Tag Archives: Matthew 13-14

Daily Bible Study

October 7, 2023 Bible Study — Spread the Message About the Kingdom, Let God Determine Who Needs to Hear It

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 13-14.

Usually when I look at the Parable of the Sower, or hear someone preach about it, the focus is on what kind of soil the seed falls upon.  However, today I want to look at the one who scattered the seed.  Jesus tells us that the parable is about those who hear the message about the kingdom of God.  Here’s what I noticed about the one spreading the message about the kingdom of God: they did not concern themselves with what type of soil they spread the seed on.  Which brings me to the Parable of the weeds.  There Jesus tells us that weeds were mixed in among the wheat and that the servants asked the farmer whether they should pull the weeds.  The farmer told them not to pull the weeds because they might uproot some of the wheat in the process.  I think this emphasizes the lesson I wrote about the previous parable.  It is not up to us to decide to whom to spread the message about the kingdom of God.  It is not our job to decide if someone is packed down ground, or rocky ground, or thorny ground.  We should assume that everyone to whom we have the opportunity to preach God’s word will be good soil.

I was tempted to stop there, but the message from the Parables of the Mustard Seed and of the Yeast have a message which fits with that one.  Mustard seeds are very small, but grow into large plants.  Yeast is even smaller, yet a small amount of yeast can transform a large amount of dough completely.  So, just as we are not to worry about whether or not our “audience” will be receptive to the message of God’s kingdom, we should not worry about whether we are “big” enough, or strong enough, to accomplish the mission to which we feel called.  We should just do what the Spirit leads us to do and leave the results to Him.

Speaking of leaving the results to Him, this passage ends with the story of Jesus walking on the water.  We always talk about it as Jesus walking on the water, but the real point of the story is Peter.  Peter had enough faith to get out of the water and start walking towards Jesus, but then he looked around and got scared.  Which brings us to the first lesson of this story: when Peter took his focus off of going to Jesus, he began to falter.  However, that isn’t the end of it.  When he faltered and began to sink beneath the water, he called out to Jesus to save him.  Jesus did so.  So, when we inevitably allow ourselves to become distracted from God and begin to falter. we know that Jesus will be there to reach out a hand and catch us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

October 7, 2022 Bible Study — What Price Are We Willing To Pay To Enter Into The Kingdom Of Heaven?

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 13-14.

I like writing about the parables in this passage because they contain so much for us to contemplate.  However, there are two which I rarely do more than just touch on, if that.  They both express the same thought in slightly different ways.

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

Until today, these two parables never really connected for me.  I am not sure that I can express the understanding of these which came to me today in a way that gets past the “Well, yeah, OK” they inspired in me previously.  The point here is that the kingdom of heaven is of such great value that anything, and everything, else is a small price to pay to acquire it.  If you are not, if I am not, willing to sacrifice everything else which gives us pleasure and joy to obtain it, we fail to understand its value.  Up until today, I am not sure that I understood this.  There can be no risk, no pain, no suffering, no loss that I am unwilling to suffer in order to obtain admittance into the kingdom of heaven.  Whatever price God asks me to pay, I sincerely hope that I am willing to pay.  I would like to say that I am willing to pay that price, but I am not sure that I can honestly say that.  If there is a limit to the price we are willing to pay in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven, than we are not worthy of entry.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

October 7, 2021 Bible Study — Seek The Transformation Of The Wicked Rather Than Their Destruction

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 13-14.

I am going to skip over the Parable of the Sower today because I don’t feel like I have anything new to say about it (which will not always stop me, but for today) and start with the Parable of the Weeds.  There is a phrase used by soldiers and others who favor using violence against evil, “Kill them all and let God sort them out.”  That phrase is diametrically opposite to the point which Jesus made with the Parable of the Weeds.  Jesus made the point that when we cannot distinguish the good from the evil it is better to leave the evil alone than to harm the good.  In fact, a principle generally observed in U.S. law, and that of many other nations, that it is better for 10 guilty people to go free than for one innocent person to suffer judgement derives from this.                                                                                          Jesus made a secondary point in that parable, one which was important enough that He told a second parable which focused on that secondary point.  In the Parable of the Weeds Jesus tells us that after the harvest, the weeds will be burned while the wheat will be gathered into the barn.  Then in the Parable of the Net, Jesus speaks of a net which gathers all kinds of fish.  The good fish would be collected and the bad fish thrown away.  He explicitly tells us that the good fish represent those who are righteous and the bad fish those who are wicked.

Jesus tells two other parables here which I want to comment on because I think their message is no longer thought about enough.  In one He talks about a mustard seed and in the other He talks about yeast.  Both parables tell us not to be disheartened because we think we are insignificant.  A mustard seed is tiny, but it grows into a large plant which dominates its surroundings.  When you make bread, the yeast is completely overwhelmed by the volume of the other ingredients used, but the yeast completely transforms the dough.  So, each of these parables makes the point that we should not think that our actions are of no significance because both the mustard seed and the yeast appear insignificant to those who know not what they are, but both have a big impact.  However, each parable has a secondary point.  Some of us are called to be like the mustard seed, which changes its environment through determination and consistent effort.  And some of us are called to be like the yeast which changes its environment by transforming what is around it (or, in our case, transforming those who are around us).  And perhaps some of us are called to do both.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

October 7, 2020 Bible Study Let God Sort Them Out

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 13-14

Jesus taught using parables because the concepts He was teaching could not be summed up in simple, one-size fits all ways.  Those unwilling to accept the complex answers which Jesus teaches find His parables confusing and contradictory.  Those who truly seek God will understand how each parable presents just a partial picture of the whole truth.  An example of what I am talking about can be seen by comparing Jesus’ parable of the good seed and the weeds to the saying “Kill them all. Let God sort them out.”  Jesus’ parable is the exact opposite of the saying.  Both things tell us that we do not have the ability to distinguish between truly good people and truly bad people.  Both tell us that only God can do that.  However, Jesus tells us that it is better to let the guilty go unpunished than to harm the innocent, while the human saying tells us that it is more important to punish the guilty than to protect the innocent.

We will see how this next bit goes.  I am going to try to make a connection between Jesus’ parables about the Kingdom of Heaven and the account of Peter attempting to walk on water.  Jesus describes how small things lead to great things.  This is a theme which Jesus speaks of quite a bit.  Earlier in Matthew, Jesus told us we should be like salt.  Here, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to yeast and to a mustard seed.  All of these things share a common element.  It doesn’t take much salt to completely change the flavor of food.  It only takes a small amount of yeast to make a lump of dough become much larger.  A mustard seed is very small and hard to locate if you drop it, but the plant which comes from it grows very large.  So, the message Jesus was giving us there was that small things can accomplish great things.  The connection to Peter attempting to walk on water is that if we want to do miraculous things we need to focus on Christ and not let ourselves be distracted by what else is going on.  In a way this brings us back to what I talked about in the first paragraph.  If we want to transform the world by destroying evil, we need to be strong and powerful.  On the other hand, if we focus on doing God’s will, He will transform those around us even though we are no more than a grain of salt, or a bit of yeast.

Daily Bible Study

October 7, 2019 Bible Study — Seeing How Parables and Events Reveal God’s Word

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 13-14

I love these parables.  Love is not the right word.  These parables speak to me, often times as a challenge.  Today I will focus on the one which I usually skip over, the parable of the wheat and the weeds.  We want to uproot and remove the weeds, those who do evil and cause harm to others, from the world, but Jesus warns us that if we do so we will also destroy some of the wheat, those who do good.  As Jesus explains, we cannot remove the weeds without damaging the wheat.  Additionally, we do not have the ability to clearly distinguish between who is a weed and who is wheat.  So, to mix the parables a bit, let us sow the seeds of God’s love to all around us because fertile soil can be found in the most unlikely places (and sometimes a plant growing in fertile soil next to that packed down can loosen it enough for crops to grow there as well).

When Jesus fed the five thousand, He gave us an example of how we should use the power which God has given us.  When Peter walked on the water to Jesus, we see the dangers in using that power.  We do not often take note of the importance of the fact that when the disciples came to Jesus asking Him to send the people away to get food, He told them to feed them.  It was only when they responded by saying they did not have enough food for everyone that He took steps to feed the people.  This suggests to me that the disciples could have called on God, just as Jesus did, to make the food they had stretch enough to feed everyone.  This is supported by Peter walking on the water, just as Jesus did.  The danger occurs when we start thinking, that we are doing it.  At that point, we stop focusing on God, stop looking to Jesus, and begin to realize that what we are doing is impossible.  At that point we have two choices.  We can turn once more to Jesus and cry out “Lord, save me.”  Or, we can drown in our sin.

Daily Bible Study

October 7, 2018 Bible Study — When We Look, Do We Want To See? When We Hear, Do We Listen?

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 13-14.

    I usually focus on Jesus’ parables when I read this passage, but today I want to focus on Jesus’ explanation of why He taught with parables. There are actually two parts to that explanation, one explicit and one which I only just realized (although thinking about it, I believe that I have heard it touched upon before). Jesus tells us that He taught in parables because so many people look, but do not see, and hear, but do not listen. And that leads me to the part I just realized. Jesus did not teach in parables to hide the truth He was teaching. He spoke in parables because even the people who were not really listening would often remember the parable. Then later when things had happened in their life which made them receptive to His message, the Holy Spirit could use the parable to reveal God’s truth to them.
    When Jesus talked about looking but not seeing, and hearing but not listening, He was making a comment about how we, all too often, go through life. We look at the people around us, but we do not see what they are going through. We hear what they say, but we do not listen to what they mean. Oh yes, when Jesus said this He was talking about seeing what God is doing and listening to what God is saying, but if we truly see what God is doing and listen to what He is saying we will do the same for the people around us. The reverse is also true. The less we see what the people around us are going through and listen to what they mean, the less we will be able to see what God is doing or understand what He is saying.

    At the beginning I kind of implied that I was not going to talk about the parables today. However, I want to touch upon the parable of the yeast. Jesus’ point was that a very small amount of an ingredient, if it is the right ingredient, can have a large impact on how a recipe turns out. A typical bread recipe calls for 1/4 ounce of yeast to 6 cups of flower. Six cups of flour weigh more than 25 ounces, which is more than 100 times the amount of yeast. I make mead (which is essentially honey wine). In the process, only a small amount of yeast is necessary to ferment a large amount of liquid. The thing is that in many ways the hardest part of making mead is keeping everything clean, because it takes only a small amount of bacteria to ruin the batch. So, the lesson here is that a small number of people can make a huge difference in society for good or bad.
    So, if we strive to make a difference in society, and Jesus teaches that we should, how do we make sure that we make a positive difference and not a negative one? The account of what Peter did when Jesus walked on the water gives us the answer (although not from within the metaphor of yeast). When Peter saw Jesus walking on the water, he wanted to do the same in order to go to Jesus. As long as Peter kept his eyes on Jesus he was able to walk on the water. As soon as he began to look at other things, he began to sink. As soon as he lost his focus on going to where Jesus was, he stopped being able to walk on water. As soon as we stop focusing on Jesus and doing what He wants us to do, we stop being a positive influence on those around us.

Daily Bible Study

October 7, 2017 Bible Study — Understanding Parables

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 13-14.

    In today’s passage Matthew recounts some of the parables which Jesus used in His preaching. It is clear from this passage that Jesus used a lot of parables in His teaching. His disciples asked Him why He used so many parables rather than using less ambiguous language. Jesus answered by saying that people hear what they want to hear and see what they want to see. As a result they do not understand God’s message and do not turn to Him for healing. I have always heard this explained to mean that Jesus taught in parables so that only His disciples, who received more detailed explanations, would understand. However, it occurred to me today that Jesus taught in parables because it is easier to understand a lesson explained in a parable than one without the parables. I come to this conclusion because while Matthew provides explanations for the meaning of some of the parables, he does not do so for all of them. This latter fact suggests that Matthew expected that once people understood the logic of Jesus’ parables they would understand the message of all the rest of His parables.

    I was not going to comment on the parables other than the above, but I have some thoughts I want to share today about the parable of the weeds, the parable of the treasure and the pearl. The parable of the weeds is exactly contrary to the saying, “kill them all, let God sort them out.” My understanding of Jesus’ point here is that we should not seek ideological purity within the Church, because in doing so we might eliminate some who would otherwise produce results in the service of God. This is tempered by Jesus’ teaching regarding Church discipline in Matthew 18 and Paul’s writings regarding the same matter in 1 Corinthians.
    Then we come to the twin parables about the great treasure and the pearl. In both parables Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to something which the individual greatly desired. The desire was so great that the individual in the parable was willing to sacrifice everything else they had in order to obtain the object of their desire. Jesus tells us in these parables that we should desire the Kingdom of Heaven so much that we are not only willing but eager to sacrifice everything else in order to gain entry. This is consistent with elsewhere where Jesus says that we must be willing to leave abandon our father, mother, children, or spouse in order to do God’s will. There should be nothing which we are not willing to give up if by doing so we can enter into doing God’s will.

Daily Bible Study

October 7, 2016 Bible Study — Help Them All, God Will Sort Them Out

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 13-14.

    I was going to completely skip over the parable of the sower because I have thought, written, and heard so much about it. However, as I read it this morning, I saw something to which we need to give some thought. When Jesus was asked why He spoke in parables He answered that was because only those who genuinely wanted to understand would understand. I think part of what He meant was that it was harder to make a parable mean something other than what it was intended to mean. If you don’t understand a parable, you, usually, will not think that you do. However, the point for us to recognize from what He said is that those who do not want to understand will not understand, no matter how we say it. No matter how carefully we choose our words those who want to misinterpret them will do so.

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    The parable of the wheat and the weeds and the parable of the fishing net have related lessons for us. Actually, they share a common message in addition to each having their own message. Their common message is that if we try to distinguish between those who will accept God’s call and those who will not, we will cause a lot of people who would otherwise answer God’s call to miss it. My understanding of the first informs, and is informed by, my belief in non-resistance. If we attempt to “pull” out the weeds, the bad apples, we will also destroy some who will produce a crop for the Lord. Until it is time to harvest (and only God knows when that is) many weeds look just like the good plants and many good plants look like weeds. There is a motto associated with the military, “Kill them all, let God sort them out,” which reflects the same idea, only in reverse. Jesus’ message in this parable is, “Don’t kill any of them, God will sort them out.”

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    While the parable of the wheat and the weeds teaches that it is not our job to sort the righteous from the unrighteous, the parable of the fishing net tells us to take a more active approach. In the latter parable Jesus teaches us to actively gather in everyone, even those who we “know” will not accept God’s gift. It may be possible to gather only those who will choose to do God’s will, but doing so will mean leaving behind many who would choose to do so if given the opportunity. Like the commercial fisherman, to whom it is worth the effort of throwing away the worthless fish in order to maximize his profit collecting a larger number of marketable fish, we should be willing to “waste” effort on those who will never come to the Lord for the sake of those we would otherwise miss.