Seeds for 09/08/2023 - Matthew 13:34-35
Scripture: Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; He did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:
“I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”
Observation: Jesus was deliberate about communication. The crowd is a different audience from the disciples. This bit of narration is situated between Jesus telling the parable of the wheat and weeds and His explanation of that parable while alone with His disciples. This highlights that Jesus’ teaching was tailored to the audience and had different purposes.
“Disciple” is a term that means learner, student, or even apprentice. The disciples are differentiated from the crowds, at least by the fact that their relationship with Jesus is more intentional than circumstantial. The crowds gather when Jesus is nearby and they are curious to hear what He will say or see what He will do. The disciples are following Jesus from place to place, learning from Him. He has called them and they have responded in faith. Imperfect, sometimes blundering faith, but faith nonetheless.
Jesus’ teaching of the crowds through parables offers to them “things hidden since the creation of the world.” The parables are told to evoke the peoples’ curiosity and to stoke embers of desire to know God.
In telling parables that require some work to put together their meaning, Jesus does two things.
First, He signals with His parables that God is searching for us. These parables are making the crowds, and the disciples too, think.
Second, He invites those who hear the parables that confuse or provoke them to search for God.
It’s a bit like extending our arm with the potato chip bag toward a family member seated on the sofa while we are in the chair. To complete the handoff, they will have to reach toward us. Jesus brings lessons about the kingdom to the crowds, but leaves enough space that they must lean forward in order to receive what He has to teach.
We cannot find God unless He makes Himself discoverable. In Jesus, He has done just that. God’s searching heart is both illustrated by and actualized in the Incarnation. Like the parables themselves, Jesus is God’s wisdom (“Word made flesh,” in John’s parlance) uttered to the world that God might be known. Saint Augustine famously confessed, “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you.”
The disciples are aware of their restless hearts, so they follow, ask, and seek. It seems that Jesus told parables so that the crowds might awaken to a restlessness in their hearts, that may find rest in Him.
Application:
What parable is simplest for you to grasp? What parable makes you work hardest to understand its meaning?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, stir up in me a seeker’s heart to come to know you, or to desire to know you more. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
If you liked this post from Seeds of Faith, why not share it and/or subscribe?
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™