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The Gospel of Matthew

The parable of the sower

Chapter 13: 1-23

 

We are now coming to the second part of the ministry of the Lord Jesus.

In the previous chapters, we saw how Jesus introduced Himself to people as the Messiah, and preached to them the “sermon on the Mount”, with the law given by Moses as a background. He selected and sent twelve disciples (the apostles) to announce to all Jews that the Kingdom of God had arrived and by His teaching (as in the Sermon on the Mount), and various supernatural signs He gave full evidence of His identity.

This first part of His ministry ended when the leaders of the people rejected Him, and the religious leaders decided to kill him. The transition is seen in the last episode, when He turns off the ties of kinship with the people of Israel, represented by his mother and her family, and replaces them with all those (of any nationality) who hear and obey God.

Chapter 13 is like a key to understanding the Gospel of Christ, for it initiates the so-called Sermon of the Mystery Parables, containing seven parables of the Kingdom of Heaven, which show the situation of the Kingdom since that time until the new coming of the Messiah to this earth.

It is the second of three major sermons, the first being the Sermon on the Mount, which looks back to the law given by Moses, and the third, the Sermon on the Mount of Olives, which contemplates the future, and the things that will happen after this current time, upon the return of the King.

It is called Mystery Parables because in the Word of God, "mystery" is something hidden, or a secret, until the day that it is revealed. For example, the church of Christ had been planned by God "before the beginning of the ages" (1 Corinthians 2:7), but it was not revealed in the Old Testament, and was only made known after the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the New Testament, after He had completed the work of redemption for all mankind and fulfilled all righteousness.

It would have been premature to reveal the church earlier than that, mainly because its existence would not be possible before the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus: "... Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her" (Ephesians 5:25). The church is a part of the Kingdom of God, but the Kingdom of God is not limited to the church, just as the church of Christ is not limited to all the believers in the world today but also includes those who already died.

According to what we gather from the biblical account, the Kingdom of God goes through five stages:

1. The stage of prophecy –when it was prophesied in the Old Testament.
2. The phase when it was near - when the King was on Earth and was rejected.
3. The interim phase -incorporating all who take upon themselves the name of Christ, after He was rejected as King, and returned to heaven.
4. The manifestation of the Kingdom during the Millennium.
5. The eternal, final Kingdom.

Any reference to the Kingdom of God (or heaven) in the Bible fits into one of these five stages. The Mystery Parables have regard to phase 3 – interim – of God's Kingdom.

At the beginning of this chapter, we read that the Lord Jesus left the house and sat by the sea. It was still the same day in which He healed a demoniac, had an argument with the Pharisees who blasphemed against him, and went into a house outside which His mother and his brothers sought Him. It was a day of great activity and serves as an example, because no doubt there were many other similar days of which we are not given so much detail.

Symbolically, we can see the house as the "House of Israel" and the sea as humankind in general. Thus, He stopped dealing with Israel only, but now with the whole of humanity, the interim phase of His Kingdom. It is a symbolism found in other parts of Scripture.

A crowd gathered around Him then, so great that He got into a boat, sat down, and started to teach the people by parables: these are stories containing a moral or spiritual teaching, which are not always immediately understood.

Matthew selected seven parables the Lord told on that occasion, of which the first four were addressed to people in general, and the following three only to His disciples. The Lord Jesus explained the meaning of the first two and the last, leaving the other four to be explained with the keys given in those. For example, the "birds of the air" represent the Evil-one and this must be the meaning to be given in the other parables for the "birds of the air".

In this first parable, of the Sower, the lesson concerns the result of sowing. We see that the result depends entirely on the nature of the soil in which the seed is planted: the Sower and the seed are always the same.

At the end of the parable, the Lord Jesus made the warning "he who has ears to hear, let him hear!" The people were there mostly out of curiosity. Following their leaders, they did not believe in the divinity of Christ, and did not take seriously what He said about Himself. They therefore had no ears to hear (and believe) on what He said.

The disciples asked why He spoke to the people in parables, instead of talking in the open. He replied, saying that there were two kinds of listeners: the disciples to whom the knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven was given, and the people to whom this knowledge was not given. It seems a strange discrimination from the Lord Jesus, Who incorporated divine justice. However, it is explained as follows.

The word mystery comes from the Greek mustêrion and this derives from mustês (a disciple) and mueô (close). The religions of the East had all manner of secrets and signs like some religions and secret societies today. However, their disciples knew them. In the same way, the disciples of Christ were learning the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven through the parables. These mysteries continue to be revealed by the Scriptures to all who believe in the person of Christ and in His words, as well as the disciples (Romans 16:26, 1 Corinthians 2:7, etc.).

To those who have faith in the Lord Jesus, more will be given. The nation of Israel rejected the Light of the world; therefore, it lost the light it had. The parables of the Lord Jesus are beyond the understanding of the Pharisees, because of their hostility, and the people, because of their unbelief.

Isaiah had prophesied in this sense, and his prophecy was fulfilled in the people that rejected Jesus as Messiah: they saw Him doing signs, but did not acknowledge Him, they heard what He said, but gave Him no attention, nor did they understand. The problem of the people, according to Isaiah, was that their heart had become insensitive; they listened with ill will, and did not want to see. Therefore, they lost the salvation of God.

Happy, blessed are those who are willing to do, and to hear with the eyes of faith the reality of the Lord Jesus. This represents an advantage over many prophets and righteous men of antiquity who lived before Christ.

The Lord Jesus gave a perfect explanation of the parable of the Sower:

He is Himself the sower, the seed is the message of the Kingdom (the Gospel) and the soil is anyone who hears the message.

Four types of person are defined:

1. Those who do not understand (because they do not wish to understand).
2. Those who like the message, but do not take it seriously.
3. Those who give greater value to the world and to gain its wealth.

4. Those who understand the message and obey it.

Only people who are within the latter type have spiritual life, and grow producing spiritual fruit to the glory of God.

 

R David Jones 

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1 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea.
2 And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
3 Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: "Behold, a sower went out to sow.
4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.
5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.
6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.
7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.
8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
10 And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"
11 He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
12 For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
14 And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: 'HEARING YOU WILL HEAR AND SHALL NOT UNDERSTAND, AND SEEING YOU WILL SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE;
15 FOR THE HEARTS OF THIS PEOPLE HAVE GROWN DULL. THEIR EARS ARE HARD OF HEARING, AND THEIR EYES THEY HAVE CLOSED, LEST THEY SHOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, LEST THEY SHOULD UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEARTS AND TURN, SO THAT I SHOULD HEAL THEM.'
16 But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear;
17 for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
18 "Therefore hear the parable of the sower:
19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.
20 But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;
21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."

Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13, verses 1 to 23