleanness, abides and dwells and rests in that one, so also the unclean spirit likes to take lodging in the souls of the lawless.”¹²

We should also mention, that upon closer examination you will notice the grammatical disconnect between verses 42 and 46. This has led some to believe that this was either a literal comment by Matthew on what our Lord was saying or a figurative comment by Jesus on how this repossession by the demons compares to the Jews who having been given the opportunity to be free from the powers of the old covenant, have refused to be cleansed by God’s grace through Christ, and would, therefore, become even more corrupt in their ways and thinking in the future. They had just improperly asked Jesus to show them a miracle, after denouncing and ridiculing the miracles He already performed. In either case, we believe that these verses were inspired by the Holy Spirit and are therefore meant for our learning and understanding. In this portion of our Lord’s dissertation, it clearly indicates the characteristics of demons.

Verses 46-47: While Jesus was talking to the people, His mother and brothers stood outside. They wanted to talk to Him. Someone told Him, “Your mother and brothers are waiting for You outside. They want to talk to You.”

What Matthew records here had never happened before. We find out later that at this point in time the brothers of Jesus were not convinced that He was who everyone was saying He was, the Messiah. Mary’s actions at the cross and in the Upper Room would prove beyond all doubt that she knew that her child was the Son of God. Once again, we are compelled to understand this in a figurative way rather than a literal fashion. Jesus knew who His physical mother and brothers were, of this there is no doubt. But when it came to believing in Him as the Son of man sent from God, He had every reason not to consider His siblings as spiritual brothers. And that is the lesson behind His statement.

Another thing to consider here is Matthew’s mention of Jesus being inside some edifice teaching when His mother and brothers arrived outside. But He does not describe the place where Jesus was sitting. In my mind, I go back and connect this to what we read when Jesus left Nazareth and came to live in Capernaum.¹³ This then became the hub of His ministry. And after His sermon on the mount, He again goes back to Capernaum.¹⁴ Then when Jesus finished His ministry in Gadarea, He again returns to His home town, Capernaum.¹⁵ It was here that he raised the synagogue ruler’s daughter back to life,¹⁶ and then was followed by two blind men after He left the ruler’s house.¹⁷ They walked with Him until Jesus went indoors.¹⁸ Since they were still in Capernaum, it is only logical that Jesus had gone back to the house where He was living. So it was here that Jesus called His twelve disciples to Him,¹⁹ and instructed them on their mission for evangelism in Galilee before sending the out.²⁰

Then we are told that it was from there that Jesus launched His own ministry throughout Galilee.²¹ After He was confronted by the Pharisees because His disciples were picking grain on the Sabbath, He guided them to the synagogue nearby. And after His lecture to them, Matthew says He left that place many followed Him back to where He was going.²² It was there they brought a blind man to Him that was demon-possessed, and this is when the Pharisees accused Him of exorcising demons with the power of Beelzebub.²³ So it was here that Jesus began His illustration of Jonah being in the belly of the sea monster for three days with His being in the tomb for three days.²⁴ And in the middle of this story, we are told that His mother and brothers showed up. They no doubt had traveled the forty miles over from Nazareth to see Him. Based on this timeline, we can submit that Jesus was in His own house when this incident occurred.

Early church writer Apollinaris gave his summary of what we should see here. He writes: “That ‘His brothers’ did not yet believe in Him we learn from John,²⁵ while from Mark²⁶ we have also heard something else: for His own family tried to grab hold of Him, as though He were beside Himself.²⁷ On account of their frame of mind, the Lord does not often mention them as His own family. He points instead to those who are obedient. To believers, He applies all the terms of family relationship, those, namely, who had been joined to Him in the kindred fellowship of obedience. Even if temporarily He had a quarrel with Mary, as Simeon had foretold when he had said ‘a sword shall pierce through your own soul,’²⁸ she overcame these things, as was fitting, and the Lord graciously made mention of her at His passion and entrusted her to the beloved disciple.²⁹”³⁰

We can say the same today. You may go to the same church and sit in the same pew with others who identify themselves as believers, followers of Christ, and children of God. But unless they are committed to doing the will of their heavenly Father no matter the cost or effort, they are neither your brother or sister nor the brothers and sisters of Jesus. Let us revisit the subject of whether or not these brothers and sisters were children of Mary, or did she remain a virgin because of her chosen and holy status.

There are several theories that compete with one another. First, let’s lay the ground work. When Joseph asked Mary to be his wife, according to Jewish law she could have been as young as 12. Most Bible scholars put her between 15 and 17. Since most men did not marry until they reached the age of 30, that would certainly make Joseph much older than her. So, either these children who showed up here with Mary are called the brothers of Jesus because Mary had borne them after our Lord’s birth; or Joseph had been married before and had them with his first wife who may have died, thus prompting Joseph to wed Mary. In that case, Joseph would be even older since he married the first time at the age of 30.

The mitigating factors to consider are these. When Joseph had to go to Bethlehem to register for the census, there is no record of any other family members going with him and Mary. Also, their long stay in Bethlehem and then Egypt would make one wonder how his children were being taken care of in his absence before he finally returned to Nazareth after a two-year absence if they weren’t already. Not only that, but Joseph is never mentioned again as being in the company of Mary when she was in the presence of her son Jesus, except for their visit to Jerusalem when He was twelve.³¹ This is the evidence many scholars use to suggest that by the time Jesus became an adult, Joseph had died.

Early church theologian St. Augustine gives us an interesting exposition on Mary’s place in the church. He writes: “Isn’t it true that the Virgin Mary did the Father’s will, she who believed in faith, conceived in faith and was chosen so that, through her, salvation could be born for us among humans and was begotten by Christ before Christ was begotten in her? Holy Mary carried out, plainly and clearly, the Father’s will. Therefore, it is greater for Mary to have been a disciple of Christ than the mother of Christ. Indeed, it is greater and better to have been the disciple of Christ than the mother of Christ. Mary was therefore blessed because, even before she gave birth, she bore the Master in her womb.… Mary is holy and Mary is blessed, but the church is greater than the Virgin Mary. And why? Because Mary is a part of the church, a holy limb, an extraordinary limb, an outstanding limb, but she is only a limb of the whole body. If she is but a part of the whole body, greater indeed is the body than a limb. Christ is the head, and Christ is the entire head and body. What shall I say? We have a divine head. We have God as our head.”³²

Verse 48-50: Jesus answered, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then He pointed to His followers and said, “See! These people are my mother and my brothers. Yes, anyone who does what my Father in heaven wants is My true brother and sister and mother.”

Here our Lord echoes the words of Moses who spoke concerning Levi, the father of the priesthood: “Of his father and mother he said, ‘I don’t know them’; he didn’t acknowledge his brothers or children. For he observed your word, and he kept your covenant.”³³ So certainly those who heard it should have had no quarrel with the author of the new covenant priesthood saying the same thing. However, I’m sure there were some who thought of the teaching on honoring one’s mother and abiding by whatever she requests: “They said, “Since that is what she deems to be the honor she wants for herself, that indeed is just the kind of honor he must pay to her.”³⁴

One well-known early church professor made this observation: “Jesus said these things, not in contempt of His mother and His brothers, but in order to show that He values more highly closeness of soul than any blood relation of the body. For it was necessary to say this, both for those who thought that it was more important for Him to interact with His own family, as well as for the instruction of those who were present. For just as He Himself says to the disciples, ‘he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,’³⁵ in the same way, I think, Jesus sets a higher value on His disciples than on His earthly mother and brothers.”³⁶

Lest we forget, the brothers the people referred to were those with whom He had a family connection with, but the brothers and sisters He now talks about are those with whom He shares a spiritual relationship with His Father in heaven. It is also noteworthy that in both cases the Holy Spirit was involved. This should not surprise us then, today we often feel a closer relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ than we do with our siblings in the flesh.

y

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER TWELVE

Part V

Verse 40: Jonah was in the stomach of a big sea creature for three days and three nights. In the same way, the Son of Man will be in the grave three days and three nights.

By the time Jesus came to earth, this story about Jonah was already an accepted part of Jewish history. One of their most celebrated historians, who lived during the time of Jesus, records: “It is reported that Jonah was swallowed down by a whale, and that when he had been there three days, and as many nights, he was vomited out alive upon the Euxine Sea,¹ and without any injuries to his body; and there, in his prayer to God, he obtained pardon for his sins, and went over to the city Nineveh, where he stood so as to be heard, and preached, that in a very little time they would lose the dominion of Asia. And when he had proclaimed this, he returned home. I have given this account about him as I found it written in our books.”² Therefore, those listening to Jesus knew exactly who He was referring to and what happened to him.

It is also worthwhile to note that in Jonah’s story it is said, “Adonai prepared a huge fish³ to swallow Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.”⁴ Here we see it says that “ADONAI prepared” a sea creature for this purpose. Therefore, Jonah was not swallowed by chance. Likewise, what would happen to Jesus was not by chance. His death and resurrection were planned by the same God before the beginning of the world.

One venerated Jewish commentator had this to say about Jonah: “The God of Blessing assigned the fish this task for a specific time. At the exact time that Jonah was thrown into the sea, the fish was assigned to be in the right spot to swallow him. And this fish is not naturally in this sea. And this was one of the miracles.”⁵ Rabbi Kimchi likens this special preparation to the specific food that king Nebuchadnezzar assigned to Daniel and the other selected youths of Judah.⁶ To put it another way, it was all planned. So if the Jews were willing to accept the story about Jonah, why shouldn’t they then be willing to accept the story that Christ was telling them. After all, if it took three days of Jonah being in the belly of the whale to get the citizens of Nineveh converted, then surely these Jews should have converted after our Lord came out of His three-day rest in the tomb.

Even though Jews counted any part of a day as representing a full day, still there are critics among the Jewish leaders that Jesus likened His stay in the tomb to that of Jonah in the whale’s belly. They say: “It is impossible for Jesus to have been in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights since He was crucified on Friday evening and arose early Sunday morning, and even if they should argue that part of the day is considered a whole day, there would still be only three days and two nights.”⁷ However, these critics are taking their timetable from the accepted Christian record rather than looking at their own.

This is the proverbial case of pointing out the splinter in someone’s eye when you have a beam in your own. Here’s what we know: In ancient Israel, including the first century A.D., preparations for the Passover feast took place on “Preparation Day.” In the middle of the afternoon, at what is often referred to as “twilight” on that day, the Passover lamb was sacrificed at the temple in Jerusalem. After sunset, when Preparation Day had ended and the Feast of Unleavened Bread had begun, the lamb and other specific foods for the Passover feast were eaten.

Now, Jesus was crucified and died on Preparation Day. Traditionally, this has been thought to have been on a Friday. However, it can be demonstrated that Jesus’ crucifixion and death occurred not on a Friday (the sixth day of the week), as has been traditionally accepted, but rather on the previous day, Thursday (the fifth day of the week). The week during which the following occurred in the month of Aviv (also called Nisan) of that year:

1. Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey (on Palm Sunday, Aviv 10), as prophesied in Zechariah 9:9;

2. He was crucified four days later (on Thursday, Aviv 14); and

3. He was resurrected from the dead on the third day after that (on Sunday, Aviv 17).

The first two points are a fulfillment of Scripture where the first Passover lambs were to be taken in on the tenth day of the first month (Aviv or Nisan) and slaughtered four days later, on the fourteenth day of that month.⁸ The third point is a fulfillment of Jesus’ own prophecy here in this verse. In addition, the scripture does not say He rose “after” three days, but “on” the third day.⁹

Some people may find this disconcerting, especially since the crucifixion of Christ has been celebrated on Friday since 325 AD when the council of Nicaea decided that was the day. So as we can see, even back then it was a question being deliberated. But the main factor is that He died on the cross and He rose from the tomb. Whether the Jewish calendar is to be trusted or the decisions of a council is not the point. But as scholars, we should always keep our minds open to possibilities before we pronounce them as absolutes. In fact, some Bible scholars think Jesus was crucified on Wednesday.¹⁰

Verse 41: On judgment day, you people who live now will be compared with the people of Nineveh, and they will be witnesses who show how guilty you are. Why do I say this? Because when Jonah preached to those people, they changed their way of living. And you are listening to someone greater than Jonah, but you refuse to change your ways!

You would think that by now the Pharisees and scribes would finally come around; that they would see the truth and be ready to learn more. But Jesus knew better. So their request that He back up His words with action only got them more condemnation as being spiritually blind and deaf. He was not sent from God to be a court jester for their amusement and entertainment. He had already shown them enough to convince anyone that Jesus was the Messiah. Another miracle was not going to change their minds. They would just go away bragging about how they got the prophet from Galilee to do their bidding. But whether they liked it or not, there were going to witness a miracle of God’s own making.

It is important to note that if the story of Jonah was nothing more than a fairytale or a borrowed myth from some other culture, then our Lord would not have used it as part of His teaching. If this story were thought to be bogus or unreliable, then the Jews would not have included in their earliest written version of verbal traditions.¹¹ So Jesus was speaking of something they all held to be respectable and truthful. Also, in Jewish writings, we find that many commentators believe that this fish was not a normal part of the species in that area.¹² That God had created this creature just for this occasion because no one was ever swallowed after this incident and survived to tell about it. So it is not just a happenstance that Joseph of Arimathea had purchased a tomb exactly where it needed to be for our Lord to lay before His heavenly Father called Him back from death.

But the key factor is the 3 days, where Jonah was out of sight and communication with anyone, only to suddenly appear alive and well. This, says Jesus, is the same manner in which the Son of man will be hidden in the heart of the earth for three days, and will then suddenly appear alive and well. But here’s the difference. After Jonah’s deliverance from death, he went to Nineveh and the people repented. But on this occasion, someone of greater stature than Jonah was speaking to them but they refuse to listen and change. So, on Judgment Day God will point to the people of Nineveh and then to the Jews and ask, “If they could believe a simple prophet, why couldn’t you believe my Son?”

This type of comparative judgment was not new to the Jewish mind. Their own Rabbi’s taught: “The poor, the rich, the sensual [egotistical] come before the [heavenly] court — They say to the poor: Why have you not occupied yourself with the Torah? If he says: I was poor and worried about my sustenance, they would say to him: Were you poorer than Hillel? To the rich man, they said: Why have you not occupied yourself with the Torah? If he said: I was rich and occupied with my possessions, they would say to him: Were you perchance richer than Rabbi Eleazar? To the egotistical person, they would say: Why have you not occupied yourself with the Torah? If he said: I was beautiful and upset by sensual passion, they would say to him: Were you perchance more handsome than Joseph?”¹³

The Rabbis shared that although Hillel was revered as a giant among the Rabbis, yet he worked each day of his life just to get enough money to go to the synagogue to hear the Word of God expounded on. And Rabbi Eleazar ben Harsom inherited 1000 cities and 1000 ships, yet each day he would take a sack of flour and carry it on his shoulder from city to city and province to province to study the Torah. And Joseph, who was so handsome that the wife of Potiphar endeavored to seduce him, yet refused to submit because of his faith in God. So they conclude: “Thus the example of Hillel condemns the poor, the example of Rabbi Eleazar ben Harsom condemns the rich, and Joseph the virtuous condemns the egotistical.”¹⁴

Therefore, Jesus comparing the people of Nineveh’s response to Jonah’s message with the response of the Jews of His day to His message was certainly permissible. But Jesus was not through, He has another comparison.

Verse 42: On the judgment day, you people who live now will also be compared with the queen of the South, and she will be a witness who shows how guilty you are. I say this because she traveled from far, far away to listen to Solomon’s wise teaching.¹⁵ And I tell you that someone greater than Solomon is right here, but you won’t listen!

Some more insight into the last judgment. Earlier Jesus said that people’s own words will be called as evidence either for or against them. Next, witnesses will be called to provide testimony in cases before the Judge. He had already mentioned Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon as witnesses against the doubters in Capernaum. Now He has brought up the people of Nineveh and adds the Queen of Sheba, a pagan who came to Jerusalem because she had heard so much about King Solomon and became a believer.

According to one legend, the kings of Abyssinia trace their descent back to a certain Menelik, the reputed son of the Queen of Sheba and Solomon. Well-known African traveler Hugues le Roux, a French writer and journalist, whose pen name was Robert Charles Henri Le Roux (1860–1925), wrote about the French colonies and about travel, and claims to have discovered in an Abyssinian manuscript in the Ge’ez dialect containing the earliest version of the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, which had been known previously only known through popular verbal tradition.¹⁶ The ruler of Abyssinia in 1905, at the time of his victory over the forces of Italy, actually declared himself to be a descendant of the Judean lion. A study of the legend of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba having a son as it exists in the tradition of Axum, a place of pilgrimage to the west of Adua, was published in 1904.¹⁷

According to Jewish genealogy, Sheba was the son of Raamah, who was the son of Cush, the son of Ham, the son of Noah. Raamah and his son Sheba became successful entrepreneurs, and the prophet Ezekiel tells the people of Tyre: “The merchants of Sheba and Raamah traded with you. They traded all the best spices and every kind of precious stone and gold for your goods.”¹⁸ This queen is known by different names among the various Jewish Chroniclers.¹⁹ One Targumist says this country was also known as Zemargad, and so she was the Queen of Zemargad. In one Jewish document, we read: “Lilith, the Queen of Zemargad, launched an attack and seized [the sons of Job] and killed the young men.”²⁰

However, in another writing, we find: “Lilith, the Queen of Zemargad, has the form of a beautiful woman from the head to the navel, and from the navel down she is flaming fire. Her only intention is to arouse wars and all kinds of destruction. It was she who seized and killed the sons of Job. When God brings about the destruction of Rome and turns it into a ruin for all eternity, He will send Lilith there, and let her dwell in that ruin, for she is the ruination of the world, as it is said, ‘And Lilith shall repose there.²¹”²²

According to others, her name was Maqueda.²³ And yet others named her Balkis.²⁴ And a very reputable Jewish chronologist tells us: “The Queen of Sheba came to Solomon in his 15th year of reign her name was Aqaula. She crossed the Red Sea with great trouble and traveled far to listen to Solomon’s wisdom. She brought great riches and gave Solomon 20,000 weights of gold, nice perfume, balsam, persimmon fruit, and other gifts.”²⁵

And finally, the Jewish historian Josephus tells us that Herodotus said that in Egypt: “There a queen reigned, he calls her by her name Nicaule …. As for myself, I have discovered from our own books, that after Pharaoh, the father-in-law of Solomon, no other king of Egypt did any longer use that name; and that it was after that time when the forenamed queen of Egypt and Ethiopia came to Solomon.”²⁶

We must remember that in those days the basic form of communication was either verbal or the exchange of documents such as letters, decrees, and manuscripts copied and passed on. But in any case, we are not talking about an individual that was a mere footnote in history. She had great fame and was highly regarded. So for her to take the time, effort and expense to go visit Solomon, King of Israel, certainly forecasts well for Solomon’s reputation. Also, there was no reason for her to go unless there was some connection between the two other than reputation. So, for Jesus to point to Himself and say that someone greater than Solomon was standing before them, it should have clearly gotten the point across to these doubters. This should not have come as a surprise to them.

After all, their traditional teachings said that: “The king who will arise from David’s descendants will be a greater master of knowledge than Solomon and a great prophet, close to the level of Moses, our teacher. Therefore, he will teach the entire nation and instruct them in the path of God.”²⁷ Yet they rejected this man of wisdom and miracles. So once again, at the judgment seat God will ask these Jews, if the pagan people of Nineveh and the pagan Queen of Sheba could believe a simple prophet and an earthly king, then why could you not believe my Son the Prophet and King of kings who is greater than Jonah or Solomon? So often we have witnessed the idea of the last judgment portrayed as a mass production process with a cold-hardhearted, unsympathetic Judge passing out pre-stamped, autographed sentences in an emotionless monotone. Christ’s words provide a different picture, as does the vision of John.²⁸

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER TWELVE

Part V

Verse 37: Even your idle words will be used to judge you. What you have said will show whether you are right or whether you are guilty.

With this verse Jesus now goes deeper into the subject and shows where the root of the problem really lies with these self-righteous religious leaders. No more than orange trees will produce figs, so a diseased tree will not produce perfectly healthy fruit. Therefore, how could these people whose hearts were filled with evil, think or say anything else. When David was being pursued by King Saul who accused him of various crimes, David said, “Let the Lord be the judge. I hope the Lord will punish you for the wrong you did to me, but I won’t fight you myself. There is an old saying: ‘Bad things come from bad people. That’s why I won’t do anything bad to hurt you’.”¹

A revered Jewish Rabbi made this comment on these verses: “So says the proverb of the Ancient One: the proverb of the Ancient One of the world.”² For this Rabbi, this was the entire Torah, which is the proverb of the Holy One, blessed be He. The Psalmist also met people with this attitude, “The wicked are too proud to ask God for help. He does not fit into their plans. They succeed in everything they do. They don’t understand how you can judge them. They make fun of all their enemies. They say to themselves, ‘Nothing bad will ever happen to us. We will have our fun and never be punished‘.”³

But our Master, along with Solomon, had a word of caution for them, “Those who accept correction show others how to live. Those who reject correction lead others the wrong way. People sometimes tell lies to hide their hatred, but saying bad things about someone is even more foolish. A person who talks too much gets into trouble. A wise person learns to be quiet. Words from good people are like pure silver, but thoughts from the wicked are worthless. Good people say things that help others, but the wicked die from a lack of understanding.”⁴

One Early Church Bishop points out that if we are called to account “for every careless word,” how much more will those who have blasphemed against the Spirit of the only begotten Son receive a more bitter punishment on the day of judgment. And if, Christ says, someone merely utters a slander against someone else, that one will by no means escape judgment. If they will give an account concerning an idle word, how much more so concerning a hurtful deed.⁵

Then Early Church preacher Chrysostom makes this point: “Do you see how far the Judge is from being revengeful? How favorable the account required? For it is not upon what someone else has spoken of you but from what you have spoken yourself. From this will the Judge give His sentence. This is the fairest of all procedures. It rests wholly with you to speak or not to speak. So it is not those who are slandered but the slanderers who have cause to tremble and be anxious. Those slandered are not constrained to answer for themselves concerning the evil things said of them. But the slanderers will answer for the evil they have spoken. And over these words danger hangs. So persons censured should be without anxiety, not being required to give account of the evil others have said. But the censurers have cause to be in anxiety and to tremble, as being subject themselves to be dragged before the judgment seat. Hence slander is indeed a devilish snare, and a sin containing no pleasure but only harm.…So the plotter first destroys himself. One who walks on fire burns himself up. One who smites others bruises himself. One who kicks against the goads draws blood from himself.”⁶

So in light of what Jesus says here and the understanding passed down from the disciples to those who would lead the church in its early days, this is something every believer should take seriously. To keep this in context, it should be considered still part of what Jesus is responding to at the beginning of the chapter, involving those who speak against the Messiah and His mission, planned and anointed by God the Father, and empowered by the Holy Spirit. It was enough for the Pharisees to demand some sign from Jesus to prove that His way was the true way. But they were not expecting what they were about to be given.

These previous two verses are plainly connected by the narrative, but they are not confined to the same time frame. The words that we speak being the main subject and main point of reference aim both to the past and to the present. We are not warned about future words yet unspoken. At the same time, there is little said of receiving any present retribution, other than the normal embarrassment, rebuke and accusations of perjury, but we are admonished about their role future judgment. This becomes a very difficult situation then. Although what we have said in the past and say now in the present may slip from our memory, they will be our indictment in the future judgment.

Most everyone of us has either uttered or heard this remark, “I wish I could take back what I said,” or “I wish I had never said that.” But that’s like carelessly dropping salt instead of sugar into the coffee without first checking what was in the container, and then exclaiming “Oh, I didn’t mean to do that!” Those words alone will not change anything or remove the salty taste from the coffee. That’s why we need to be careful in what we say offhand or even in jest. Even more so when we are behind the pulpit or the lectern, especially what we say about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Word of God and other believers.

As believers, however, let us keep in mind that in Christ we are secure against double jeopardy; His forgiveness and blood covers any sin or spoken word when confessed and forgiveness is asked for. They will never haunt us again! Praise the Lord! That’s why the Old Testament Preacher said, “The most important thing a person can do is to respect God and obey His commands, because He knows about everything people do—even the secret things. He knows about all the good and all the bad, and He will judge people for everything they do.”⁷ So it is important that as soon as the Holy Spirit convicts us of wrong doing, to seek forgiveness with sincerity.

But the things our Lord was talking about were already anticipated by the Jews. A highly respected Rabbi said: “In the generation when the son of David [i.e., Messiah] will come, scholars will be few in number, and as for the rest, they will be unable to see the truth because their eyes will be filled with tears caused by disappointment and grief. Multitudes of trouble and evil decrees will be promulgated anew, each new evil coming before the other has ended.”⁸

A lot of this anticipated turmoil and confusion would be caused because liberal Rabbis rewrote the law to fit their own views. We are told: “When adulterers multiplied, the ceremony of the bitter water was discontinued, and it was Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai who discontinued it, as it is said [i.e., thereby fulfilling the prophecy,]: ‘I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry, and your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, for they themselves consort with lewd women …’⁹”¹⁰ This was confirmed by the venerated Jewish theologian, Rabbi Moses Maimonides.¹¹

Verse 38: Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law answered Jesus. They said, “Teacher, we want to see you do a miracle as a sign from God.”

Here we are reminded about the story of King Shimon Bar Kozibah being mistaken as the Messiah by Rabbi Akiva because no one asked him to perform a miracle.¹² The story of King Kozibah took place in 135 AD, so it was already understood that the Messiah would be able to perform miracles. King Kozibah proclaimed himself the Messiah in the days of the writing of the Jewish Mishnah. He led a revolt against the Romans who controlled the land of Israel at that time. At first he was successful, however gradually the Romans recaptured the Land. Bar Kozibah and his men became isolated in the city of Betar.¹³ During the fast days lamenting over the destruction of the First and Second Temples which is called Tisha B’Av, and falls on the ninth day of the lunar month of Av,¹⁴ the city of Betar fell to the Romans, and hundreds of thousands were killed.

But this was not a one-time event, Jewish literature has stories where such signs were requested, so the Pharisees were only doing what had been done before. For instance we read: “The disciples of Rabbi Jose ben Kisma asked him, ‘When will the Messiah come?’ — He answered, ‘I fear lest you demand that I give you a sign proving that my answer is correct.’ They assured him, ‘We will demand no sign you.’ So he answered them, ‘When the gate of Caesarea Philippi falls down, is rebuilt, falls again, and is again rebuilt, and then falls a third time, before it can be rebuilt the son of David will come.’ They said to him, ‘Master, give us a sign.’ He protested, ‘Did you not assure me that ye would not demand a sign?’ They replied, ‘Even so, we desire one’.”¹⁵

In this story we see the main reason why the Pharisees were seeking a sign. Just as Rabbi Kisma feared, they did so to determine if he was telling the truth or telling a tale. The sign they sought was similar to the one the Egyptians asked of Moses to prove that he was sent by God, and what King Herod asked of Jesus, to walk on water so He could believe Him to be the Messiah. But regardless of the reason of the Pharisees and scribes to request a miracle as proof of Jesus’ Messiahship, our Lord gave them an answer I’m sure they were not expecting.

Chrysostom is not impressed with what the Pharisees were doing. He writes: “Just when they ought to be kneeling before Him, to admire, to be amazed and submit, they still refused to cease from their wickedness. And note their words too, teeming with flattery and pretension. For they tried to draw Him out in their deceptive way. First they insult, then they flatter Him; now calling Him a demoniac, now again Master, both out of an evil mind. No more self-contradictory words were ever spoken. This is why He rebukes them severely. Note that when they were questioning Him roughly and insulting Him, Jesus reasoned with them gently. But when they were flattering Him He reproached them with greater severity. They imagine that He is in control of neither passion and that He can be at one moment moved to anger and in the next moment softened by flattery.”¹⁶

Verse 39: Jesus answered, “Evil-minded and sinful people are the ones who want to see a miracle as a sign. But no miracle will be done to prove anything to them. The only sign will be the miracle that happened to the prophet Jonah.”

There is a good possibility that their evil and sinful mindedness was due to their refusal to believe what they saw and had the fortitude to test the Son of God, the Messiah, so as not to depend on faith to convince them. But just like God gave Noah the sign of the rainbow once the flood was over that it would not happen again, so a sign had already been prepared to proved that Jesus was truly the Anointed One. Jesus comes right out and tells them about Jonah so they need not guess or decipher what He was talking about.

Early Church writers had their views on what Jesus was saying here. For instance Origen states: “That generation was evil, on account of the influence that had come to be in it from the evil one. It was adulterous because it had left her natural husband—the word or law of truth—and had come to be wedded to a lie. The law which is ‘in the members’ of our flesh wars against ‘the law of the mind.’ It is an adulterer of the soul. Every opposing power, when it has intercourse with the soul unfaithfully—the soul that has as its bridegroom the Word of God—causes the soul to commit adultery.”¹⁷

Then we have the commentary of the author of an early commentary on Matthew. He offers this paraphrase as a possible conversation between Jesus and His detractors: “Do you wish to see a sign? Where were you when the devil, chastised by Me not with a whip but with a word, cried out, ‘What are we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come here to torment us before the time? We know that You are the Son of God.’¹⁸ The devils became aware of My power, and how is it that you have failed to see the sign of My works? Where were you when the blind seated by the wayside cried out, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us,’¹⁹⁸ that we may see?”²⁰ In other words, the writer feels that Jesus had every reason to tell these hard-headed unbelievers that they are worse than demons, at least the evil spirits recognize who He is and yet they refuse to submit to the obvious.

This same writer goes on to address the sign of Jonah. He says: “Why do the Jews seek signs and the Greeks seek wisdom? God pointed to the sign of the stumbling block of the cross to both the Jews and the Greeks. Thus those who wish to find Christ not through faith but through wisdom will perish on the stumbling block of foolishness. Those who wish to know the Son of God not through faith but through a demonstration of signs will remain trapped in their disbelief, falling on the stumbling block of His death. It is no small wonder that the Jews, considering the death of Christ, thought He was merely a man, when even Christians—as they purport to be but really are not—because of His death are reluctant to declare the only begotten, the crucified, as incomparable majesty.”²¹