Big Idea: Though the kingdom has a hidden quality so that some do not see or understand it, Jesus teaches his disciples the importance of receiving the kingdom message and bearing fruit.

Understanding the Text

The third major Matthean discourse, the Parables Discourse (chap. 13), explores through teachings and parables the varied responses that have been narrated in chapters 11–12. Matthew’s two previous discourses have introduced the kingdom—its covenantal nature (chaps. 5–7) and its mission (chap. 10). The Parables Discourse elaborates on the nature of God’s kingdom and reveals it as an “already and not yet” reality. In the chapter’s first parable (parable of the soils) and its explanation a variety of responses to the message of the kingdom are delineated. Rejection of the kingdom message is explained by a similar rejection in Isaiah’s time (13:14–15; see Isa. 6:9–10). Acceptance of the kingdom message is expressed in terms of hearing (i.e., receiving) and bearing fruit—motifs already introduced earlier in Matthew (hearing: 11:4–5, 15; 12:19b; bearing fruit: 3:8; 7:15–20; 12:33–37).

Interpretive Insights

13:1 Jesus went out of the house. According to 12:46, Jesus has been teaching inside a house. Now in 13:1–2 Matthew narrates that Jesus comes out of the house to teach the crowds. Later in the Parables Discourse Matthew will indicate that Jesus leaves the crowd and goes back into the house, where he will explain his parables to the disciples (13:36). These changes of location contribute to the motifs of hiddenness and revelation in the Parables Discourse. Revelation comes to Jesus’ true family, who do the will of God (12:50) and who follow Jesus in discipleship (13:10–12). The kingdom, because of its unexpected nature, remains opaque to those whose hearts are calloused and who have closed their eyes (13:15).

13:2 Such large crowds gathered around him. The primary, initial audience of the Parables Discourse is the crowds. Of the five major discourses of Jesus in Matthew, four are focused on the disciples (see 5:1–2; 10:1; 18:1; 24:1–2). While the Sermon on the Mount does include the crowds (7:28–29), the Parables Discourse is the discourse focused on the crowds most specifically. Yet the narrative audience shifts in 13:36, where Jesus focuses on the disciples by entering “the house.”

13:3 Then he told them many things in parables. Parables will be used frequently by Jesus with the disciples and in his confrontations with his opponents (chapters 18–25), but chapter 13 contains the greatest concentration of parables in Matthew. Jesus uses eight parables and interprets three of them in the span of the Parables Discourse (see the sidebar “Structure of the Parables Discourse”). The use of parables for teaching about the kingdom is tied to its hidden nature (13:13, 44).

A farmer went out to sow his seed. The first parable pictures a farmer sowing seed to gain a harvest. Three of the four soils receiving seed produce no lasting plants and so no harvest. Only the good soil (13:8) produces a harvest. The emphasis of this parable of the soils lands not on the farmer but on the four soils. As Jesus will explain in the parable’s interpretation in 13:18–23, the seed refers to the message of the kingdom, and the soils represent four different responses to it.

13:8 other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop. The picture in the parable is of a bumper crop that comes from seed falling on good soil (i.e., the message of the kingdom falling on ready and responsive ears). This picture corresponds to the Matthean motif of fruit bearing (e.g., 12:33).

13:9 Whoever has ears, let them hear. Matthew highlights this refrain of Jesus three times (11:15; 13:9, 43). In each case Jesus gives an invitation to hear in such a way as to receive his teaching about the kingdom. This invitation evokes Isaiah’s hearing motif, which communicates Israel’s obstinacy against hearing Isaiah’s message, Yahweh’s promise of a future time of hearing, and the corresponding invitation to Israel to hear and understand. In Matthew 13 this invitation mitigates the idea that revelation is fully withheld from the crowds (e.g., 13:11–15). All who hear Jesus’ parables are invited to hear and understand.1

13:10 Why do you speak to the people in parables? The disciples’ question and Jesus’ answer (13:10–15) delineate the disciples and the crowds as two distinct audiences for kingdom revelation in this chapter. The theme of revelation has already been introduced at 11:25–27, where Jesus has indicated the unexpectedness of the recipients of kingdom revelation (11:25).

13:11 knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. Although this phrase can be read in gnostic fashion to indicate that God arbitrarily reveals fully to one group and withholds fully from another, the context of chapter 13 provides the actual contours of revelation and hiddenness. The crowds hear of the kingdom, though in parabolic form (13:34). The disciples are privy to Jesus’ additional interpretation of the parables (13:18–23, 36–43, 49–50), yet they will continue to be characterized by frequent misunderstanding (e.g., 15:15–16; 16:5–12). And in Matthew thus far Jesus’ teaching and preaching has been available to all (e.g., 4:17; 5:1–7:29). So “the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom” must be understood in light of these narrative realities. The difference between just hearing and hearing followed by receiving is somehow tied to the very nature of the kingdom, which is both hidden and revealed (see “Teaching the Text” below).

13:14–15 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. Isaiah 6:9–10 is used to explain why the crowds do not respond in faith to Jesus’ message and ministry en masse. Isaiah is called to preach to a people who will be essentially unresponsive to his message (Isa. 6:8–13). In analogous fashion, Jesus’ ministry meets much unresponsiveness in Israel (e.g., 11:20–24), especially as represented by the opposition from Jewish leaders (12:1–45). Yet the Isaiah text also evokes the wider context of Isaiah, especially through the motifs of hearing and seeing in the latter that Matthew draws on in 11:2–16:20.2This means that although “this people’s heart has become calloused” and “they have closed their eyes” (13:15), the possibility for reversal exists. In Isaiah God promises to bring about such reversals of response (32:3–4), and Israel is invited to hear and see in spite of their current obduracy (e.g., 42:18). So in Matthew Jesus invites the crowds to hear and respond (13:9), and some from the crowd will continue to respond to Jesus in faith (e.g., 15:31; 20:29–34).

13:16–17 But blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear. This beatitude (makarios, as in 5:3–11) announces blessing on those present for the arrival of the kingdom. Here it is the disciples specifically who are beneficiaries of God’s work in Jesus, which they have been seeing and hearing. The crowds have not been privy to the same kind of revelation as the disciples; they hear about the kingdom only in parables (see 13:11). But Matthew also compares the disciples to those in Israel’s past in order to emphasize the temporal nature of the blessing on the disciples. Prophets and righteous people in Israel’s history longed for this moment but did not see it (13:17). Jesus’ disciples are blessed to be alive at this point in history, when God is bringing the kingdom in the ministry and work of Jesus.

13:19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it. Here Jesus provides the first of three parable interpretations (also 13:37–43, 49–50). The seed of the parable is identified as the message of the kingdom. The emphasis then falls on four ways of responding to the good news about God’s reign. For one person, “the evil one . . . snatches away” the message (13:19). Another person “receives it with joy,” but, lacking deep roots when trouble comes, “they quickly fall away” (13:20–21). For yet another person, the gospel is made unfruitful by “the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth” (13:22 [cf. 6:19–21]). In each case fruitlessness demonstrates that the gospel could not take root and remain.

13:23 someone who hears the word and understands it . . . produces a crop. The climax of the parable of the soils is the reception of the gospel by the “good soil.” This soil represents the person who hears and understands the message of the kingdom and therefore produces a bumper crop. A harvest of thirty, sixty, or one hundred times the original seed sown indicates an amazing yield. What begins as small and seemingly insignificant will surpass expectations, a motif woven throughout the Parables Discourse.

Teaching the Text

Jesus teaches that the kingdom has an element of hiddenness in the present time that takes eyes of faith to see. Jesus’ words about “the secrets of the kingdom of heaven” could be taken to support a kind of gnosticism, in which some people have an inside track on divine knowledge. Certainly, in some strands of the early church gnosticism became one way of interpreting such sayings of Jesus. And it is all too easy for Christians to claim special knowledge and act superior to others who have not yet responded to Jesus in faith. Yet God’s revelation is a gift, and God often “gifts” it to those whom we least expect to receive it (9:9–13; 11:25–27). So we ought to be careful not to presume to know who will and will not be responsive to the message of the kingdom. As the parable of the soils indicates, the message goes out to all.

In addition, there is an ebb and flow to the giving of revelation, as Matthew tells it. Chapter 13 sits midpoint in the story line of Jesus’ Galilean ministry and explains the rejection and antagonism that Jesus has already been experiencing from the Jewish leaders and from some others in Israel (12:1–45; 11:20–24). So Jesus’ words in chapter 13 must be heard in this wider narrative context. Jesus speaks these words in 13:12: “Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” In context, this provides a picture of revelation given and received, which begets more revelation (and so on). Conversely, when revelation is given and not received, God’s revelation will eventually be taken away—like a plant that cannot find what it needs in inhospitable soil (13:5–7). So human response and divine revelation are not mutually exclusive in Matthew. As God’s revelation in the preaching of Jesus finds soil in which to take root, more is revealed, which then provides opportunity for greater faith and trust. When Jesus’ message of the kingdom does not find fertile soil to take root, this revelation of God through Jesus cannot find a place to remain and grow.

This passage also warns about the ways in which wealth and worry can inhibit the gospel finding a place to grow in our lives. God does not snatch the gospel away from people, but wealth and worry about daily life can do this damage. As Jesus has indicated in the Sermon on the Mount, serving God rather than money allows the believer to trust fully in God’s provision for daily life and needs (6:24–34).

Illustrating the Text

Jesus teaches that the kingdom has an element of hiddenness in the present time that takes eyes of faith to see.

Quote: Anthony Thiselton suggests that the parables of Jesus themselves have an element of hiddenness for an important reason. He suggests that for Jesus...

the purpose of using parables rather than “direct” discourse may well be to prevent premature understanding unaccompanied by inner change. For a hearer to imagine that he or she has “seen” the point of a packaged truth in terms of a take-it-or-leave-it attitude is disastrous. Postponement of understanding until the heart is ready may be part of the shared hermeneutical strategy here. To “know” in a way that fails to engage because it is too soon is more likely to invite judgement than appropriation. Those who are ready, however, receive the “more” that additional direct communication may provide. Indirect communication is a necessary strategy when illusion blocks the way.3

Education: Coaches and teachers offer students the chance to experience a stronger performance or deeper knowledge. Perhaps you could tell your audience about a great coach or teacher who has been a part of your ongoing growth in a particular area. Yet in the end, a coach, no matter how great, cannot run the race for the sprinter; and a piano teacher cannot truly help the student who does not practice. The student must take responsibility by responsive engagement with the teacher or coach and by putting into practice what he or she has learned so far. And with faithful response comes the possibility of richer experience in the process of growth and maturity.

Scripture: It is a common human fault to claim special knowledge for oneself and one’s own group. “We have the corner on the truth” is a very tempting claim to make. This is not simply a contemporary phenomenon; we see this kind of spiritual pride in the Corinthian church, as evidenced in 1 Corinthians. From boasting about their connections to the best leaders (“I follow Paul . . . I follow Apollos . . . I follow Cephas” [1:12; cf. 4:6–7]), to their presumptuous claims to heavenly tongues, prophetic utterances, and all mysteries and knowledge (13:1–3), some of the Corinthian believers were under the erroneous impression that they, in contrast to others, had an inside knowledge of the divine. Paul addresses these gnostic-like assumptions by identifying those who hold them as “puffed up” (physioo [4:6, 18; 5:2]). And the antidote to being puffed up (presuming special knowledge) is love (13:2). As Paul writes in 8:1b–3, “Knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they have knowledge do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves truly knows.”4