progressive involvement

Pentecost 9 ::: Matthew 14: 13-21

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.¹⁴When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.

Translation:  "Hearing, Jesus withdrew from that place in a boat into a deserted place by himself, and hearing, the crowd followed him on foot from the towns.  And going out, he saw a large crowd and was moved with compassion for them and healed their illnesses."

Background and situation:  Matthew organized his book into five major sections.  His agenda is to present Jesus as the New Moses (who is also greater than Moses).  If Moses had five books, so would Jesus.  

Book Three of Matthew's gospel had centered on teaching and parables (13: 1-53).  Book Four, the major theme of which is Jesus' formal expression of his coming passion, opened with Jesus' difficulties at Nazareth (13:54-58), and the death of John the Baptist (14: 1-12).

Our text opens with "when Jesus heard this."  "This" refers to the death of John the Baptist, assassinated by Herod Antipas, the ruler of the Galilee region, and the son of Herod the (so-called) Great.  On hearing the news, Jesus withdrew to a "deserted place"--eiremos--somewhere on the lake.  He needed to ponder his next moves in light of this new and disturbing information.

The original source is Mark--see Mark 6: 30-42.  

Jesus takes center stage:  The crowd, also "hearing," made their decision immediately.  In the wake of the death of the popular leader, John, the people rally to Jesus. 

Jesus was moved by their plight--"he had compassion for them."  The word translated as "compassion" is esplagxnisthe, a word indicating great depth of feeling, an exceptionally strong form of compassion.  Jesus' compassion issues in healings--he "cured their sick."  In the new reign of God, healings break out.

Matthew's source is Mark, but Matthew makes a few changes to Mark.  Mark, like Matthew, has two feeding stories.  The first, Mark 6, is about the incorporation of Jews into the New Community.  The second feeding story, Mark 8, is about the incorporation of gentiles into the New Community.   

Matthew's agenda is different.  Matthew's first feeding story takes place on the shores of a lake.  The second is on a mountain.  Both groups fed were, apparently, predominantly Jewish.  Galilee had a mix of Jews and gentiles, as well as a mix of different strains within Judaism.

Matthew makes a few other changes.  Mark has the disciples get in the boat with Jesus.  In Matthew, Jesus goes off by himself.  He is set apart.  Matthew leaves out Mark's comment that the crowds were like "sheep without a shepherd."  Matthew has already used that line (9: 36).  Instead of teaching them, as in Mark, Jesus heals diseases.

Incidentally, there is a bit of a play on words here.  "Hearing" about John, Jesus went off by himself in a boat--ploio--while the crowds, also "hearing," followed him on foot--paxe.  Also, they followed him on foot from the towns. 

Jesus spent very little time in cities.  His connection was nearly entirely with people in towns and villages.  Why?  Were cities dangerous?

Get your food from the store:

¹⁵When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ ¹⁶Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ ¹⁷They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’ ¹⁸And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’ ¹⁹Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. ²⁰And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. ²¹And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Translation:  "When it became evening, the disciples came to him and said, 'This is a deserted place and the hour is now passing by.  Release the crowds so that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.'  Jesus said to them, 'They do not need to go away.  You give to them to eat.'  But they said to him, 'We have nothing here except five loaves and two fish.'  He said to them, 'Carry them here to me.'  And he ordered the crowds to lay down upon the green grass.  Taking the five loaves and two fish, he looked up into heaven, he blessed, he broke, he gave the loaves to the disciples, and these the disciples to the crowds.  And all ate and were satisfied.  And they took up what was left over, twelve baskets full.  And the ones who ate were about five thousand men and women and children."

The disciples can't help themselves, and unwittingly reveal that they think in terms of the old paradigm.  They go to Jesus and say the crowds are here, it's late, and we don't have food.  Let the people go participate in the regular market system to get food for themselves.  The word agorasosin means something like "hang out at the marketplace and do business there."  The disciples encourage "business as usual."  They want to participate in the system.

Jesus says explicitly, "They do not need--ou xreian exousin--to go away.  In fact, you--you disciples--give them something to eat."  The disciples have five loaves and two fish, which might have been just enough to feed about 13 people.  It was customary for people to carry a ration of food with them, and this was probably about the daily ration for the disciples and Jesus. 

A "deserted place" with "green grass":  Jesus wants the loaves and fish to be brought to him, then ordered the people to lie down on the green grass--xortou, a word associated with grazing and food.  They were in a "deserted place"--eiremos, which is also translated as "wilderness," or even "desert."  Where did the "green grass" come from?  It's a sign of the new reign of God.  In God's kingdom, the desert becomes a place that can sustain life.

The people sit down.  Matthew changes Mark on this point.  Where Mark has them sitting down in ranks of 50's and 100's, like the Hebrews of old in the wilderness, or perhaps like a military formation, Matthew says nothing like this. 

One wonders, too, what happened to the fish?  In Mark, the fish are also "divided among them all," but at the point of giving the food to the disciples, Matthew mentions only bread, perhaps an underlining of the eucharistic association of the meal.

The scene obviously recalls the eucharist.  Jesus "looked up to heaven," a move which is still done by some priests, even though the actual language of the eucharist (1 Cor 11) does not include it.  Then, "he blessed, he broke, he gave the loaves to the disciples."  This is eucharistic language.

One feast compared with another:  This "good eucharist" follows what what you might call a "negative eucharist"--Herod's "black mass." 

Herod Antipas threw a great party--a sumptuous feast, no doubt, although Matthew does not mention the meal itself.  The only thing mentioned as being on a platter was the head of John the Baptist.  Herod's feast is for the few, the big shots and the rich, and is accompanied by violence.

Jesus' feast is egalitarian, for "the crowds."  It is preceded by compassion, not followed by violence.  It is not a sumptuous feast, but "all ate and were filled."  Moreover, the feast is faciliated by the active role of the disciples.  They are the ones who actually give the bread to the crowds.

The other issue relates to the food itself.  A good chunk of the law of Moses had to do with food.  You had to know where the food came from and what was in it.  You can do that by actually being in the kitchen preparing, or watching it being prepared, or you can trust the host to make sure that the food is appropriate. 

The people receiving food from Jesus, by way of the disciples, had no way of knowing if they should really eat it.  Yet, Matthew gives no hint that the crowd had any reservations.  Though not stated directly, their trust in Jesus is implicit.

Secondly, there's no way that 5000 men--and another few thousand women and children (not mentioned in Mark)--would sit down and eat dinner with just anybody.  Total strangers provided this food, which was handed to the disciples, who handed it off to yet others.  Who knows how many other hands touched it before it came to you?  Who knows what those hands had touched before they touched the bread?  Eat impure food, and you would be impure too.

Yet, at Jesus' meal, all these considerations are apparently tossed overboard.  They ate the bread, with each other, in the company of each other, without regard to status, wealth, or the alleged "purity" of their compatriots.  There was enough left over to fill 12 fairly large baskets--one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Image:  Dan Erlander

 

Pentecost 8 ::: Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52

He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; ³²it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’

He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’

 Translation:  Another parable he placed before them saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard that someone took and sowed in his field.  It is the smallest of all the seeds of the field, the smallest certainly of all the seeds, but when it is grown it is greatest of all vegetables and becomes a tree so that the birds of the heavens come and live in its branches.'  Another parable he spoke to them, 'The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and mixed in with three gallons of flour until it was mixed whole.'"

Background and situation:  This is the third reading in a row from chapter 13, a chapter of parables.  Parables included in this lection are the parable of the mustard seed, the leaven, the treasure in the field, the pearl, the net, and the throwing out of treasure.  The parables highlight Jesus' role as teacher, a very important theme in Matthew's gospel.  

Matthew's source for the parable of the mustard seed was Mark (4:30-32), though Matthew gets "tree" from Q.  The parable of the leaven appears to come from Q--see the parallel in Luke 13:20-21.  (The gospel of Thomas also includes both parables.)  Similarly, Matthew 13: 44-52 appears in Matthew only, among the canonical gospels, but also appears in Thomas.

The word for "parable" is parabole--literally, "thrown alongside."  Parables are stories "thrown alongside" life, you might say, which prompt comparisons and contrasts between the two.  Paul Tillich had his "method of correlation" which called for points of contact and comparison between the faith and the world.  Parables do something like that.

The parables of Jesus sometimes feature hyperbole, as in the parable of the mustard seed.  A mustard seed is small, but it is not the smallest of all the seeds.  First, it grows into a laxanon, which means either "garden herb" or "vegetable."  Laxanon refers to a plant that was planted on purpose. 

Matthew adds the "tree" to the original version of the story we have in Mark.  Some think that perhaps Matthew didn't think a garden vegetable, as Mark has it, was a grand enough comparison for the kingdom of heaven.  What Matthew is really doing, however, is making a hyperlink to Daniel 4: 10-22, particularly verses 11-12, which use a tree as an image for the great kingdom of God which is visible to all and for all:

¹¹The tree grew great and strong,
   its top reached to heaven,
   and it was visible to the ends of the whole earth. 
¹²Its foliage was beautiful,
   its fruit abundant,
   and it provided food for all.
The animals of the field found shade under it,
   the birds of the air nested in its branches,
   and from it all living beings were fed.

Likewise, see Ezekiel 17: 22-23 where the Lord God takes a sprig "from the lofty top of a cedar" and will plant it on the "mountain height of Israel" where it will produce fruit and become a "noble cedar":  

Under it every kind of bird will live;
   in the shade of its branches will nest
   winged creatures of every kind. 

Universality and "weakness":  Two primary themes abound in only a few verses--universality and "weakness."  Both the tree and the field are universal images.  The field is the world, and the tree "provided food for all" (Dan 4).  This universality has an anti-triumphal twist, however.  The seed itself, the agent of this universal mission, is small and hidden in the ground.  It does its work mysteriously and out-of-sight. 

This is a statement of how God runs the whole universe.  It is through suffering, weakness, and vulnerability that God is present with us and saves us.  This has been true from the beginning of creation.  God runs the universe through the paradoxical nature of the "theology of the cross":  reigning through "weakness," becoming empty for the benefit of others, bringing life out of vulnerability and death.

This prepares us for the stunning parable of the leaven.  The first surprise is that the God-figure is a woman.  The second surprise is the amount of flour--"three gallons," a great amount, enough to make over 100 pounds of bread. 

The third surprise is the image of the leaven, which was used primarily as a negative image in first century Israel.  Leaven was often compared to corruption.  A little bit of corruption, for example, could quickly contaminate everyone, or "one rotten apple can spoil the whole barrel"--that sort of thing.

But perhaps this is not so surprising.  Jesus was never much interested in being the "purest of the pure."  Maybe he liked the image of leaven precisely because it was reminiscent of those down and out, like criminals and prostitutes, who were the special focus of Jesus' attention and the first recipients of his message.

The baker-woman God "hides" the yeast in the loaf--score a point (again) for mystery.  Consider how that yeast works:  It disappears into the loaf, suffuses it entirely, and puffs up little pockets of carbon dioxide--(not unlike the breath of God to Adam or the carbon dioxide-rich breath of Jesus to the church).  The leaven becomes so thoroughly a part of the loaf that it can no longer be detected, yet it completely animates the whole.  Score another point (again) for universality.

Think of it as an image of creation.  The kingdom of God is integrally part of the creation of the cosmos.  It was worked in in the very beginning and has never been separate from it.  (So much for Jesus as an alien space-invader who drops in to a foreign planet to set everything right and leave.  The Word was never absent from the world, and is still present in, with, and under all that is.)

Buying the farm:  

‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; ⁴⁶on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Translation:  "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field which someone found and hid, and from his joy he goes and sells all as much as he has and he buys that field.  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a person on a journey seeking fine pearls, and finding one valuable pearl, he goes and sells all, as much as he has, and buys it."

The owner of the field has hidden a treasure--not uncommon in those days--and someone else has found it.  The treasure has been there awhile, but it has been hidden--kekrymmeno.  This is to say that the gospel is mysterious.  Recognized or not, it has been there in the field--agro--all along. 

Unlike the seed scattered all over the place and the leaven which is worked through the whole loaf, this treasure only appears in one place in the field.  The one who finds it, however, buys the whole field.  The treasure is in the world, and gives the world its value.  Score another point for universality. 

In the pearl parable, the one seeking is an emporo, which could mean merchant, but also could mean a person on a journey, or both.  He seeks "fine pearls"--in the ancient world, pearls were of great value, sometimes considered to be worth more than gold.  (The word for "pearl," incidentally, is margaritas.) 

These two parables accent joy and commitment.  At finding the treasure, or the pearl, the person sells everything--literally, "all as much as he has"--and buys it, "costing not less than everything," as T.S. Eliot put it.  Each one goes all in.

We will all die, of course.  We will all, some day, give everything we have.  Christ demands our whole life, and, in every single case, that is exactly what Christ will get.  Put another way, we will all, some day, "buy the farm," which is why it's good to know that the treasure of the death and resurrection of Jesus is right there with us and has been all along. 

The sagane: 

 47 ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; ⁴⁸when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. ⁴⁹So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous ⁵⁰and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Translation:  "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a large fishing net that was thrown into the sea and out of all nations gathered together, which, when it was full, was drawn up upon the beach, and sitting down, they gathered together the excellent into a container, but the rotten, they threw out.  The gathering up into forever will happen in this way.  The angels will go out and separate the evil out of the midst of the just and will throw them into the furnace of fire.  There, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

The word sagane occurs only once in the New Testament, right here.  Usually, a "net" is either amphiblestron or diktyon, but Matthew goes with sagane, where, incidentally, we get our word "seine." 

This type of net is pulled through the water and takes in everything it can.  Just like Christ himself, the "seine" gathers up everything in its path, including not only fish, but turtles, seaweed, old bottles, and trash.  It gathers "out of all nations"--ek pantos genous.

Christ died and rose not just for white married heterosexual SUV-driving suburbanites, in other words, but for blacks, gays, urbanites, farmers, grumpy old Uncle Edgar, and those who no habla Ingles.  Even more, the mysterious kingdom of heaven is drawing all creation--not just people, but cats, dogs, turtles, and old bottles.

When the net was hauled onto the shore, they sat down and "gathered up" the "good" into a container.  The word translated as "good" is kala, which is not strictly a word relating to morality.  It also means "beautiful," "excellent," "magnificent."  Sapros, on the other hand, refers not only to "bad," but also means "rotten," "putrid," "corrupt."

You might wonder if the passage is less about morality--good and bad--and more about usefulness.  We are not given a criterion by which the fishermen decide to throw some items out and keep others.  Presumably, they threw out dead fish and old bottles, unless, of course, they had a use for the old bottle, in which case they would keep it.

The fishermen didn't haul in the net until "it was full," which is both a universal and an eschatological image.  Note, too, that the fishermen don't make the absolute final judgment.  The angels make a sudden appearance and arrange for the final disposition of the evil--ponerou--and the just--dikaiown. 

It is not for the fishermen, or for us, to determine ultimately what is useful or not, or even "evil" and "righteous."  That distinction is made only at the end of time--sunteleia aionow--by those creatures, angels, who are directly in the service of the kingdom.

Telos is a major word in the New Testament.  It means "end" or "goal." Sun is a prefix meaning "together."  Therefore, sunteleia means "end together."  Coupled with aionos--"forever," or "eternal"--the phrase means "the consummation of the universe," the bringing together of everything in the whole history of the world.

Throwing out new and old:

51 ‘Have you understood all this?’ They answered, ‘Yes.’⁵²And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’ ⁵³When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.

Translation:  "'Have you brought all this together?'  They answered, 'Yes."  And he said to them, "Through this, every scribe who has been trained in the kingdom of heaven is like a human householder who threw out of his treasure new and old.'  And it happened that when Jesus brought to a close these parables, he departed that place."

Unlike in Mark, where the disciples never get anything right, Matthew says that the disciples answered "yes" when Jesus asked if they had "brought all this together"--sunekate tauta panta.  For Matthew, the way of the kingdom can be taught and apprehended.

Jesus describes the disciples as "scribes," which is not normally a compliment in Matthew's gospel, except that these scribes have been "trained--matheteutheis--in the kingdom of heaven."  Mathete is also the word for "disciple."  They have been "disciplined" in the way.

The final parable is of the householder who threw out--ekballei--out of his treasure--ek tou thesaurou--both new and old.  The householder did not bring out.  He threw out.  He threw out both the new and the old. 

Some commentators opt for a more pious interpretation.  The householder brought out the new, which was the gospel, but kept the old too--the law and prophets, for example. 

Maybe so, but the text itself does not say that.  In fact, quite the contrary.  It appears not that the householder "brought out," as if to use, the "new and old."  Rather, the householder threw out both new and old in order to get rid of both.

Kaina--"new"--refers to something newly made that is different from what had gone before and not yet used.  Palaia--"old"--means having existed a long time and is now worn-out and obsolete.  

Could one say that Jesus encourages his disciples, the ones taught and trained by him in the way of the kingdom, to get rid of the old and the obsolete as well as ideas which Matthew might have considered "new-fangled"?  Disciplined and trained, the disciples can be trusted to make this determination.

Image:  Parable of the leaven, James Janknegt

 

He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; ³²it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’

He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’

 Translation:  Another parable he placed before them saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard that someone took and sowed in his field.  It is the smallest of all the seeds of the field, the smallest certainly of all the seeds, but when it is grown it is greatest of all vegetables and becomes a tree so that the birds of the heavens come and live in its branches.'  Another parable he spoke to them, 'The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and mixed in with three gallons of flour until it was mixed whole.'"

Background and situation:  This is the third reading in a row from chapter 13, a chapter of parables.  Parables included in this lection are the parable of the mustard seed, the leaven, the treasure in the field, the pearl, the net, and the throwing out of treasure.  The parables highlight Jesus' role as teacher, a very important theme in Matthew's gospel.  

Matthew's source for the parable of the mustard seed was Mark (4:30-32), though Matthew gets "tree" from Q.  The parable of the leaven appears to come from Q--see the parallel in Luke 13:20-21.  (The gospel of Thomas also includes both parables.)  Similarly, Matthew 13: 44-52 appears in Matthew only, among the canonical gospels, but also appears in Thomas.

The word for "parable" is parabole--literally, "thrown alongside."  Parables are stories "thrown alongside" life, you might say, which prompt comparisons and contrasts between the two.  Paul Tillich had his "method of correlation" which called for points of contact and comparison between the faith and the world.  Parables do something like that.

The parables of Jesus sometimes feature hyperbole, as in the parable of the mustard seed.  A mustard seed is small, but it is not the smallest of all the seeds.  First, it grows into a laxanon, which means either "garden herb" or "vegetable."  Laxanon refers to a plant that was planted on purpose. 

Matthew adds the "tree" to the original version of the story we have in Mark.  Some think that perhaps Matthew didn't think a garden vegetable, as Mark has it, was a grand enough comparison for the kingdom of heaven.  What Matthew is really doing, however, is making a hyperlink to Daniel 4: 10-22, particularly verses 11-12, which use a tree as an image for the great kingdom of God which is visible to all and for all:

¹¹The tree grew great and strong,
   its top reached to heaven,
   and it was visible to the ends of the whole earth. 
¹²Its foliage was beautiful,
   its fruit abundant,
   and it provided food for all.
The animals of the field found shade under it,
   the birds of the air nested in its branches,
   and from it all living beings were fed.

Likewise, see Ezekiel 17: 22-23 where the Lord God takes a sprig "from the lofty top of a cedar" and will plant it on the "mountain height of Israel" where it will produce fruit and become a "noble cedar":  

Under it every kind of bird will live;
   in the shade of its branches will nest
   winged creatures of every kind. 

Universality and "weakness":  Two primary themes abound in only a few verses--universality and "weakness."  Both the tree and the field are universal images.  The field is the world, and the tree "provided food for all" (Dan 4).  This universality has an anti-triumphal twist, however.  The seed itself, the agent of this universal mission, is small and hidden in the ground.  It does its work mysteriously and out-of-sight. 

This is a statement of how God runs the whole universe.  It is through suffering, weakness, and vulnerability that God is present with us and saves us.  This has been true from the beginning of creation.  God runs the universe through the paradoxical nature of the "theology of the cross":  reigning through "weakness," becoming empty for the benefit of others, bringing life out of vulnerability and death.

This prepares us for the stunning parable of the leaven.  The first surprise is that the God-figure is a woman.  The second surprise is the amount of flour--"three gallons," a great amount, enough to make over 100 pounds of bread. 

The third surprise is the image of the leaven, which was used primarily as a negative image in first century Israel.  Leaven was often compared to corruption.  A little bit of corruption, for example, could quickly contaminate everyone, or "one rotten apple can spoil the whole barrel"--that sort of thing.

But perhaps this is not so surprising.  Jesus was never much interested in being the "purest of the pure."  Maybe he liked the image of leaven precisely because it was reminiscent of those down and out, like criminals and prostitutes, who were the special focus of Jesus' attention and the first recipients of his message.

The baker-woman God "hides" the yeast in the loaf--score a point (again) for mystery.  Consider how that yeast works:  It disappears into the loaf, suffuses it entirely, and puffs up little pockets of carbon dioxide--(not unlike the breath of God to Adam or the carbon dioxide-rich breath of Jesus to the church).  The leaven becomes so thoroughly a part of the loaf that it can no longer be detected, yet it completely animates the whole.  Score another point (again) for universality.

Think of it as an image of creation.  The kingdom of God is integrally part of the creation of the cosmos.  It was worked in in the very beginning and has never been separate from it.  (So much for Jesus as an alien space-invader who drops in to a foreign planet to set everything right and leave.  The Word was never absent from the world, and is still present in, with, and under all that is.)

Buying the farm:  

‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; ⁴⁶on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Translation:  "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field which someone found and hid, and from his joy he goes and sells all as much as he has and he buys that field.  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a person on a journey seeking fine pearls, and finding one valuable pearl, he goes and sells all, as much as he has, and buys it."

The owner of the field has hidden a treasure--not uncommon in those days--and someone else has found it.  The treasure has been there awhile, but it has been hidden--kekrymmeno.  This is to say that the gospel is mysterious.  Recognized or not, it has been there in the field--agro--all along. 

Unlike the seed scattered all over the place and the leaven which is worked through the whole loaf, this treasure only appears in one place in the field.  The one who finds it, however, buys the whole field.  The treasure is in the world, and gives the world its value.  Score another point for universality. 

In the pearl parable, the one seeking is an emporo, which could mean merchant, but also could mean a person on a journey, or both.  He seeks "fine pearls"--in the ancient world, pearls were of great value, sometimes considered to be worth more than gold.  (The word for "pearl," incidentally, is margaritas.) 

These two parables accent joy and commitment.  At finding the treasure, or the pearl, the person sells everything--literally, "all as much as he has"--and buys it, "costing not less than everything," as T.S. Eliot put it.  Each one goes all in.

We will all die, of course.  We will all, some day, give everything we have.  Christ demands our whole life, and, in every single case, that is exactly what Christ will get.  Put another way, we will all, some day, "buy the farm," which is why it's good to know that the treasure of the death and resurrection of Jesus is right there with us and has been all along. 

The sagane: 

 47 ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; ⁴⁸when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. ⁴⁹So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous ⁵⁰and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Translation:  "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a large fishing net that was thrown into the sea and out of all nations gathered together, which, when it was full, was drawn up upon the beach, and sitting down, they gathered together the excellent into a container, but the rotten, they threw out.  The gathering up into forever will happen in this way.  The angels will go out and separate the evil out of the midst of the just and will throw them into the furnace of fire.  There, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

The word sagane occurs only once in the New Testament, right here.  Usually, a "net" is either amphiblestron or diktyon, but Matthew goes with sagane, where, incidentally, we get our word "seine." 

This type of net is pulled through the water and takes in everything it can.  Just like Christ himself, the "seine" gathers up everything in its path, including not only fish, but turtles, seaweed, old bottles, and trash.  It gathers "out of all nations"--ek pantos genous.

Christ died and rose not just for white married heterosexual SUV-driving suburbanites, in other words, but for blacks, gays, urbanites, farmers, grumpy old Uncle Edgar, and those who no habla Ingles.  Even more, the mysterious kingdom of heaven is drawing all creation--not just people, but cats, dogs, turtles, and old bottles.

When the net was hauled onto the shore, they sat down and "gathered up" the "good" into a container.  The word translated as "good" is kala, which is not strictly a word relating to morality.  It also means "beautiful," "excellent," "magnificent."  Sapros, on the other hand, refers not only to "bad," but also means "rotten," "putrid," "corrupt."

You might wonder if the passage is less about morality--good and bad--and more about usefulness.  We are not given a criterion by which the fishermen decide to throw some items out and keep others.  Presumably, they threw out dead fish and old bottles, unless, of course, they had a use for the old bottle, in which case they would keep it.

The fishermen didn't haul in the net until "it was full," which is both a universal and an eschatological image.  Note, too, that the fishermen don't make the absolute final judgment.  The angels make a sudden appearance and arrange for the final disposition of the evil--ponerou--and the just--dikaiown. 

It is not for the fishermen, or for us, to determine ultimately what is useful or not, or even "evil" and "righteous."  That distinction is made only at the end of time--sunteleia aionow--by those creatures, angels, who are directly in the service of the kingdom.

Telos is a major word in the New Testament.  It means "end" or "goal." Sun is a prefix meaning "together."  Therefore, sunteleia means "end together."  Coupled with aionos--"forever," or "eternal"--the phrase means "the consummation of the universe," the bringing together of everything in the whole history of the world.

Throwing out new and old:

51 ‘Have you understood all this?’ They answered, ‘Yes.’⁵²And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’ ⁵³When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.

Translation:  "'Have you brought all this together?'  They answered, 'Yes."  And he said to them, "Through this, every scribe who has been trained in the kingdom of heaven is like a human householder who threw out of his treasure new and old.'  And it happened that when Jesus brought to a close these parables, he departed that place."

Unlike in Mark, where the disciples never get anything right, Matthew says that the disciples answered "yes" when Jesus asked if they had "brought all this together"--sunekate tauta panta.  For Matthew, the way of the kingdom can be taught and apprehended.

Jesus describes the disciples as "scribes," which is not normally a compliment in Matthew's gospel, except that these scribes have been "trained--matheteutheis--in the kingdom of heaven."  Mathete is also the word for "disciple."  They have been "disciplined" in the way.

The final parable is of the householder who threw out--ekballei--out of his treasure--ek tou thesaurou--both new and old.  The householder did not bring out.  He threw out.  He threw out both the new and the old. 

Some commentators opt for a more pious interpretation.  The householder brought out the new, which was the gospel, but kept the old too--the law and prophets, for example. 

Maybe so, but the text itself does not say that.  In fact, quite the contrary.  It appears not that the householder "brought out," as if to use, the "new and old."  Rather, the householder threw out both new and old in order to get rid of both.

Kaina--"new"--refers to something newly made that is different from what had gone before and not yet used.  Palaia--"old"--means having existed a long time and is now worn-out and obsolete.  

Could one say that Jesus encourages his disciples, the ones taught and trained by him in the way of the kingdom, to get rid of the old and the obsolete as well as ideas which Matthew might have considered "new-fangled"?  Disciplined and trained, the disciples can be trusted to make this determination.

Image:  Parable of the leaven, James Janknegt

He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; ³²it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’

He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’

 Translation:  Another parable he placed before them saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard that someone took and sowed in his field.  It is the smallest of all the seeds of the field, the smallest certainly of all the seeds, but when it is grown it is greatest of all vegetables and becomes a tree so that the birds of the heavens come and live in its branches.'  Another parable he spoke to them, 'The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and mixed in with three gallons of flour until it was mixed whole.'"

Background and situation:  This is the third reading in a row from chapter 13, a chapter of parables.  Parables included in this lection are the parable of the mustard seed, the leaven, the treasure in the field, the pearl, the net, and the throwing out of treasure.  The parables highlight Jesus' role as teacher, a very important theme in Matthew's gospel.  

Matthew's source for the parable of the mustard seed was Mark (4:30-32), though Matthew gets "tree" from Q.  The parable of the leaven appears to come from Q--see the parallel in Luke 13:20-21.  (The gospel of Thomas also includes both parables.)  Similarly, Matthew 13: 44-52 appears in Matthew only, among the canonical gospels, but also appears in Thomas.

The word for "parable" is parabole--literally, "thrown alongside."  Parables are stories "thrown alongside" life, you might say, which prompt comparisons and contrasts between the two.  Paul Tillich had his "method of correlation" which called for points of contact and comparison between the faith and the world.  Parables do something like that.

The parables of Jesus sometimes feature hyperbole, as in the parable of the mustard seed.  A mustard seed is small, but it is not the smallest of all the seeds.  First, it grows into a laxanon, which means either "garden herb" or "vegetable."  Laxanon refers to a plant that was planted on purpose. 

Matthew adds the "tree" to the original version of the story we have in Mark.  Some think that perhaps Matthew didn't think a garden vegetable, as Mark has it, was a grand enough comparison for the kingdom of heaven.  What Matthew is really doing, however, is making a hyperlink to Daniel 4: 10-22, particularly verses 11-12, which use a tree as an image for the great kingdom of God which is visible to all and for all:

¹¹The tree grew great and strong,
   its top reached to heaven,
   and it was visible to the ends of the whole earth. 
¹²Its foliage was beautiful,
   its fruit abundant,
   and it provided food for all.
The animals of the field found shade under it,
   the birds of the air nested in its branches,
   and from it all living beings were fed.

Likewise, see Ezekiel 17: 22-23 where the Lord God takes a sprig "from the lofty top of a cedar" and will plant it on the "mountain height of Israel" where it will produce fruit and become a "noble cedar":  

Under it every kind of bird will live;
   in the shade of its branches will nest
   winged creatures of every kind. 

Universality and "weakness":  Two primary themes abound in only a few verses--universality and "weakness."  Both the tree and the field are universal images.  The field is the world, and the tree "provided food for all" (Dan 4).  This universality has an anti-triumphal twist, however.  The seed itself, the agent of this universal mission, is small and hidden in the ground.  It does its work mysteriously and out-of-sight. 

This is a statement of how God runs the whole universe.  It is through suffering, weakness, and vulnerability that God is present with us and saves us.  This has been true from the beginning of creation.  God runs the universe through the paradoxical nature of the "theology of the cross":  reigning through "weakness," becoming empty for the benefit of others, bringing life out of vulnerability and death.

This prepares us for the stunning parable of the leaven.  The first surprise is that the God-figure is a woman.  The second surprise is the amount of flour--"three gallons," a great amount, enough to make over 100 pounds of bread. 

The third surprise is the image of the leaven, which was used primarily as a negative image in first century Israel.  Leaven was often compared to corruption.  A little bit of corruption, for example, could quickly contaminate everyone, or "one rotten apple can spoil the whole barrel"--that sort of thing.

But perhaps this is not so surprising.  Jesus was never much interested in being the "purest of the pure."  Maybe he liked the image of leaven precisely because it was reminiscent of those down and out, like criminals and prostitutes, who were the special focus of Jesus' attention and the first recipients of his message.

The baker-woman God "hides" the yeast in the loaf--score a point (again) for mystery.  Consider how that yeast works:  It disappears into the loaf, suffuses it entirely, and puffs up little pockets of carbon dioxide--(not unlike the breath of God to Adam or the carbon dioxide-rich breath of Jesus to the church).  The leaven becomes so thoroughly a part of the loaf that it can no longer be detected, yet it completely animates the whole.  Score another point (again) for universality.

Think of it as an image of creation.  The kingdom of God is integrally part of the creation of the cosmos.  It was worked in in the very beginning and has never been separate from it.  (So much for Jesus as an alien space-invader who drops in to a foreign planet to set everything right and leave.  The Word was never absent from the world, and is still present in, with, and under all that is.)

Buying the farm:  

‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; ⁴⁶on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Translation:  "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field which someone found and hid, and from his joy he goes and sells all as much as he has and he buys that field.  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a person on a journey seeking fine pearls, and finding one valuable pearl, he goes and sells all, as much as he has, and buys it."

The owner of the field has hidden a treasure--not uncommon in those days--and someone else has found it.  The treasure has been there awhile, but it has been hidden--kekrymmeno.  This is to say that the gospel is mysterious.  Recognized or not, it has been there in the field--agro--all along. 

Unlike the seed scattered all over the place and the leaven which is worked through the whole loaf, this treasure only appears in one place in the field.  The one who finds it, however, buys the whole field.  The treasure is in the world, and gives the world its value.  Score another point for universality. 

In the pearl parable, the one seeking is an emporo, which could mean merchant, but also could mean a person on a journey, or both.  He seeks "fine pearls"--in the ancient world, pearls were of great value, sometimes considered to be worth more than gold.  (The word for "pearl," incidentally, is margaritas.) 

These two parables accent joy and commitment.  At finding the treasure, or the pearl, the person sells everything--literally, "all as much as he has"--and buys it, "costing not less than everything," as T.S. Eliot put it.  Each one goes all in.

We will all die, of course.  We will all, some day, give everything we have.  Christ demands our whole life, and, in every single case, that is exactly what Christ will get.  Put another way, we will all, some day, "buy the farm," which is why it's good to know that the treasure of the death and resurrection of Jesus is right there with us and has been all along. 

The sagane: 

 47 ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; ⁴⁸when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. ⁴⁹So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous ⁵⁰and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Translation:  "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a large fishing net that was thrown into the sea and out of all nations gathered together, which, when it was full, was drawn up upon the beach, and sitting down, they gathered together the excellent into a container, but the rotten, they threw out.  The gathering up into forever will happen in this way.  The angels will go out and separate the evil out of the midst of the just and will throw them into the furnace of fire.  There, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

The word sagane occurs only once in the New Testament, right here.  Usually, a "net" is either amphiblestron or diktyon, but Matthew goes with sagane, where, incidentally, we get our word "seine." 

This type of net is pulled through the water and takes in everything it can.  Just like Christ himself, the "seine" gathers up everything in its path, including not only fish, but turtles, seaweed, old bottles, and trash.  It gathers "out of all nations"--ek pantos genous.

Christ died and rose not just for white married heterosexual SUV-driving suburbanites, in other words, but for blacks, gays, urbanites, farmers, grumpy old Uncle Edgar, and those who no habla Ingles.  Even more, the mysterious kingdom of heaven is drawing all creation--not just people, but cats, dogs, turtles, and old bottles.

When the net was hauled onto the shore, they sat down and "gathered up" the "good" into a container.  The word translated as "good" is kala, which is not strictly a word relating to morality.  It also means "beautiful," "excellent," "magnificent."  Sapros, on the other hand, refers not only to "bad," but also means "rotten," "putrid," "corrupt."

You might wonder if the passage is less about morality--good and bad--and more about usefulness.  We are not given a criterion by which the fishermen decide to throw some items out and keep others.  Presumably, they threw out dead fish and old bottles, unless, of course, they had a use for the old bottle, in which case they would keep it.

The fishermen didn't haul in the net until "it was full," which is both a universal and an eschatological image.  Note, too, that the fishermen don't make the absolute final judgment.  The angels make a sudden appearance and arrange for the final disposition of the evil--ponerou--and the just--dikaiown. 

It is not for the fishermen, or for us, to determine ultimately what is useful or not, or even "evil" and "righteous."  That distinction is made only at the end of time--sunteleia aionow--by those creatures, angels, who are directly in the service of the kingdom.

Telos is a major word in the New Testament.  It means "end" or "goal." Sun is a prefix meaning "together."  Therefore, sunteleia means "end together."  Coupled with aionos--"forever," or "eternal"--the phrase means "the consummation of the universe," the bringing together of everything in the whole history of the world.

Throwing out new and old:

51 ‘Have you understood all this?’ They answered, ‘Yes.’⁵²And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’ ⁵³When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.

Translation:  "'Have you brought all this together?'  They answered, 'Yes."  And he said to them, "Through this, every scribe who has been trained in the kingdom of heaven is like a human householder who threw out of his treasure new and old.'  And it happened that when Jesus brought to a close these parables, he departed that place."

Unlike in Mark, where the disciples never get anything right, Matthew says that the disciples answered "yes" when Jesus asked if they had "brought all this together"--sunekate tauta panta.  For Matthew, the way of the kingdom can be taught and apprehended.

Jesus describes the disciples as "scribes," which is not normally a compliment in Matthew's gospel, except that these scribes have been "trained--matheteutheis--in the kingdom of heaven."  Mathete is also the word for "disciple."  They have been "disciplined" in the way.

The final parable is of the householder who threw out--ekballei--out of his treasure--ek tou thesaurou--both new and old.  The householder did not bring out.  He threw out.  He threw out both the new and the old. 

Some commentators opt for a more pious interpretation.  The householder brought out the new, which was the gospel, but kept the old too--the law and prophets, for example. 

Maybe so, but the text itself does not say that.  In fact, quite the contrary.  It appears not that the householder "brought out," as if to use, the "new and old."  Rather, the householder threw out both new and old in order to get rid of both.

Kaina--"new"--refers to something newly made that is different from what had gone before and not yet used.  Palaia--"old"--means having existed a long time and is now worn-out and obsolete.  

Could one say that Jesus encourages his disciples, the ones taught and trained by him in the way of the kingdom, to get rid of the old and the obsolete as well as ideas which Matthew might have considered "new-fangled"?  Disciplined and trained, the disciples can be trusted to make this determination.

Image:  Parable of the leaven, James Janknegt

Pentecost 7 ::: Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43

He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; ²⁵but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. ²⁶So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. ²⁷And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” ²⁸He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” ²⁹But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. ³⁰Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’

Translation:  He placed before them another parable, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a human being who sowed good seed in his field, but while the people slept, his enemy came and he sowed tares in the midst of the wheat and he left.  But when the blade sprouted and made fruit, then was made manifest the tares also.  But the servants of the householder came (and) said to him, "Lord, did you not sow good seed into your field?  Why, then, does it have tares?"  But he was saying to them, "A human enemy did this."  But they say to him, "Do you wish us to go that we might gather it?"  But he says, "No, lest when you gather the tares, you might pluck up the wheat along with them.  Leave both to grow together until the harvest, and, in the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, 'Gather first the tares and bind them into bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

Background and situation:  The parable of the weeds, otherwise known as the parable of the wheat and the tares, follows immediately after the parable of the sower (13: 1-23).  It appears to come from a source other than either Mark or Q.  The only parallel is in the Gospel of Thomas (57).

Chapter 13 of Matthew is made up of a string of parables, many, like this one, introduced by alle, "another."  This tends to give the section a cohesive quality, and again accentuates Jesus in the role of teacher, an important theme in Matthew.

The enemy sows "air heads":  Jesus starts off by saying that the kingdom of heaven was like a person who sowed good seed in a field, but "while the people slept, his enemy came."

The enemy sowed zizania--otherwise known as tares, darnel, cockle, or, technically, lolium temulentum.  It's a weed that, especially in its early stages, looks like wheat, but instead of producing edible grain, produces only bitter-tasting seeds.  (So the exegetes say.  Anybody raised on a farm would recognize it immediately.) 

At maturity, the weight of the grain in the wheat bends the heads down.  Since there's not much of anything in the heads of darnel, the plant continues to stand straight.  Darnel is, thusly, a plant of "air heads."  It looks pretty good, in other words, but there's nothing there.

This also explains why it was only after the plants grew up and produced fruit that the weeds "appeared."  The word is ephane, which comes from the word for "light," and is in the passive voice.  "Brought to light" would be a good translation.  

The fruit of the "good seed" revealed the hollowness of the bad seed.  The fruit of the good seed illuminated the failure of the weeds to produce fruit.

Resisting evil:  The word sperma appears forty times in the New Testament.  Usually, this means not the seed itself, but the offspring of the seed.  This sense of the word should be kept in mind.  Indeed, in verse 38, Jesus will identify the good seed--the kalon sperma--as the "children of the kingdom."

Jesus identifies the enemy as exthros anthropos--a "hostile human being."  In other words, the enemy is a created being, not a divine being.  (Later, Jesus will identify the enemy as the devil or diabolos.)  Whoever it is, it's not on par with God.  The scriptures can get pretty fuzzy about the original of evil, but the power of evil or the devil is never placed on the same level as the power of God. 

The slaves of the householder, those closest to the actual operation of the farm, are the first to consider taking action against the weeds.  "Do you desire for us to go and gather (the weeds)?"  Do you want us to respond to this initiative from the hostile enemy?  How are we to fight back?

Jesus' response:  Do nothing!  "No, lest when you gather the tares, you might pluck up the wheat along with them."  In your zeal to root out the enemy, you're quite likely to tear up the whole field.

Then Jesus says that "in time of harvest," he will instruct the reapers to gather the weeds in bundles to be burned.  The word translated as "time" is kairos, which means "God's time." 

In other words, God will deal with the problem of evil.  There will be an eschatological solution to the problem of evil, but that is God's work and not ours.  Evil will be checked, but not by human beings.

This is exactly what moral crusaders do not want to hear.  They're on a mission, after all, to root out evil and get people to straighten up.  Such people are dangerous.  They're quite liable, in one of their moralistic crusades, to go into the field and start tearing up the whole dang farm.  In their zeal, they are, unwittingly, and rather cluelessly, willing to rip out the good along with the bad. 

Which is why I like to say that good people trying to do good can do more real damage than bad people doing bad.  Bad people doing bad results in individual acts of criminality.  Good people trying to do good can result in doctrinal rigidity, inquisitions, crusades, pogroms, and concentration camps.

Forgive them:  Notice that Jesus flatly says "no" to the idea of tearing out weeds.  Then he says, "Forgive them to grow together until the harvest."  The word is aphete.  It may be translated as "permit," "allow," or "let"--NRSV has "leave" here--but the most frequent meaning of aphete is "forgive." 

The word occurs 156 times in the New Testament.  About a third of them are regularly translated as "forgive," and probably more should be.  Evil is to be dealt with by human beings through letting it be, permitting it, forgiving it.

It will be dealt with ultimately through the purifying fire.  The purifying fire may not be the most pleasant of Biblical images, but it is certainly a dramatic one.  The prophet Malachi spoke of none being able to stand at the day of the Lord's coming "for he is like a refiner's fire (3:2)."  The apostle Paul talks of revealing a builder's work through fire.  Anything not built on Christ gets burned up (1 Cor 3: 12-15).  The whole concept of purgatory grew out of the idea of the purifying fire.

We all have our "weed side"--that part of us which may look good, but doesn't produce fruit.  This part will be burned away, leaving only that which is built on Christ.  Don't worry.  In God's time of harvest, this will be seen and experienced as a good thing.  After all, the one who judges us--the one who sends the purifying fire--is really the one who loves us the most.

Our propensity to judge others will be burned away.  Our sucking up to hierarchical authority will be burned away.  Our subversion of God's kingdom through gender inequality will be burned away.  Our trying to see ourselves as better than others will be burned away.  Our moralistic fervor will be burned away.  Our self-righteous attempt at self-inflation will be burned away.  Praise God!

"The just ones will shine forth":   

 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.’ ³⁷He answered, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; ³⁸the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, ³⁹and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. ⁴⁰Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. ⁴¹The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, ⁴²and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears^*listen!

Translation:  Then he left the crowds and went into the house, and his disciples came to him, saying, "Make clear to us the parable of the tares of the field."  But he answered (and) said, "The one who sowed the good seed is the son of humanity, and the field is the universe.  But the good seed, these are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one.  But the enemy who sowed these is the devil, and the harvest is the gathering together of the eternal, and the reapers are angels.  As, therefore, the tares are being gathered to be burned of fire, so it will be in the gathering together of the eternal.  The son of humanity will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all the stumbling-blocks and the ones doing lawlessness, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Then the just ones will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their father.  The one having ears, let that one hear."

Jesus left the crowds and went into the house, which, incidentally, may have been his own residence in Capernaum.  In the house, the disciples want an explanation for the "parable of the weeds," which shows, right there, that they didn't get it.

In the parable of the sower which precedes this one (13: 1-23), God is clearly the sower, and God sows the Word (Christ) everywhere.  In this parable, Jesus is the sower, and he is sowing "good seed."  This good seed is the children of the kingdom (13:38).  They produce fruit.  (Matthew emphasizes producing fruit.  Karpos (fruit) appears 19 times in Matthew.)  

Notice that the "good seed" is never threatened in the parable.  No matter how many weeds are planted in the field, no doubt whatsoever is expressed about the good seeds' ability to germinate and prosper.  In fact, it was the very produce of the "good seed" that illuminated the failure of the weeds in the first place.

Jesus is generating disciples who produce fruit.  He calls them "children of the kingdom" who live out the ways of the kingdom--open table fellowship, gender equality, non-hierarchical living, inherent worth of every human being, and opposition to oppression. 

Those who don't follow this way of the kingdom are instead pressed by the weeds of hardship and difficulty.  They suffer the weight of hierarchy, scarcity, tribalism.

God will deal with evil:  Then Jesus amps up the language.  The opponent is now, finally, identified as diabolos--the devil (13:38).  The harvest is clearly eschatological.  Sunteleia aionos means something like "the bringing together of everything forever," or "consummation eternal."  "The reapers are angels"--again, an eschatological reference. 

The son of man will send angels and they will "gather out of the kingdom" all the skandala (impediments that cause someone to stumble) and anomian (lawlessness).  These will all be thrown into the furnace of fire.

Again, this is "purifying fire" imagery, along the lines of Hebrews 12: 29:  "Indeed, our God is a consuming fire."  Whatever is not of God will be burned up--not now, not in chronological time, but in the kairos, in God's time, at the consummation of the universe. 

Then, having eliminated our skandala and lawlessness, "the just ones will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of my father."  (NRSV translates dikaioi as "righteous," but "just ones" seems more appropriate in this context.)  These just ones "will shine out" (eklampo)--they will have impact--illuminating the world with the ways of the kingdom.

He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; ²⁵but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. ²⁶So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. ²⁷And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” ²⁸He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” ²⁹But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. ³⁰Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’

Translation:  He placed before them another parable, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a human being who sowed good seed in his field, but while the people slept, his enemy came and he sowed tares in the midst of the wheat and he left.  But when the blade sprouted and made fruit, then was made manifest the tares also.  But the servants of the householder came (and) said to him, "Lord, did you not sow good seed into your field?  Why, then, does it have tares?"  But he was saying to them, "A human enemy did this."  But they say to him, "Do you wish us to go that we might gather it?"  But he says, "No, lest when you gather the tares, you might pluck up the wheat along with them.  Leave both to grow together until the harvest, and, in the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, 'Gather first the tares and bind them into bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

Background and situation:  The parable of the weeds, otherwise known as the parable of the wheat and the tares, follows immediately after the parable of the sower (13: 1-23).  It appears to come from a source other than either Mark or Q.  The only parallel is in the Gospel of Thomas (57).

Chapter 13 of Matthew is made up of a string of parables, many, like this one, introduced by alle, "another."  This tends to give the section a cohesive quality, and again accentuates Jesus in the role of teacher, an important theme in Matthew.

The enemy sows "air heads":  Jesus starts off by saying that the kingdom of heaven was like a person who sowed good seed in a field, but "while the people slept, his enemy came."

The enemy sowed zizania--otherwise known as tares, darnel, cockle, or, technically, lolium temulentum.  It's a weed that, especially in its early stages, looks like wheat, but instead of producing edible grain, produces only bitter-tasting seeds.  (So the exegetes say.  Anybody raised on a farm would recognize it immediately.) 

At maturity, the weight of the grain in the wheat bends the heads down.  Since there's not much of anything in the heads of darnel, the plant continues to stand straight.  Darnel is, thusly, a plant of "air heads."  It looks pretty good, in other words, but there's nothing there.

This also explains why it was only after the plants grew up and produced fruit that the weeds "appeared."  The word is ephane, which comes from the word for "light," and is in the passive voice.  "Brought to light" would be a good translation.  

The fruit of the "good seed" revealed the hollowness of the bad seed.  The fruit of the good seed illuminated the failure of the weeds to produce fruit.

Resisting evil:  The word sperma appears forty times in the New Testament.  Usually, this means not the seed itself, but the offspring of the seed.  This sense of the word should be kept in mind.  Indeed, in verse 38, Jesus will identify the good seed--the kalon sperma--as the "children of the kingdom."

Jesus identifies the enemy as exthros anthropos--a "hostile human being."  In other words, the enemy is a created being, not a divine being.  (Later, Jesus will identify the enemy as the devil or diabolos.)  Whoever it is, it's not on par with God.  The scriptures can get pretty fuzzy about the original of evil, but the power of evil or the devil is never placed on the same level as the power of God. 

The slaves of the householder, those closest to the actual operation of the farm, are the first to consider taking action against the weeds.  "Do you desire for us to go and gather (the weeds)?"  Do you want us to respond to this initiative from the hostile enemy?  How are we to fight back?

Jesus' response:  Do nothing!  "No, lest when you gather the tares, you might pluck up the wheat along with them."  In your zeal to root out the enemy, you're quite likely to tear up the whole field.

Then Jesus says that "in time of harvest," he will instruct the reapers to gather the weeds in bundles to be burned.  The word translated as "time" is kairos, which means "God's time." 

In other words, God will deal with the problem of evil.  There will be an eschatological solution to the problem of evil, but that is God's work and not ours.  Evil will be checked, but not by human beings.

This is exactly what moral crusaders do not want to hear.  They're on a mission, after all, to root out evil and get people to straighten up.  Such people are dangerous.  They're quite liable, in one of their moralistic crusades, to go into the field and start tearing up the whole dang farm.  In their zeal, they are, unwittingly, and rather cluelessly, willing to rip out the good along with the bad. 

Which is why I like to say that good people trying to do good can do more real damage than bad people doing bad.  Bad people doing bad results in individual acts of criminality.  Good people trying to do good can result in doctrinal rigidity, inquisitions, crusades, pogroms, and concentration camps.

Forgive them:  Notice that Jesus flatly says "no" to the idea of tearing out weeds.  Then he says, "Forgive them to grow together until the harvest."  The word is aphete.  It may be translated as "permit," "allow," or "let"--NRSV has "leave" here--but the most frequent meaning of aphete is "forgive." 

The word occurs 156 times in the New Testament.  About a third of them are regularly translated as "forgive," and probably more should be.  Evil is to be dealt with by human beings through letting it be, permitting it, forgiving it.

It will be dealt with ultimately through the purifying fire.  The purifying fire may not be the most pleasant of Biblical images, but it is certainly a dramatic one.  The prophet Malachi spoke of none being able to stand at the day of the Lord's coming "for he is like a refiner's fire (3:2)."  The apostle Paul talks of revealing a builder's work through fire.  Anything not built on Christ gets burned up (1 Cor 3: 12-15).  The whole concept of purgatory grew out of the idea of the purifying fire.

We all have our "weed side"--that part of us which may look good, but doesn't produce fruit.  This part will be burned away, leaving only that which is built on Christ.  Don't worry.  In God's time of harvest, this will be seen and experienced as a good thing.  After all, the one who judges us--the one who sends the purifying fire--is really the one who loves us the most.

Our propensity to judge others will be burned away.  Our sucking up to hierarchical authority will be burned away.  Our subversion of God's kingdom through gender inequality will be burned away.  Our trying to see ourselves as better than others will be burned away.  Our moralistic fervor will be burned away.  Our self-righteous attempt at self-inflation will be burned away.  Praise God!

"The just ones will shine forth":   

 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.’ ³⁷He answered, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; ³⁸the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, ³⁹and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. ⁴⁰Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. ⁴¹The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, ⁴²and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears^*listen!

Translation:  Then he left the crowds and went into the house, and his disciples came to him, saying, "Make clear to us the parable of the tares of the field."  But he answered (and) said, "The one who sowed the good seed is the son of humanity, and the field is the universe.  But the good seed, these are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one.  But the enemy who sowed these is the devil, and the harvest is the gathering together of the eternal, and the reapers are angels.  As, therefore, the tares are being gathered to be burned of fire, so it will be in the gathering together of the eternal.  The son of humanity will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all the stumbling-blocks and the ones doing lawlessness, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Then the just ones will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their father.  The one having ears, let that one hear."

Jesus left the crowds and went into the house, which, incidentally, may have been his own residence in Capernaum.  In the house, the disciples want an explanation for the "parable of the weeds," which shows, right there, that they didn't get it.

In the parable of the sower which precedes this one (13: 1-23), God is clearly the sower, and God sows the Word (Christ) everywhere.  In this parable, Jesus is the sower, and he is sowing "good seed."  This good seed is the children of the kingdom (13:38).  They produce fruit.  (Matthew emphasizes producing fruit.  Karpos (fruit) appears 19 times in Matthew.)  

Notice that the "good seed" is never threatened in the parable.  No matter how many weeds are planted in the field, no doubt whatsoever is expressed about the good seeds' ability to germinate and prosper.  In fact, it was the very produce of the "good seed" that illuminated the failure of the weeds in the first place.

Jesus is generating disciples who produce fruit.  He calls them "children of the kingdom" who live out the ways of the kingdom--open table fellowship, gender equality, non-hierarchical living, inherent worth of every human being, and opposition to oppression. 

Those who don't follow this way of the kingdom are instead pressed by the weeds of hardship and difficulty.  They suffer the weight of hierarchy, scarcity, tribalism.

God will deal with evil:  Then Jesus amps up the language.  The opponent is now, finally, identified as diabolos--the devil (13:38).  The harvest is clearly eschatological.  Sunteleia aionos means something like "the bringing together of everything forever," or "consummation eternal."  "The reapers are angels"--again, an eschatological reference. 

The son of man will send angels and they will "gather out of the kingdom" all the skandala (impediments that cause someone to stumble) and anomian (lawlessness).  These will all be thrown into the furnace of fire.

Again, this is "purifying fire" imagery, along the lines of Hebrews 12: 29:  "Indeed, our God is a consuming fire."  Whatever is not of God will be burned up--not now, not in chronological time, but in the kairos, in God's time, at the consummation of the universe. 

Then, having eliminated our skandala and lawlessness, "the just ones will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of my father."  (NRSV translates dikaioi as "righteous," but "just ones" seems more appropriate in this context.)  These just ones "will shine out" (eklampo)--they will have impact--illuminating the world with the ways of the kingdom.

Pentecost 6 ::: Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. ²Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. ³And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. ⁴And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. ⁵Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. ⁶But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. ⁷Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. ⁸Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ⁹Let anyone with ears listen!’

Translation:  On that day, Jesus went out of the house (and) was sitting alongside the sea, and great crowds were gathered together to him so that he entered into a ship to sit down and all the people stood upon the shore.  And he spoke much to them in parables, saying, "Behold!  The sowing one went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some indeed fell beside the way, and the birds came to eat them.  But others fell upon stony places where they were not having much soil, and immediately they sprung up because they did not have depth of soil.  But when the sun rose, they were scorched and, because they did not have a root, they were withered.  But others fell among the thorns, and the thorns climbed up and choked them.  But others fell upon the good earth, and they were giving fruit, some indeed a hundredfold, but some sixty, but some thirty.  The one having ears, let that one hear."

Background and situation:  Father Robert Capon says that the parable of the sower is the touchstone of all the parables.  He notes its primacy of place in all three synoptics.  Even the gnostic Gospel of Thomas includes the parable of the sower. 

In Matthew, the parable of the sower is the first of a string of parables that follow one after another in chapter 13.  The parable of the sower sets the stage for all the parables that follow.

The lection begins with Jesus leaving the house.  He "goes out" to the sea just as the sower would soon "go out" to sow.  This would apparently be his own house, and the same one where he had just refused entrance to his own relatives (12: 46-48). 

At the sea, "great crowds" flock around Jesus.  The word is sunago, and means that the people "gathered together" around Jesus.  He is at the center of the people.  This is not surprising.  Jesus had significant support in the region of the Sea of Galilee.  The people loved Jesus and thrilled to his message.  He is presented as a "man of the people." 

Then, he gets into a boat.  The stated reason is that Jesus needs a place to sit.  He needs to sit in order to assume the posture of a teacher.  This gives Jesus a bit of distance from the crowd which continues to stand on the beach.  Matthew has moved Jesus from being "man of the people" to being "authoritative teacher." 

What a deft piece of political theater.  Jesus is sitting in a fishing boat, which is, quite literally, on the sea.  In a sense, Jesus is speaking to and for all the people who try to make a living from the Sea of Galilee.  (It's not for nothing that fishermen were some of Jesus' first supporters.)  

Jesus may have had a home at Capernaum, perhaps the most important harbor city on the entire Sea of Galilee, which also made it an important communications center for the region.  He also traveled to many other towns and villages that lie on the sea, including Magdala, home of Mary Magdalene, his frequent companion.

The parable:  Jesus told them "many things in parables," and starts off with:  "Behold!  The sowing one went forth to sow." 

In the sowing, some seeds fell "alongside the way"--para ton hodon--and the birds came and ate them.  (NRSV has "on the path," but para means "alongside" and hodon is a technical term for "way," which, in turn, means the practices of the kingdom of heaven.)  These seeds fell just off the path. 

Other seeds fell on rocky ground where "they were not having much soil"--opou ouk eixen gas pollen. "And immediately, they sprang up because they did not have depth of earth."  When the sun rose, these were "scorched."  Other seeds fell upon the thorns, and the thorns rose up and "choked" them.  

Still other seeds fell upon the "good earth."  These gave fruit in abundance, in some cases a "hundredfold," but some sixty, and others thirty.  "The one having ears, let that one hear."

The interpretation of the parable:

 ‘Hear then the parable of the sower. ¹⁹When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. ²⁰As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; ²¹yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away.^* 22As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. ²³But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.’

Translation:  You, therefore, hear the parable of the sower.  When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand, the wicked one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.  This is the one sown alongside the way.  But the one sown upon rocky places, this is the one hearing the word, and immediately receives it with joy.  But he does not have a root in himself, but is for a season, but when tribulation or persecution happen on account of the word, immediately he is offended.  But the one sown into the thorns, this is the one hearing the word, and the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth together choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.  But the one sown upon good earth, this is the one hearing the word and he understands, who also bears fruit and does, some indeed a hundredfold, but some sixty, but some thirty.

In the intervening verses, 10-17, Jesus tells the disciples that they get to hear "the secrets of the kingdom of heaven," but others do not.  Jesus says that he speaks in parables, but no one understands. 

This suggests that, far from being easy to understand, the parables are so contrarian that they are difficult to hear.  The reason Jesus so often encouraged people with ears to hear is because what he was saying was so counter-intuitive, so formed by an alternative paradigm, that people were having a hard time comprehending what he was saying.  

In verse 18, Jesus calls the story "the parable of the sower."  This alone is instructive.  It means that this is a parable about God, and not about us.  It's the parable of the sower, and not the parable of the four kinds of soil.  It's about what God does, in other words, and not our feeble efforts at putting God's word into action.  

The common evangelical view of the parable is that the sower is Jesus, and he was going around throwing out "the word."  We want to prepare ourselves to be really good soil so that when Jesus throws "the word" on us, we--splendid people that we are--can put it into action and (finally) make it into something.

This is completely wrong-headed for the very basic reason that the sower is not Jesus.  God is the sower, and God sows the Word--logon, Christ--absolutely everywhere.  Jesus is not the sower, but the seed sown.  (As the fourth gospel puts it, "The Word became flesh.") 

The four types of soil are meant to signify all conditions of life.  Jesus has already been sown everywhere in the world, in good soil and bad, among rocks and among thorns.  This sowing of the word into the entire world, and into all conditions of life, has already been done without any participation on our part whatsoever.

The story would have been shocking to many who heard it.  There were many--in those days, and in ours--who most certainly did not think God had sown the seed of the word everywhere in the world.  God had absolutely done no such thing.  God had sown the word only in America, or in the Roman Catholic church, or only among those who adhere to something called protestant theology. 

In Jesus' own time and place, many would have been shocked by this parable.  As in our own time, many then believed that God had not sown the seed everywhere.  God had sown the word only in Israel.  There's nothing special about Israel in Jesus' story, and that would have caused some major grinding of teeth in some people.

Moreover, there is nothing spectacular about a seed.  For people expecting a triumphal messiah who enters the fray with force, the seed is a weak image.  Seeds are tiny.  They fall into the ground and get covered over.  They "die" into the earth. 

It is precisely then, when they are out of sight, that they begin to do the real work of a seed.  The message of the story is that the seed--the Word--sown into the world doesn't look like all that much.  It can be hard, or even impossible to find.  It does its work out-of-sight, mysteriously.  Capon, Parables of the Kingdom:

Once again, this is not our idea of how a respectable divine operation ought to be run...Given our druthers, our pet illustration of the kingdom would probably be a giant nail--driven into the world, appropriately enough, but a giant hammer in the hand of a giant God.  Something noisy and noticeable.  But a seed?  Oh come now.

You'll notice, too, that the seed has already been sown.  It is not about to be sown.  It's already in there, and it's doing what it does without waiting for us to do something to put it into effect.  We don't add to the seed of the Word being sown, or complete it, or kick it into gear.  

Not only has it been done, it works.  In every case, the seed, which is the word, springs up, even in rocky soil and even among thorns.  The word--the sown seed, which is Christ--never fails.

But the birds, you say?  What about the birds who snatch up the seed and carry it away? 

So what?  That seed is still going to land somewhere.  We had a tree on our farm that was in the oddest place.  It was in a ditch, and there wasn't another tree, in any direction, for a least half a mile.  (This was Kansas, keep in mind, where trees can be few and far between.  When we have one, we tend to form a personal relationship with it.)

I once asked my dad how in the world that tree ever got there?  His one word answer?  "Birds."  Birds may snatch up the seed, but they're just going to distribute it somewhere else, where, again, the seed which is the word will do its work.

Aren't the birds equated with "the evil one" in verse 19?  The word is ponerou.  If Matthew had intended the devil, he probably would have used diabolos.    "Hardships" or "troubles" would be possible translations.  I have rendered it "the wicked one."

The logos:  The word logos appears six times from 13:18-23.  The logos, which is Christ, has already been sown into the world.  God has done this mysteriously--the work of a seed takes place out of sight.  And God has done this paradoxically--the seed is a "weak" image, not a triumphal power display, which would have been business-as-usual.

Significant traditions within the church, however, have typically said just the opposite.  They have said that, really, the world wasn't quite saved yet.  It was only potentially saved.  In order to get it really saved, we needed to do something to kick the Word into gear. 

We needed to repent, or confess our sins, or get "born again," or cry our eyes out over something-or-other, or sacrifice a goat, or wear pink on Thursdays--or whatever!  It's always something.  We need to make ourselves into good soil so that the Word can really work!

Wrong.  The four types of soil reflect the human condition which all of us share.  They are a statement of reality, meant to cover the bases of existence.  We fail to understand.  We all live our lives in the context of pain and trouble.  We all endure "rocks" and lack "root" in the face of oppression.  We all live amid the "thorns," which are the "cares of eternity," and "the deceit of riches."  This "chokes" us--and doesn't it?  Isn't that an accurate description of our reality?

But we also have capacity.  The "beautiful earth"--ten kalen gen--is also part of our reality.  We don't put the Word into action--Christ has already saved the world--but the Word prospers in some conditions more than others.  In "beautiful earth," it "bears fruit" in the world. 

In Matthew's theology, "bearing fruit" means living out the kingdom of heaven.  This has nothing to do with piety, nothing to do with outward sanctimony, nothing to do with syrupy pronouncements, nothing to do with vague decisions, nothing to do even with worship.  

"Bearing fruit" means "following on the way," which means imitating Jesus, and doing what he did.  With Jesus as our model of what the kingdom of heaven looks like, "bearing fruit" means actually doing what Jesus himself teaches and does in the gospel of Matthew, which is:  gender equality, open table fellowship, non-heirarchical living, embracing the human dignity of all, resistance to oppression, and resistance to religious corruption.  "Bearing fruit" is that program lived out in every day life.

Image:  The sower, Van Gogh 

 

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. ²Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. ³And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. ⁴And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. ⁵Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. ⁶But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. ⁷Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. ⁸Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ⁹Let anyone with ears listen!’

Translation:  On that day, Jesus went out of the house (and) was sitting alongside the sea, and great crowds were gathered together to him so that he entered into a ship to sit down and all the people stood upon the shore.  And he spoke much to them in parables, saying, "Behold!  The sowing one went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some indeed fell beside the way, and the birds came to eat them.  But others fell upon stony places where they were not having much soil, and immediately they sprung up because they did not have depth of soil.  But when the sun rose, they were scorched and, because they did not have a root, they were withered.  But others fell among the thorns, and the thorns climbed up and choked them.  But others fell upon the good earth, and they were giving fruit, some indeed a hundredfold, but some sixty, but some thirty.  The one having ears, let that one hear."

Background and situation:  Father Robert Capon says that the parable of the sower is the touchstone of all the parables.  He notes its primacy of place in all three synoptics.  Even the gnostic Gospel of Thomas includes the parable of the sower. 

In Matthew, the parable of the sower is the first of a string of parables that follow one after another in chapter 13.  The parable of the sower sets the stage for all the parables that follow.

The lection begins with Jesus leaving the house.  He "goes out" to the sea just as the sower would soon "go out" to sow.  This would apparently be his own house, and the same one where he had just refused entrance to his own relatives (12: 46-48). 

At the sea, "great crowds" flock around Jesus.  The word is sunago, and means that the people "gathered together" around Jesus.  He is at the center of the people.  This is not surprising.  Jesus had significant support in the region of the Sea of Galilee.  The people loved Jesus and thrilled to his message.  He is presented as a "man of the people." 

Then, he gets into a boat.  The stated reason is that Jesus needs a place to sit.  He needs to sit in order to assume the posture of a teacher.  This gives Jesus a bit of distance from the crowd which continues to stand on the beach.  Matthew has moved Jesus from being "man of the people" to being "authoritative teacher." 

What a deft piece of political theater.  Jesus is sitting in a fishing boat, which is, quite literally, on the sea.  In a sense, Jesus is speaking to and for all the people who try to make a living from the Sea of Galilee.  (It's not for nothing that fishermen were some of Jesus' first supporters.)  

Jesus may have had a home at Capernaum, perhaps the most important harbor city on the entire Sea of Galilee, which also made it an important communications center for the region.  He also traveled to many other towns and villages that lie on the sea, including Magdala, home of Mary Magdalene, his frequent companion.

The parable:  Jesus told them "many things in parables," and starts off with:  "Behold!  The sowing one went forth to sow." 

In the sowing, some seeds fell "alongside the way"--para ton hodon--and the birds came and ate them.  (NRSV has "on the path," but para means "alongside" and hodon is a technical term for "way," which, in turn, means the practices of the kingdom of heaven.)  These seeds fell just off the path. 

Other seeds fell on rocky ground where "they were not having much soil"--opou ouk eixen gas pollen. "And immediately, they sprang up because they did not have depth of earth."  When the sun rose, these were "scorched."  Other seeds fell upon the thorns, and the thorns rose up and "choked" them.  

Still other seeds fell upon the "good earth."  These gave fruit in abundance, in some cases a "hundredfold," but some sixty, and others thirty.  "The one having ears, let that one hear."

The interpretation of the parable:

 ‘Hear then the parable of the sower. ¹⁹When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. ²⁰As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; ²¹yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away.^* 22As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. ²³But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.’

Translation:  You, therefore, hear the parable of the sower.  When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand, the wicked one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.  This is the one sown alongside the way.  But the one sown upon rocky places, this is the one hearing the word, and immediately receives it with joy.  But he does not have a root in himself, but is for a season, but when tribulation or persecution happen on account of the word, immediately he is offended.  But the one sown into the thorns, this is the one hearing the word, and the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth together choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.  But the one sown upon good earth, this is the one hearing the word and he understands, who also bears fruit and does, some indeed a hundredfold, but some sixty, but some thirty.

In the intervening verses, 10-17, Jesus tells the disciples that they get to hear "the secrets of the kingdom of heaven," but others do not.  Jesus says that he speaks in parables, but no one understands. 

This suggests that, far from being easy to understand, the parables are so contrarian that they are difficult to hear.  The reason Jesus so often encouraged people with ears to hear is because what he was saying was so counter-intuitive, so formed by an alternative paradigm, that people were having a hard time comprehending what he was saying.  

In verse 18, Jesus calls the story "the parable of the sower."  This alone is instructive.  It means that this is a parable about God, and not about us.  It's the parable of the sower, and not the parable of the four kinds of soil.  It's about what God does, in other words, and not our feeble efforts at putting God's word into action.  

The common evangelical view of the parable is that the sower is Jesus, and he was going around throwing out "the word."  We want to prepare ourselves to be really good soil so that when Jesus throws "the word" on us, we--splendid people that we are--can put it into action and (finally) make it into something.

This is completely wrong-headed for the very basic reason that the sower is not Jesus.  God is the sower, and God sows the Word--logon, Christ--absolutely everywhere.  Jesus is not the sower, but the seed sown.  (As the fourth gospel puts it, "The Word became flesh.") 

The four types of soil are meant to signify all conditions of life.  Jesus has already been sown everywhere in the world, in good soil and bad, among rocks and among thorns.  This sowing of the word into the entire world, and into all conditions of life, has already been done without any participation on our part whatsoever.

The story would have been shocking to many who heard it.  There were many--in those days, and in ours--who most certainly did not think God had sown the seed of the word everywhere in the world.  God had absolutely done no such thing.  God had sown the word only in America, or in the Roman Catholic church, or only among those who adhere to something called protestant theology. 

In Jesus' own time and place, many would have been shocked by this parable.  As in our own time, many then believed that God had not sown the seed everywhere.  God had sown the word only in Israel.  There's nothing special about Israel in Jesus' story, and that would have caused some major grinding of teeth in some people.

Moreover, there is nothing spectacular about a seed.  For people expecting a triumphal messiah who enters the fray with force, the seed is a weak image.  Seeds are tiny.  They fall into the ground and get covered over.  They "die" into the earth. 

It is precisely then, when they are out of sight, that they begin to do the real work of a seed.  The message of the story is that the seed--the Word--sown into the world doesn't look like all that much.  It can be hard, or even impossible to find.  It does its work out-of-sight, mysteriously.  Capon, Parables of the Kingdom:

Once again, this is not our idea of how a respectable divine operation ought to be run...Given our druthers, our pet illustration of the kingdom would probably be a giant nail--driven into the world, appropriately enough, but a giant hammer in the hand of a giant God.  Something noisy and noticeable.  But a seed?  Oh come now.

You'll notice, too, that the seed has already been sown.  It is not about to be sown.  It's already in there, and it's doing what it does without waiting for us to do something to put it into effect.  We don't add to the seed of the Word being sown, or complete it, or kick it into gear.  

Not only has it been done, it works.  In every case, the seed, which is the word, springs up, even in rocky soil and even among thorns.  The word--the sown seed, which is Christ--never fails.

But the birds, you say?  What about the birds who snatch up the seed and carry it away? 

So what?  That seed is still going to land somewhere.  We had a tree on our farm that was in the oddest place.  It was in a ditch, and there wasn't another tree, in any direction, for a least half a mile.  (This was Kansas, keep in mind, where trees can be few and far between.  When we have one, we tend to form a personal relationship with it.)

I once asked my dad how in the world that tree ever got there?  His one word answer?  "Birds."  Birds may snatch up the seed, but they're just going to distribute it somewhere else, where, again, the seed which is the word will do its work.

Aren't the birds equated with "the evil one" in verse 19?  The word is ponerou.  If Matthew had intended the devil, he probably would have used diabolos.    "Hardships" or "troubles" would be possible translations.  I have rendered it "the wicked one."

The logos:  The word logos appears six times from 13:18-23.  The logos, which is Christ, has already been sown into the world.  God has done this mysteriously--the work of a seed takes place out of sight.  And God has done this paradoxically--the seed is a "weak" image, not a triumphal power display, which would have been business-as-usual.

Significant traditions within the church, however, have typically said just the opposite.  They have said that, really, the world wasn't quite saved yet.  It was only potentially saved.  In order to get it really saved, we needed to do something to kick the Word into gear. 

We needed to repent, or confess our sins, or get "born again," or cry our eyes out over something-or-other, or sacrifice a goat, or wear pink on Thursdays--or whatever!  It's always something.  We need to make ourselves into good soil so that the Word can really work!

Wrong.  The four types of soil reflect the human condition which all of us share.  They are a statement of reality, meant to cover the bases of existence.  We fail to understand.  We all live our lives in the context of pain and trouble.  We all endure "rocks" and lack "root" in the face of oppression.  We all live amid the "thorns," which are the "cares of eternity," and "the deceit of riches."  This "chokes" us--and doesn't it?  Isn't that an accurate description of our reality?

But we also have capacity.  The "beautiful earth"--ten kalen gen--is also part of our reality.  We don't put the Word into action--Christ has already saved the world--but the Word prospers in some conditions more than others.  In "beautiful earth," it "bears fruit" in the world. 

In Matthew's theology, "bearing fruit" means living out the kingdom of heaven.  This has nothing to do with piety, nothing to do with outward sanctimony, nothing to do with syrupy pronouncements, nothing to do with vague decisions, nothing to do even with worship.  

"Bearing fruit" means "following on the way," which means imitating Jesus, and doing what he did.  With Jesus as our model of what the kingdom of heaven looks like, "bearing fruit" means actually doing what Jesus himself teaches and does in the gospel of Matthew, which is:  gender equality, open table fellowship, non-heirarchical living, embracing the human dignity of all, resistance to oppression, and resistance to religious corruption.  "Bearing fruit" is that program lived out in every day life.

Image:  The sower, Van Gogh 

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. ²Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. ³And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. ⁴And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. ⁵Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. ⁶But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. ⁷Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. ⁸Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ⁹Let anyone with ears listen!’

Translation:  On that day, Jesus went out of the house (and) was sitting alongside the sea, and great crowds were gathered together to him so that he entered into a ship to sit down and all the people stood upon the shore.  And he spoke much to them in parables, saying, "Behold!  The sowing one went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some indeed fell beside the way, and the birds came to eat them.  But others fell upon stony places where they were not having much soil, and immediately they sprung up because they did not have depth of soil.  But when the sun rose, they were scorched and, because they did not have a root, they were withered.  But others fell among the thorns, and the thorns climbed up and choked them.  But others fell upon the good earth, and they were giving fruit, some indeed a hundredfold, but some sixty, but some thirty.  The one having ears, let that one hear."

Background and situation:  Father Robert Capon says that the parable of the sower is the touchstone of all the parables.  He notes its primacy of place in all three synoptics.  Even the gnostic Gospel of Thomas includes the parable of the sower. 

In Matthew, the parable of the sower is the first of a string of parables that follow one after another in chapter 13.  The parable of the sower sets the stage for all the parables that follow.

The lection begins with Jesus leaving the house.  He "goes out" to the sea just as the sower would soon "go out" to sow.  This would apparently be his own house, and the same one where he had just refused entrance to his own relatives (12: 46-48). 

At the sea, "great crowds" flock around Jesus.  The word is sunago, and means that the people "gathered together" around Jesus.  He is at the center of the people.  This is not surprising.  Jesus had significant support in the region of the Sea of Galilee.  The people loved Jesus and thrilled to his message.  He is presented as a "man of the people." 

Then, he gets into a boat.  The stated reason is that Jesus needs a place to sit.  He needs to sit in order to assume the posture of a teacher.  This gives Jesus a bit of distance from the crowd which continues to stand on the beach.  Matthew has moved Jesus from being "man of the people" to being "authoritative teacher." 

What a deft piece of political theater.  Jesus is sitting in a fishing boat, which is, quite literally, on the sea.  In a sense, Jesus is speaking to and for all the people who try to make a living from the Sea of Galilee.  (It's not for nothing that fishermen were some of Jesus' first supporters.)  

Jesus may have had a home at Capernaum, perhaps the most important harbor city on the entire Sea of Galilee, which also made it an important communications center for the region.  He also traveled to many other towns and villages that lie on the sea, including Magdala, home of Mary Magdalene, his frequent companion.

The parable:  Jesus told them "many things in parables," and starts off with:  "Behold!  The sowing one went forth to sow." 

In the sowing, some seeds fell "alongside the way"--para ton hodon--and the birds came and ate them.  (NRSV has "on the path," but para means "alongside" and hodon is a technical term for "way," which, in turn, means the practices of the kingdom of heaven.)  These seeds fell just off the path. 

Other seeds fell on rocky ground where "they were not having much soil"--opou ouk eixen gas pollen. "And immediately, they sprang up because they did not have depth of earth."  When the sun rose, these were "scorched."  Other seeds fell upon the thorns, and the thorns rose up and "choked" them.  

Still other seeds fell upon the "good earth."  These gave fruit in abundance, in some cases a "hundredfold," but some sixty, and others thirty.  "The one having ears, let that one hear."

The interpretation of the parable:

 ‘Hear then the parable of the sower. ¹⁹When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. ²⁰As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; ²¹yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away.^* 22As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. ²³But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.’

Translation:  You, therefore, hear the parable of the sower.  When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand, the wicked one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.  This is the one sown alongside the way.  But the one sown upon rocky places, this is the one hearing the word, and immediately receives it with joy.  But he does not have a root in himself, but is for a season, but when tribulation or persecution happen on account of the word, immediately he is offended.  But the one sown into the thorns, this is the one hearing the word, and the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth together choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.  But the one sown upon good earth, this is the one hearing the word and he understands, who also bears fruit and does, some indeed a hundredfold, but some sixty, but some thirty.

In the intervening verses, 10-17, Jesus tells the disciples that they get to hear "the secrets of the kingdom of heaven," but others do not.  Jesus says that he speaks in parables, but no one understands. 

This suggests that, far from being easy to understand, the parables are so contrarian that they are difficult to hear.  The reason Jesus so often encouraged people with ears to hear is because what he was saying was so counter-intuitive, so formed by an alternative paradigm, that people were having a hard time comprehending what he was saying.  

In verse 18, Jesus calls the story "the parable of the sower."  This alone is instructive.  It means that this is a parable about God, and not about us.  It's the parable of the sower, and not the parable of the four kinds of soil.  It's about what God does, in other words, and not our feeble efforts at putting God's word into action.  

The common evangelical view of the parable is that the sower is Jesus, and he was going around throwing out "the word."  We want to prepare ourselves to be really good soil so that when Jesus throws "the word" on us, we--splendid people that we are--can put it into action and (finally) make it into something.

This is completely wrong-headed for the very basic reason that the sower is not Jesus.  God is the sower, and God sows the Word--logon, Christ--absolutely everywhere.  Jesus is not the sower, but the seed sown.  (As the fourth gospel puts it, "The Word became flesh.") 

The four types of soil are meant to signify all conditions of life.  Jesus has already been sown everywhere in the world, in good soil and bad, among rocks and among thorns.  This sowing of the word into the entire world, and into all conditions of life, has already been done without any participation on our part whatsoever.

The story would have been shocking to many who heard it.  There were many--in those days, and in ours--who most certainly did not think God had sown the seed of the word everywhere in the world.  God had absolutely done no such thing.  God had sown the word only in America, or in the Roman Catholic church, or only among those who adhere to something called protestant theology. 

In Jesus' own time and place, many would have been shocked by this parable.  As in our own time, many then believed that God had not sown the seed everywhere.  God had sown the word only in Israel.  There's nothing special about Israel in Jesus' story, and that would have caused some major grinding of teeth in some people.

Moreover, there is nothing spectacular about a seed.  For people expecting a triumphal messiah who enters the fray with force, the seed is a weak image.  Seeds are tiny.  They fall into the ground and get covered over.  They "die" into the earth. 

It is precisely then, when they are out of sight, that they begin to do the real work of a seed.  The message of the story is that the seed--the Word--sown into the world doesn't look like all that much.  It can be hard, or even impossible to find.  It does its work out-of-sight, mysteriously.  Capon, Parables of the Kingdom:

Once again, this is not our idea of how a respectable divine operation ought to be run...Given our druthers, our pet illustration of the kingdom would probably be a giant nail--driven into the world, appropriately enough, but a giant hammer in the hand of a giant God.  Something noisy and noticeable.  But a seed?  Oh come now.

You'll notice, too, that the seed has already been sown.  It is not about to be sown.  It's already in there, and it's doing what it does without waiting for us to do something to put it into effect.  We don't add to the seed of the Word being sown, or complete it, or kick it into gear.  

Not only has it been done, it works.  In every case, the seed, which is the word, springs up, even in rocky soil and even among thorns.  The word--the sown seed, which is Christ--never fails.

But the birds, you say?  What about the birds who snatch up the seed and carry it away? 

So what?  That seed is still going to land somewhere.  We had a tree on our farm that was in the oddest place.  It was in a ditch, and there wasn't another tree, in any direction, for a least half a mile.  (This was Kansas, keep in mind, where trees can be few and far between.  When we have one, we tend to form a personal relationship with it.)

I once asked my dad how in the world that tree ever got there?  His one word answer?  "Birds."  Birds may snatch up the seed, but they're just going to distribute it somewhere else, where, again, the seed which is the word will do its work.

Aren't the birds equated with "the evil one" in verse 19?  The word is ponerou.  If Matthew had intended the devil, he probably would have used diabolos.    "Hardships" or "troubles" would be possible translations.  I have rendered it "the wicked one."

The logos:  The word logos appears six times from 13:18-23.  The logos, which is Christ, has already been sown into the world.  God has done this mysteriously--the work of a seed takes place out of sight.  And God has done this paradoxically--the seed is a "weak" image, not a triumphal power display, which would have been business-as-usual.

Significant traditions within the church, however, have typically said just the opposite.  They have said that, really, the world wasn't quite saved yet.  It was only potentially saved.  In order to get it really saved, we needed to do something to kick the Word into gear. 

We needed to repent, or confess our sins, or get "born again," or cry our eyes out over something-or-other, or sacrifice a goat, or wear pink on Thursdays--or whatever!  It's always something.  We need to make ourselves into good soil so that the Word can really work!

Wrong.  The four types of soil reflect the human condition which all of us share.  They are a statement of reality, meant to cover the bases of existence.  We fail to understand.  We all live our lives in the context of pain and trouble.  We all endure "rocks" and lack "root" in the face of oppression.  We all live amid the "thorns," which are the "cares of eternity," and "the deceit of riches."  This "chokes" us--and doesn't it?  Isn't that an accurate description of our reality?

But we also have capacity.  The "beautiful earth"--ten kalen gen--is also part of our reality.  We don't put the Word into action--Christ has already saved the world--but the Word prospers in some conditions more than others.  In "beautiful earth," it "bears fruit" in the world. 

In Matthew's theology, "bearing fruit" means living out the kingdom of heaven.  This has nothing to do with piety, nothing to do with outward sanctimony, nothing to do with syrupy pronouncements, nothing to do with vague decisions, nothing to do even with worship.  

"Bearing fruit" means "following on the way," which means imitating Jesus, and doing what he did.  With Jesus as our model of what the kingdom of heaven looks like, "bearing fruit" means actually doing what Jesus himself teaches and does in the gospel of Matthew, which is:  gender equality, open table fellowship, non-heirarchical living, embracing the human dignity of all, resistance to oppression, and resistance to religious corruption.  "Bearing fruit" is that program lived out in every day life.

Image:  The sower, Van Gogh