This begins a series of lessons on eight different parables found in Matthew 13. We just finished the account of Jesus’ confrontation with the Pharisees when He healed a man afflicted by a demon and was accused of casting out demons only with the help of Satan in Matthew 12. This is Matthew 13:1-2, “That very same day Jesus went out of the house and sat on the shore. But there was such a large crowd gathered around Him that He got into a boat and sat down in it, while all the people stood on the shore.”
The first one is the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:3-9. "And then He told them many things using parables, saying, A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the side of the road, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell in rocky places where there was little soil and they sprouted quickly, because there was no depth of soil. Now, when the sun came up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked them out. Still other seeds fell on properly prepared soil and yielded fruit — some a hundred times as much as was sown, some sixty times as much and some thirty. He who has willing ears to hear, let him listen and comprehend.”
Now before we look at an explanation of the parable, we have to deal with the disciple’s question in verse 10 and Jesus’ answer that follows. “Then the disciples came to Him and asked, Why do You speak to the people in parables (hard to understand)?” Jesus used parables to teach different aspects of the Kingdom of Heaven. Some illustrate various characteristics of the Kingdom itself, others point out either the good or bad qualities found in those who inhabit the Kingdom. And just as a reminder, the Kingdom of Heaven (literally, the Kingdom from the Heavens) describes the period of time between the birth of Christ and His future second coming to establish His Millennial, earthly Kingdom. Some call it the Church Age, it’s this current age in which we live. You will see as we examine these parables that many of them begin with “The Kingdom of Heaven is like”, then they go on to illustrate true believers and religious pretenders, the good and the bad, the wicked and the just, those who do iniquity and the righteous, etc.
The English word “parable” comes from the Greek parabole, and means comparison. Jesus used parables to illustrate spiritual truth and clarify it by comparing it to things familiar to those listening. However, it is evident that, even though the illustrations were familiar, the spiritual truths involved were not. This is why the disciples came to Jesus in Matthew 13:10 and asked Him why He used parables instead of speaking more directly and clearly to the people. The following is Jesus’ answer in Matthew 13:11-18. However, instead of looking at this a verse at a time and maybe explaining some key words or context, I’m going to give my contemporary translation with a few short explanations along the way. There are several possible reasons or motives for Jesus using parables and I’ll try to bring them out as we go through this.
(11) “And this is how He answered, You are given insight into the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but this is not given to everyone.” First, Jesus points out the difference
between His disciples and the crowds who followed Him.
(12) “Only those who have a willing heart, a real desire to know God, will be given this understanding, and they will receive a rich abundance. But these people aren’t looking for God. They came to see miracles. They’re looking for excitement — they want to be entertained. So, what little insight they might gain from listening to Me tell them stories will soon be forgotten, because that’s not what they’re interested in.”
Search the Gospel accounts and see if you can find examples of the people in the crowds asking Jesus to teach them about the Father or about why He claimed to be the Son of God; see if you can find any evidence they were interested in spiritual truth and reality.
(13) “And that’s why I do it. They have eyes like you, they see the same things you see; and they have not recognized Me. But you have. They have ears, too. They hear the same things you hear; and they don’t understand what I’ve said. But you do. Don’t you see the difference? The more you know, the more you want to know. But, this is all going right over their heads.” They have eyes and ears, but they can’t see or hear what’s right in front of them and understand. They were blinded to truth either because they had rejected Him or the religious influence of the Pharisees had deceived them. Either way, they were incapable of comprehending anything of a spiritual nature. But His disciples wanted to know and understand, that was the difference.
(14) “Isaiah said it best, Your ears aren’t plugged, you can hear just fine; but you pretend not to understand, because you don’t want to. And your eyes are wide open, you can see everything clearly; but you act as though you don’t see anything at all.”
(15) “Because these people don’t want to know the truth. They’ll cover their ears, so they can’t hear; and they’ll shut their eyes as tight as they can, so they can’t see. Because they don’t want to be changed! They don’t understand the Father only wants them to repent, so He can heal them.” Here Jesus quotes Isaiah 6:9-10 where he talks about people being insensitive or hardened to truth, so they simply continue on their way either resisting God or opposing Him to their own destruction.
(16) “But, good for you! You want to see everything and hear everything. You want to know all you possibly can about God.” So in His response to their question, Jesus commends the disciples for wanting to know the meaning of the parable.
(17) “The truth is, there have been many prophets and other good men who have longed to see what you’re seeing and hear what you’re hearing; but they couldn’t, because it wasn’t time.” Taken together, Jesus answer here about why He spoke to the people in parables without even making an attempt to give them an explanation of the spiritual truths they illustrated amounts to a declaration of divine judgment upon this generation that had no real interest in truth, and Jesus fully recognized it.
(18) “Now, let me explain the parable about the sower.” Jesus’ explanation follows in verses 19 to 23 as He describes the four possibilities of what can happen when people hear the Word. Three of them are bad and are condemnations of the deceptions of religion.
"When anyone hears the message of the kingdom and fails to consider it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.” (Verse 19) There are two words here that must be examined to grasp the full impact of what Jesus is saying. The first is suniemi, "consider" in the translation above, "understand" in most other versions. The literal meaning of this word is, "to put together". It is often translated, perceive, notice, recognize or understand, and illustrates the process of putting information together and making sense out of it. Here, Jesus is describing those who hear the message of the kingdom, but don’t take the time or effort to really think about what they’ve heard. Their hearts are hard and unreceptive to truth, just as the path along the roadside is hard and unable to receive the natural seed that was sown.
This leads to the second word, harpazo, to snatch or rob. This word is used by Jesus to describe the activity of the evil one in coming suddenly to take away the message. In the parable of the wheat and tares that follows in Matthew 13:24-30, Jesus describes the activities of the devil in sowing seed that produces something that looks like wheat, but isn’t. Then in His explanation of the parable later in verses 36-43 He explains that what the enemy sowed produced something that looked like true children of the kingdom, but were, in fact, only pretenders and children of the evil one.
What we will see when we take a closer look at this parable, is that the program of the devil is to offer a counterfeit to truth — religion in its many forms. And as we look at what follows the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, the parables of the tares, the mustard seed, the leaven, the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price, the fishnet and the householder’s treasure, all contain warnings about the deception of religion.
"As for what was sown on rocky soil, this is he who hears the Word and accepts it with joy. But since he has no real spiritual maturity, he endures for only a short time. And when he experiences tribulation or persecution because of what others might do or say, he’s repelled by the difficulty and is easily offended.” (Verses 20-21) There are those who receive the Word gladly. Yet they endure for only a short time because they have no “root” (from rhiza, used here to illustrate spiritual stability, depth or maturity)
This goes to the very heart of religious deception. Religion offers traditions, rituals, competing doctrines, an ever-changing morality (many things thought to be unacceptable in religious circles in the past are now openly acceptable), group programs and activities to produce the feeling of peer acceptance, upbeat music and multimedia entertainment. The purpose is to create a comfortable and accepting environment to gain people’s loyalty and participation in order to perpetuate the religious institution (people and their money is the priority, we used to call it nickels and noses). The personal, individual, intimate relationship with God that forms real Christlike maturity is rarely, if ever, mentioned. So, when trouble comes, either from circumstances (tribulation) or from other people (persecution), the immature are easily hurt or disappointed and become cynical or critical.
"As for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the Word, then the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches begin to push the Word aside and so, it bears no fruit.” (Verse 22) In the text, "care" is merimna, a word used to describe a distraction, especially one that causes anxiety. In other words, merimna is used to illustrate the things people commonly worry about. Never mind that Jesus says we’re not supposed to worry about what we have or don’t have; but, instead, we’re to learn to be content, trust Him and keep the rule of God the first priority in our lives (Matthew 6:25-34).
The "deceitfulness of riches" is apate, to give a false impression, used with ploutos, material
possessions. This combination of words tells us that material possessions create a false sense of security. Again, Jesus is crystal clear in warning us not to trust in riches. The rich, young ruler was grieved because Jesus essentially told him he had to make a choice between eternal life and love for his many possessions. This is important because this young man represents the best religion has to offer as he had kept the commandments since he was old enough to understand them (a fact Jesus did not question), yet he was incapable of making the right decision. (Matthew 19:16-24) Finally, the word "fruit" is karpos, used here, as in many other places, to describe the outward manifestation of the inward character of God, another way to illustrate spiritual maturity. (see Galatians 5:22-23)
And yet, even though this account is clear and obvious in its meaning, most people embrace the false security of worldly possessions and make the same choice the rich, young ruler made. Remember, the context of Jesus’ explanation of this parable is religious deception. This is Jesus’ point in the third part of the parable of the sower. If you try to make spiritual truth coexist with the things of the world, the truth will get pushed aside and the things of the world will take over. If you don’t make a continuous effort to keep the truth separated from the world, then valuable truth will be lost to you, your spiritual maturity will suffer and the world will win the larger part of your loyalty and affection.
This brings us to the fourth part of Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the sower. "As for what was sown on good soil, this is he who hears the Word and considers it carefully; who indeed bears fruit, some a hundred times as much, some sixty and some thirty.”
In part three above, those who get entangled in the world don’t bear fruit. Jesus explains in John 15:1-6 this fruit (Godly character) is the result of a continuing intimate relationship with Him. So Jesus goes back to the point made at the beginning of His explanantion in verse 19 regarding those who hear the word, but don’t carefully consider it. They become victims of the wicked one and religious deception.
The other point that has to be made here is that the hundred, sixty and thirty-fold yield is not a reference to the result of religious evangelistic efforts as some suppose. These numbers don’t represent notches carved on the stock of your gospel gun as some like to say (really, I’ve heard this preached). This is Jesus’ way of telling us that some, depending on their faithfulness, determination, and in some cases, even their ability, or the purpose of God in their lives and their willingness to follow it, will reach different levels of maturity. The thief on the cross next to Jesus received the promise "today you’ll be with Me paradise” (Luke 23:43). He had little opportunity to produce the character of God in his life. But Jesus recognized enough in that moment in time to give him that assurance.
So, in the parable of the sower Jesus describes the four possibilities of what can happen when people hear the Word. Three of them are bad and are condemnations of religion and religious deception. Only the last one illustrates a dedication to truth.