1726 | Matthew 13:23
of wealth y choke the word, mak ing it un fruit ful. 23 But the seed fall ing on good soil re fers to some one who hears the word and un der stands it. This is the one who pro duces a crop, yield ing a hun dred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” z
The Parable of the Weeds
24 Jesus told them an other par a ble:“ The king dom of heaven is like a a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while ev ery one was sleep ing, his en emy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27“ The own er’ s ser vants came to him and said,‘ Sir, didn’ t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ 28“‘ An en emy did this,’ he re plied.“ The ser vants asked him,‘ Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29“‘ No,’ he an swered,‘ be cause while you are pull ing the weeds, you may up root the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow to gether un til the har vest. At that time I will tell the har vest ers: First col lect the weeds and tie them in bun dles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’” b
The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast
13:31,32pp— Mk 4:30-32 13:31-33pp— Lk 13:18-21
31 He told them an other par a ble:“ The king dom of heaven is like c a mus tard seed, d which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the small est of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the larg est of gar den plants and be comes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” e
33 He told them still an other par a ble:“ The king dom of heaven is like f yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds a of flour g un til it worked all through the dough.” h
34 Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in par a bles; he did not say any thing to them without using a parable. i
35 So was ful filled what was spo ken through the prophet:
13:22 y Mt 19:23; 1Ti 6:9, 10, 17
13:23 z ver 8
13:24 a ver 31, 33, 45, 47; Mt 18:23; 20:1; 22:2; 25:1; Mk 4:26, 30
13:30 b Mt 3:12
13:31 c ver 24 d Mt 17:20; Lk 17:6
13:32 e Ps 104:12; Eze 17:23; 31:6; Da 4:12
13:33 f ver 24 g Ge 18:6 h Gal 5:9
13:34 i Mk 4:33; Jn 16:25
13:35 j Ps 78:2; Ro 16:25, 26; 1Co 2:7; Eph 3:9; Col 1:26
13:36 k Mt 15:15 13:37 l Mt 8:20
“ I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.” b j
The Parable of the Weeds Explained
36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His dis ci ples came to him and said,“ Ex plain to us the par a ble k of the weeds in the field.”
37 He an swered,“ The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. l 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the peo ple of the king dom. The weeds are the peo ple
a 33 Or about 27 kilograms b 35 Psalm 78:2
circles or activities longer than the second group( vv. 20 – 21), but they eventually show their true colors as“ the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth” overcome their interest in the One who calls people to serve him rather than money( cf. 6:24). 13:23 Parables frequently contrast two or three bad examples with one climactic good one( or vice versa). Here the sole positive example to imitate is the fruit-bearing seed. crop. Nothing suggests that this refers to one specific form of Christian behavior; true believers generate many different kinds of“ produce” of highly varying quantities, but they do produce something of value in keeping with kingdom priorities. 13:24 – 30 The Parable of the Weeds. Although the actions in this parable may seem implausible today, there are recorded examples in antiquity of people behaving exactly like this, using a primitive form of what today would be called bioterrorism. 13:25 weeds. Darnel( Greek zizanion), which often looked somewhat like wheat as the plants grew. Jesus explains this parable in vv. 36 – 43. 13:28 – 29 The surprising twist in this parable is that the farmer forbids his servants to do any weeding at all. Although there was the real danger of uprooting the wheat while pulling the weeds out, the far greater danger is to do nothing and lose the entire crop. 13:30 The farmer remains confident, nevertheless, that he will have an adequate harvest, and then he will instruct his harvesters to pull out the weeds and burn them. 13:31 – 33 The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast. Scientists today know of smaller seeds than the mustard seed, but it was“ the smallest of all seeds”( v. 32) that anyone cultivated in first-century fields or gardens in Israel. Normally the plant grows into a medium-size bush, but eight-foot high small“ trees” have been discovered, even if rarely. The“ kingdom”( v. 31) too will begin as insignificant in size and impact but become surprisingly large and powerful. The“ birds [ that ]... perch in its branches”( v. 32) may be the Gentiles, especially if Jesus is alluding to Ezek 17:23.
Closely paired with the parable of the mustard seed( vv. 31 – 32), the second parable( v. 33) makes much the same point as the first. Just as small amounts of yeast, or leaven, make dough rise to produce large amounts of bread, so too the tiny, inauspicious kingdom will one day have a surprisingly great impact.
If there is a difference between the two parables, it may be that the mustard seed portrays extensive growth and the yeast depicts intensive growth. No Jew would have made these comparisons. How could God’ s kingdom be compared to the smallest of seeds? Jesus deliberately uses this shocking illustration to challenge how most Jews thought about the coming of God’ s kingdom. 13:34 – 35 Matthew again finds a typological fulfillment of a biblical passage( Ps 78:2). Asaph the psalmist, like Jesus, made once“ hidden” things known. 13:36 – 43 Jesus explains the parable of the weeds. Other than the parable of the sower in vv. 3 – 9,18 – 23, this is the only time in all the Gospels that Jesus interprets one of his parables in elaborate detail. Like the sower( vv. 3 – 9,18 – 23) and the mustard seed( vv. 31 – 32) and yeast( v. 33), this parable is about the growth of the kingdom. Despite all the obstacles it faces, and without necessarily removing them, God’ s purposes will be accomplished throughout his creation. As more explicitly in Luke 9:54 – 55, Jesus forbids his followers from trying to exterminate his opponents. 13:38 The field is the world. Therefore, when Jesus says that“ his angels... will weed out