Jesus liked to teach in parables. Today’s text is a series of parables that Jesus told when He was teaching by the lake. He told these at the same time as He told the Parable of The Sower which we looked at in our previous lesson. Read today’s text in Matthew 13:24-30.
The first parable in this text is the Parable of the Tares (KJV) or the Parable of the Weeds (NIV). It is about a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat seed. When the wheat sprouted, so did the weeds. When his servants wanted to pull up the weeds, he told them to leave them as they might disturb the wheat by pulling the weeds. They will separate the two at the harvest.
Jesus did not give the meaning to this parable until after leaving the crowd and going with the disciples into the house. Once inside the house, the disciples then asked for the meaning, and it was only then that Jesus gave the explanation. Read verses 36-43.
The man who sowed the seed in the field represents the Son of Man, or the Messiah. The good seed represents the people who have accepted Jesus and become part of the Kingdom of God. They are the followers of Jesus. The weeds represent Satan’s followers and the enemy, of course, represents Satan. Jesus is doing His Father’s work to plant believers into this world while Satan is working hard to establish men who are against the Lord.
Jesus has told His harvesters (angels) to wait until the harvest (the end of this age…the judgement) to separate the believers from the non-believers (Rev 14:16). At that time, the non-believers will be thrown with Satan into the Lake of Fire, and the believers will be with the Jesus in the Father’s Kingdom. What a glorious future we will have! The Kingdom of God has come on earth, but the enemy will not be beaten in this age. That will happen in the final judgement, at the end of this age.
Read verses 31-33. Jesus tells the crowd the Parable of the Mustard Seed. A mustard seed is extremely small, yet it grows into a large tree. Birds then come and rest in its branches. Jesus is representing the Gospel message here as a small mustard seed which is sown, but then it grows and the Kingdom of God is expanded into an ever-enlarging community of believers where many find peace and rest in its branches. On another occasion, Jesus stated that faith as small as a mustard seed could move mountains (Matt 17:20).
There are many places in the Old Testament where the nation of Israel is represented as a large tree among the nations. One example can be found in Ezekiel 17:22-24. This Parable of the Mustard Seed mirrors these words of Ezekiel.
This Parable of the Mustard Seed is followed by a parable about yeast. This parable is quite unusual in that yeast is almost always, in the Bible, representative of sin. But in this parable the yeast represents the Kingdom of God. Once introduced into the world, it spreads and permeates throughout.
Read verses 34-35. These verses speak of Jesus’ tendency to teach in parables. This was prophesied in the Old Testament (Psalm 78:2). Though on another occasion, Jesus does assure His disciples that a time is coming when He will speak plainly concerning His Father (John 16:25).
Read verses 44-46. In these verses Jesus tells two stories about men who find something of great value. Both men sell everything they have to be able to go and buy the item. The idea here is that the item is of such worth that a man would give up everything he has in order to possess it. The item, of course, represents salvation. Being a child of God is worth everything in life and worth far more than anything one might sacrifice to get it. The point here is not buying one’s way into Heaven but in recognizing its worth.
Read verses 47-50. These verses tell the Parable of The Net. In this parable, the fishermen throw out a net and collect fish. Once they bring it to shore, they separate the good fish from the bad fish and the bad fish are thrown into the fire. This represents what will happen at the final judgement when the angels separate the believers from the non-believers and the non-believers are thrown into the eternal Lake of Fire.
Read verses 51-52. Jesus then talks about teachers of The Law who become believers. While they teach old treasures (The Law), they also teach new treasures (the Gospel). Just as Jesus had varied responses to His teaching, so will His followers. Not everyone will accept the Gospel message.
Read verses 53-58. Jesus now returns to His hometown. As He teaches the people in His home synagogue, they are amazed and begin to question His authority. Isn’t this Jesus, the carpenter’s son? Where did He get all these ideas? To them, He was just a man who had received 30 years of carpenter’s apprenticeship. And they were offended by Him. So once again, Jesus states that a prophet has no honor in His own home. And He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
Read 1 Corinthians 2:7-10.
Responding to God: Praise God and thank Him for your salvation. Pray for others who are not saved. Pray that you might have a good witness before others. Pray for the expansion of God’s Kingdom.
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