Parables for the Disciples

70 – Parables for the Disciples; Matthew 13:36-53

Matthew 13:36 Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the [a]tares of the field.” 37 And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 38 and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the [b]end of the age; and the reapers are angels. 40 So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the [c]end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom [d]all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, 42 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, [e]let him hear.

44 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, 46 and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; 48 and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. 49 So it will be at the [f]end of the age; the angels will come forth and [g]take out the wicked from among the righteous, 50 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

51 “Have you understood all these things?” They *said to Him, “Yes.” 52 And [h]Jesus said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”

53 When Jesus had finished these parables, He departed from there.

Footnotes

a. Matthew 13:36 Or darnel, a weed resembling wheat

b. Matthew 13:39 Or consummation

c. Matthew 13:40 Or consummation

d. Matthew 13:41 Or everything that is offensive

e. Matthew 13:43 Or hear! Or listen!

f. Matthew 13:49 Or consummation

g. Matthew 13:49 Or separate

h. Matthew 13:52 Lit He

Commentary

This section begins with an explanation of a parable we have already studied, and Jesus’s explanation is part of what we already covered in the previous study. However, because this discussion fits chronologically with his private teaching among the disciples, I included it here. It does offer some important context to the other parables, so keeping it in this section seems to add a lot of value.

When I first read these parables, as in the last several studies, my gut interpretation seems to have been wrong. Jesus starts in verse 43, with an explanation of the wheat and tares, in which He is represented by the sower; the good seeds are the believers, the bad seeds are unbelievers, and the reapers are the angels. Then the parables of the treasure and the pearl seem to be about men who must give up everything to have eternal life with God, and the parable of the fish is back to gathering the kingdom again. When I read this, I struggled to understand why these parables would be delivered in a string this way because the ideas didn’t really tie into, or build upon, one another that well.

However, reading the Nelson KJV Bible Commentary was really enlightening. Rather than interpreting the parables of the treasure and the pearl to be about mankind, it makes more sense thematically to interpret the real estate buyer and the merchant as Jesus, who gave up His own life to buy the lives of the lost. As Jesus is the key figure in the other parables, it makes sense He would be the central character in these parables, also. This position is further strengthened by the idea that mankind is saved by grace and can’t purchase salvation through works, anyway, so it would be less likely that Jesus is talking about man buying his own ticket to Heaven, no matter how high the cost. “If the pearl is Christ or the kingdom for whom a man must give all in order to obtain, then no man has ever yet given all that he has for Christ. While we receive Him as Saviour, we also progressively continue surrendering areas of ourselves to Him as we come to know better His will for our lives” (Nelson KJV Bible Commentary, pg. 1202).

The fish in the dragnet seems pretty straightforward, and catching fish in a net pulled behind/between one or two boats was a common practice at the time. The net yielded lots of objects and creatures other than desirable fish, so especially the fishermen in the audience would have identified with the analogy. This is why they felt confident responding “yes” to Jesus when He asked them to confirm they understood what He was saying.

This may have been a trick question, though. In the last 2 verses, it seems that Jesus may be trying to show the disciples that they have not fully understood the implications of everything He had told them. “Jesus recognized that the disciples were claiming more insight than they actually possessed. So He gave them the parable of the householder to characterize the situation” (The Word in Life Study Bible pg. 1659).

The scribe and the head of the household refer to the disciples. “An informed disciple is a true scribe who comprehends new and old truths and can rightly discern between them” (Nelson KJV Bible Commentary, pg. 1202). At the time, it was common when entertaining guests for the master of the house to bring out some family treasures, either inherited or newly acquired, to impress or excite the guests. “Jesus likened His disciples to heads of the family in possession of His truth. Over the years they would tell people about the “old treasures” – the basics of the gospel – and about “new treasures” – the way in which His teaching applied to new situations” (The Word in Life Study Bible pg. 1659).

Scribes of the day were responsible for understanding scripture and interpreting it for the Jewish people, and this would now be the responsibility of the disciples to share both the Old Testament teaching and the good news of the gospel. Jesus may be helping the disciples see that the insights of these teachings continue to produce fresh understanding over time, so if they think they understand things now, they may find that they come to have greater understanding in the future.

Jesus uses a phrase at the end, “disciple of the kingdom of heaven,” and I wanted to take a closer look at the connotation of the word disciple. Typically, the word disciple (which was originally derived from verbs meaning “to learn”) meant someone who was in close proximity to a teacher and who was working to align his lifestyle to that of the teacher (The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol 2, pg. 130). While in the New Testament, the term is often interpreted to mean the twelve men who accompanied Jesus, “the expression “disciple of Jesus,” was also used less strictly. It described those who were His disciples secretly (John 19:38), and by implication those who were not at all physically adjacent to Him (cf. Mark 9:38-40; 5:18, 19). This looser concept of disciple may have made it possible for the writer of Acts to use it as a general term for “Christian” (Acts 9:25 and 19:1 are the only exceptions), the original idea of being an intimate companion of the earthly Jesus now almost forgotten” (The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol 2, pg. 130). Interestingly, the word disciple does not appear in the New Testament outside the gospel accounts and Acts, so it seems the New Testament writers did not think of their ongoing relationships as discipleship. However, Jesus’s statement in verse 52 seems broad enough to imply that anyone who chooses to believe, study, proclaim, and conform his/her life to the teaching of Jesus is a disciple of the kingdom of heaven.

Find the next post here https://onthepath.online/2022/04/27/requirements-of-discipleship/

Scripture References

Matthew 13:36

Matthew 13:1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea.

Matthew 13:18 Consider, then, the parable of the sower:

Matthew 13:25 But while everyone was asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and slipped away.

Matthew 15:15 Peter said to Him, “Explain this parable to us.”

Matthew 13:37

Matthew 8:20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”

Matthew 13:4 And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.

Matthew 13:38

Matthew 5:37 Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one.

Matthew 8:12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

John 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies.

Acts 13:10 and said, “O child of the devil and enemy of all righteousness! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the straight ways of the Lord?

1 John 3:8 The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.

1 John 3:10 By this the children of God are distinguished from the children of the devil: Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

Matthew 13:39

Matthew 12:32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the one to come.

Matthew 13:22 The seed sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

Matthew 24:3 While Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”

Matthew 28:20 and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

1 Corinthians 10:11 Now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

Hebrews 1:2 But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.

Hebrews 9:26 Otherwise, He would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

Revelation 14:15 Then another angel came out of the temple, crying out in a loud voice to the One seated on the cloud, “Swing Your sickle and reap, because the time has come to harvest; for the crop of the earth is ripe.”

Matthew 13:40

Matthew 12:32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the one to come.

Matthew 13:22 The seed sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

Matthew 24:3 While Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”

Matthew 28:20 and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

1 Corinthians 10:11 Now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

Hebrews 9:26 Otherwise, He would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

Matthew 13:41

2 Samuel 23:6 But the worthless are all like thorns raked aside, for they can never be gathered by hand.

Zephaniah 1:3 “I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, and the ruins along with the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD.

Matthew 3:12 His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Matthew 8:20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”

Matthew 24:31 And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

Matthew 13:42

Daniel 3:6 And whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into the burning fiery furnace.”

Matthew 3:12 His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Matthew 8:12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Matthew 13:43

Daniel 12:3 Then the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

Matthew 11:15 He who has ears, let him hear.

Mark 4:23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

1 Corinthians 15:42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead: What is sown is perishable; it is raised imperishable.

Matthew 13:44

Job 28:13 No man can know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living.

Proverbs 2:4 if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure,

Proverbs 23:23 Invest in truth and never sell it–in wisdom and instruction and understanding.

Matthew 13:24 Jesus presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

Revelation 3:18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may be clothed and your shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

Matthew 13:45

Matthew 7:6 Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

Matthew 13:24 Jesus presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

Matthew 13:46

Revelation 18:12 cargo of gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls; of fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet; of all kinds of citron wood and every article of ivory, precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble;

Matthew 13:47

Ezekiel 47:10 Fishermen will stand by the shore; from En-gedi to En-eglaim they will spread their nets to catch fish of many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea.

Matthew 13:48

Matthew 4:18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

Matthew 13:49

Matthew 25:32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

Matthew 13:50

Daniel 3:6 And whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into the burning fiery furnace.”

Matthew 8:12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Matthew 13:52

Song of Solomon 7:13 The mandrakes send forth a fragrance, and at our door is every delicacy, new as well as old, that I have treasured up for you, my beloved.

Matthew 12:35 The good man brings good things out of his good store of treasure, and the evil man brings evil things out of his evil store of treasure.

Matthew 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,

Matthew 13:53

Matthew 7:28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at His teaching,

Matthew 13:3 And He told them many things in parables, saying, “A farmer went out to sow his seed.

Commentary

John 19:38 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away His body.

Mark 9:38 John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.” 39 But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. 40 For he who is not against us is for us.

Mark 5:18 As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed was imploring Him that he might accompany Him. 19 And He did not let him, but He said to him, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.”

Acts 9:25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket.

Acts 19:1 It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples.