Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
36 43. Explanation of the Parable of the Tares, in St Matthew only
39. the end of the world ] Literally, the completion of this on, “the point where one on ends and another begins.” The expression is found also in Mat 13:40 ; Mat 13:49 of this chapter, and in ch. Mat 24:3, Mat 28:20, and in Heb 9:26, “the completion of the ons,” not elsewhere in N. T.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Declare unto us – That is, explain the meaning of the parable. This was done in so plain a manner as to render comment unnecessary. The Son of man, the Lord Jesus, sows the good seed – that is, preaches the gospel. This he did personally, and does now by his ministers, his providence, and his Spirit, by all the means of conveying truth to the mind. This seed was, by various means, to be carried over all the world. It was to be confined to no particular nation or people. The good seed was the children of the kingdom; that is, of the kingdom of God, or Christians. For these the Saviour toiled and died. They are the fruit of his labors. Yet amid them were wicked people; and all hypocrites and unbelievers in the church are the work of Satan. Yet they must remain together until the end, when they shall be separated, and the righteous saved and the wicked lost. The one shall shine clear as the sun, the other be cast into a furnace of fire – a most expressive image of suffering.
We have no idea of more acute suffering than to be thrown into the fire, and to have our bodies made capable of bearing the burning heat, and living on m this burning heat forever and forever. It is not certain that our Saviour meant to teach here that hell is made up of material fire; but it is certain that he meant to teach that this would be a proper representation of the sufferings of the lost. We may be further assured that the Redeemer would not deceive us, or use words to torment and tantalize us. He would not talk of hell-fire which had no existence, nor would the Saviour of people hold out frightful images merely to terrify mankind. If he has spoken of hell, then there is a hell. If he meant to say that the wicked shall suffer, then they will suffer. If he did not mean to deceive mankind, then there is a hell, and then the wicked will be punished. The impenitent, therefore, should be alarmed. And the righteous, however much wickedness they may see, and however many hypocrites there may be in the church, should be cheered with the prospect that soon the just will be separated from the unjust, and that they shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 36. Jesus – went into the house: and his disciples came] Circumstances of this kind should not pass unnoticed: they are instructive and important. Those who attend only to the public preaching of the Gospel of God are not likely to understand fully the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. To understand clearly the purport of the Divine message, a man must come to God by frequent, fervent, secret prayer. It is thus that the word of God sinks into the heart, is watered, and brings forth much fruit.
Declare (, explain) unto us the parable of the tares of the field.] To what has already been spoken on this parable, the following general exposition may be deemed a necessary appendage: –
I. What is the cause of EVIL in the world?
1. We must allow that God, who is infinite in holiness, purity, and goodness, could not have done it. Nothing can produce what is not in itself. This is a maxim which every man subscribes to: God then could not have produced sin, forasmuch as his nature is infinite goodness and holiness. He made man at first in his own image, a transcript of his own purity: and, since sin entered into the world, He has done every thing consistent with his own perfections, and the freedom of the human mind, to drive it out, and to make and keep man holy.
2. After a thousand volumes are written on the origin of evil, we shall just know as much of it as Christ has told us here – An enemy hath done it, and this enemy is the devil, Mt 13:39.
1. This enemy is represented as a deceitful enemy: a friend in appearance, soliciting to sin, by pleasure, honour, riches, c.
2. A vigilant enemy. While men sleep he watches, Mt 13:25.
3. A hidden or secret enemy. After having sown his seed, he disappears, Mt 13:25. Did he appear as himself, few would receive solicitations to sin but he is seldom discovered in evil thoughts, unholy desires, flattering discourses, bad books, c.
II. Why was evil permitted to enter into the world?
1. There are doubtless sufficient reasons in the Divine Mind for its permission which, connected with his infinite essence, and extending to eternity, are not only unfathomable by us, but also, from their nature, incommunicable to men.
2. But it may be justly said, that hereby many attributes of the Divine Nature become manifest, which otherwise could not have been known; such as mercy, compassion, long-suffering, c. All of which endear the Deity to men, and perfect the felicity of those who are saved.
III. But why does he suffer this mixture of the good and bad seed now?
1. Because of the necessary dependence of one part of the creation on the other. Were the wicked all rooted up, society must fail – the earth be nearly desolated – noxious things greatly multiplied – and the small remnant of the godly, not being able to stand against the onsets of wild beasts, c., must soon be extirpated and then adieu to the economy of grace!
2. Did not the wicked exist, there would be no room for the exercise of many of the graces of the Spirit, on which our spiritual perfection greatly depends.
3. Nor could the grace of God be so manifest in supporting and saving the righteous and consequently could not have that honour which now it justly claims.
4. Were not this evil tolerated, how could the wicked be converted? The bastard wheat, by being transplanted to a better soil, may become good wheat; so sinners may be engrafted in Christ, and become sons of God through faith in his name; for the longsuffering of God leads multitudes to repentance.
IV. Observe the end of the present state of things:
1. The wicked shall be punished, and the righteous rewarded.
The wicked are termed bastard – wheat – the children of the wicked one, Mt 13:38, the very seed of the serpent.
Observe the place in which the wicked shall be punished, – a FURNACE. The instrument of this punishment, FIRE. This is an allusion to the punishment inflicted only on those supposed to be the very worst of criminals. See Da 3:6. They were cast into a burning fiery furnace. The effect of it, DESPAIR; weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, Mt 13:42.
2. Observe the character and state of the righteous:
1. They are the children of the kingdom, a seed of God’s sowing, Mt 13:38.
2. As to their persons, they shall be like the sun.
3. The place of their felicity shall be the kingdom of heaven: and,
4. The object of it, GOD In the relation of FATHER, Mt 13:43. This is a reference to Da 12:2-3.
Some learned men are of opinion that the whole of this parable refers to the Jewish state and people; and that the words , which are commonly translated the end of the world, should be rendered the end of the age, viz. the end of the Jewish polity. That the words have this meaning in other places there can be no doubt; and this may be their primary meaning here; but there are other matters in the parable which agree far better with the consummation of all things than with the end of the Jewish dispensation and polity. See on Mr 4:29.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The multitude went away (as most people do from sermons) never the wiser, understanding nothing of what they heard, nor caring to understand it. But there was a more conscientious part of our Saviours auditory, who could not thus satisfy themselves; they follow Christ into the house, and entreat him to open to them
the parable of the tares of the field; they say nothing of the other two parables, because probably they understood them, and it may be this parable did more affect them, in regard of the dreadful conclusion of it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
36-38. Then Jesus sent the multitudeaway, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him,saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field,&c.In the parable of the Sower, “the seed is the word ofGod” (Lu 8:11). But herethat word has been received into the heart, and has converted himthat received it into a new creature, a “child of the kingdom,”according to that saying of James (Jas1:18), “Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth,that we should be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures.” Itis worthy of notice that this vast field of the world is here said tobe Christ’s own“His field,” says the parable.(See Ps 2:8).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then Jesus sent the multitude away,…. That his disciples might have the opportunity of conversing with him alone, about the sense of the parables he had delivered; and that he might instruct them by some others hereafter mentioned.
And went into the house: left the ship in which he had been preaching to the multitude, came on shore, and returned to the house he came out of, Mt 13:1
and his disciples came to him; and being alone, make an humble request to him,
saying, declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field: by which they mean, not a rehearsal of it, but an explication of the sense and meaning of it: they ask nothing about the parables of the mustard seed and leaven, either because they better understood them; or because there were some things very remarkable and striking in this, which made them very desirous to be particularly informed of the several parts of it, and their meaning.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Explain unto us ( ). Also in 18:31. “Make thoroughly clear right now” (aorist tense of urgency). The disciples waited till Jesus left the crowds and got into the house to ask help on this parable. Jesus had opened up the Parable of the Sower and now they pick out this one, passing by the mustard seed and the leaven.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
THE SECOND PARABLE EXPLAINED V. 36-43
1) “Then Jesus sent the multitude away,” (tote apheis tous ochlous) “Just then Jesus upon dismissing the crowds,” releasing them, or sending them away from Him and His disciples, Mat 13:1-11.
2) “And went into the house” (eis ten oikian) “Went into the residence,” the place He normally resided in Capernaum, from which He had come upon entering the ship, from which deck He spoke the four former parables to them, Mat 13:1-35.
3) “And his disciples came unto him, saying,” (kai proselthon auto hoi malhetai autou legontes) “And his disciples approached (or came to) him there, repeatedly saying,” requesting Him in privacy, as earnest students in the spirit and of the letter of the word of prophecy of the Old Testament.
4) “Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.” (diasapheson hemin ten parabolen ton agrou) “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field,” clarify it, make clear or give us details regarding its definitive meaning, Mr 4:13,33,34. They wanted to know its spiritual significance, and how it related to them, 1Pe 3:15.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE FOUR PARABLES OF THE FIELD
Mat 13:24-30; Mat 13:36-40; Mat 13:31-32; Mat 13:44-46.
THE ministry of Jesus Christ was matchless in many ways. His words so amazed men that they said, Never man spake like this Man; His works so impressed them that they remarked, We never saw it on this wise; and His ministry was so many-sided that it seemed inexplicable, and in astonishment, they asked, Is not this the carpenter, the son of Joseph?
A few years ago, two of our greatest theological seminaries came into prominent debate. One of them proudly affirmed itself engaged in the larger task of making men ready for the metropolitan pastorates of America, and the other insisted that it was seeking to equip men for any station to which they might be called, high or low, communities of culture or of comparative ignorance, city-centers or country-districts.
The latter had evidently undertaken the larger task. The man who is equally adapted to open country and crowded city; the man who can compel audience in either place, is the unusual man the Spurgeon of his century, the Moody of the moment. Only the truly great can easily adapt themselves to violent changes and varying circumstances. The centuries have known no man who had such messages for the metropolis as did the Man from Nazareth, and yet, perhaps, the greater portion of His ministry was given to the open country, and to the industrial classes. He went to the men in the fields and taught them the greatest moral truths by employing the parables of the field.
To four of these we call attention today: the Parable of the Tares, the Parable of the Mustard Seed, the Parable of the Hid Treasure, and the Pearl of Great Price. In these four we find no disconnected argument, but a logical exposition of the Kingdom of God.
The first presents The KingdomOpposition; the second, The KingdomApostasy; and the third and fourth, The KingdomPurchase.
THE KINGDOMOPPOSITION.
Mat 13:24-30.
This parable, like that of the sower, Christ interpreted to His disciples (Mat 13:36-43), and thereby provided us with the second illustration of how to interpret parables. By this interpretation He gives such an exposition of the Kingdom-Opposition as clearly reveals the contending forces, the continued conflict, and the Christians conquest.
The contending forces! The Son of Man on the one side; Satan on the other. The children of the Kingdom on the one side; the children of the wicked one on the other. These indeed are the Captains and armies of all centuries. By comparison, they dwarf to insignificance those that have ever assembled under any other leaders, or for that matter, all other leaders; or contended for any other, or all other fields; or fought over any other, or all other subjects of division. John Milton, in his Paradise Lost sees the beginning of this battle in rebellion raised in heaven by him who set himself in glory beyond his peers, and trusted to have equalled the most High if He opposed; who, with ambitious aim, raised impious war in heaven and battle proud. But it took a Christ to properly depict it. What war! The whole world as the prize of the contention! The Son of God, and all good men on one side; Satan and his every duped subject on the other!
Christs interpretation of this parable is a death-knell of a good deal of New Theology! The universal Fatherhood of God is not found here! Men are divided into two camps rather, the children of the Kingdom, and the children of the wicked one. The first, begotten of Gods own will, by the Word of Truth (Jas 1:18), and made good seed, children of God by being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God (1Pe 1:23). The second are of their father, the devil (Joh 8:44), not alone because conceived and shapen in iniquity, but by the wilful choice, having made Beelzebub their Captain.
Christs interpretation of this parable is a blow to the universal brotherhood of which men speak. The children of the Kingdom and the children of the wicked one, while they may be of one blood in natural generation, are made to be of altogether different spirit by the regeneration of the former and the degeneration of the latter.
We meet people quite often who tell us they see very little difference between the members of the professing church and the men and women of the world. To this it is sufficient to reply, first of all, that the phrase the professing church is not identical with the phrase the children of God. And second, the tares and wheat look much alike, to a certain point, but when the tares bloom, then they become not only distinguishable, but prove themselves possessed of a peculiar poison which is borne about over the true wheat destroying even its fruitage. So it is in the Kingdom of God! The blight of many a Christians life, the loss of many a believers power is directly traceable to his too-close contact with the opposition. That is why the Apostle Paul wrote:
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness. And what concord hath Christ with Belial, or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
Little wonder that he quotes his Lord as saying, Come ye out from among them and be ye separate.
The continued conflict! The contention of these forces is not for a day. Satan will not easily quit the field; the Son of Man will never surrender. The children of the Kingdom multiply; the children of the wicked one increase. No Christian rightly estimates the enemy if he believes that a generation will see the whole world Christianized by present methods; and the Haeckel-Atheist, who thinks that tomorrow will witness the surrender of the faith once for all delivered, the repudiation of the Bible, and the collapse of the church, is so puny a seer as to be the subject of scornful pity. When Satan undertook the capture of the world, he originated a conflict, the continuance and end of which he himself could scarcely have dreamed. It is easier to raise rebellion than it is to bring it to an end; it is easier to start war than it is to proclaim peace; it is easier to produce weeds than to grow wheat; but the harvest of the former is frightful to contemplate. Phillip and Edward III could go to battle over throne and crown, but all their followers could not produce peace, or even keep treaties when once they had been made; and so for 116 years, from 1337 to 1453, long after both these men had lain in their graves, the battles waxed and war between France and England went on. Think also of the thirty years war, shorter in duration, but more extensive in territory. It involved Austria; it reached England; it covered Holland; it affected Saxony; it swept to Spain; it compassed Switzerland and Sweden; in fact, the known world was caught in its sanguinary swirl. But what are the 116 years beside the thousands on thousands in which the forces of this parable have been in conflict; and what is battle in a dozen of the little states of Europe as compared with the battle that has been waged on every continent and in every island between Christ and the good seed on the one side, and the devil and every degenerate follower on the other?
There are those who would make short work of this. They would turn the trick of the Turk and put to death those who did not agree with them; or of the Papist and shed the blood of all such as spoke not their shibboleth; or even as the Protestants who sent to the stake Servetus and his allies. But their conduct is not of the Christ, Let both grow together until the harvest.
What did Christ mean then, that the church was not to engage in discipline at all; that the unruly were not to answer to officers; that transgressors were never to be brought to trials; that irreconcilibles were never to be excluded? Remember that Christ is not here talking of church discipline at all, but of the great world-field into which the children of the Kingdom and the children of the adversary are to continue to be sown, and to stand side by side and to bear their respective fruits, and to do silent battle till He send forth His angels to cut short the work by gathering degenerates to judgment. This is Christs protest against coercion in the name of Christianity; and this is Christs repudiation for the post-millennial philosophy that the Kingdom will speedily come through social reconstruction, ethical philosophy, and moral reformation.
On the one hand, the Kingdom will never come by the proclamation of the Evangel. The King Himself must come and exalt righteousness and bring unrighteousness to judgment. At the close of summer, there comes a season when the wheat can be separated from the chaff; when the one can be gathered into barns and the other assigned to the flames; so will there be a harvest in the end of the world, when Christ, by His angels, shall gather out His own and judge His opponents.
The Christians conquest!
Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.
There are those who upon every observation on the battle between light and darkness, sin and righteousness, the Saviour and Satan, grow discouraged and become pessimistic. They believe that the battle has gone against the Church of God already, and that eventually it will go against the Christian faith, and against Christian fellowshipthe cohorts of God. There is no danger! Prophecy is the mould of history! The defeat of the devil is as certain today as is the destiny of the Son of Man; the overthrow of His followers as sure as the march of time! The consummation of the age will see the conquest of Christ and His hosts, and it will be complete. In the struggle between light and darkness, life and death, the Son of Man and the Satan of the centuries, the victories shall be to the former. Monkhouse, in his magnificent sonnet, depicts the battle after this manner:
From morn to eve they struggleLife and Death,At first it seemed to me that they in mirth Contended, and as foes of equal worth,So firm their feet, so undisturbed their breath.
But when the sharp red sun cut through its sheath Of western clouds, I saw the brown arms girth Tighten and bear that radiant form to earth,And suddenly both fell upon the heath.
And then the wonder came; for when I fled To where those great antagonists down fell,I could not find the body that I sought,And when and where it went, I could not tell;One only form was left of those who fought,The long dark form of Deathand it was dead.
Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.
It is the day of the mighty conquest of the Son of God, and the manifestation of the sons of God.
THE KINGDOMAPOSTASY.
In passing from the parable of the tares to that of the mustard seed, we have our attention turned from the KingdomOpposition, to the Kingdom Apostasy. I am compelled to consent with those who so interpret this parable as to bring it largely into line with its predecessorsthe parable of the sower, and the parable of the tares. To be sure, it suggests the rapid and even the unexpected growth of the Kingdom, but it also hints that in that very growth is a sign of weakness rather than of strength, of conflict rather than conquest. We believe it is not straining of Scripture to see in this parable the fungus growth, the false appearance and the foul lodgers.
The fungus growth! Campbell Morgan insists that it is unusual for the mustard seed to become a tree; and yet admits that there are exceptional instances. It is unusual for cotton to become trees, but it does so, south of the frost-line. Credible writers declare that in hot countries, with moist atmospheres and rich soil, mustard, like cotton, becomes a perennial; and instances are even cited in which a mans weight could be supported by the branches; and in the season of its fruitage, birds flocked into it both to feed and rest.
The churchthe Kingdom in embryostarting from the first disciples of Jesus, small indeed in pretence and prophecy, found itself at the end of the first century an institution of might, and in the fourth century, under Constantine, sent its branches into all the world. And whatever may be said concerning the genuine growth and progress marking the first century, few thoughtful folk outside of Rome could be found who would approve the ample proportions of the fourth century churchproposed as a world-kingdom. It was only because that seed of the Pseudo-Kingdom was fertilized with the worlds wealth, and enveloped with the worlds atmosphere, and cultivated by the worlds husbandman, that it took on such proportions, and by its very growth brought its own name into disrepute, and raised the question as to its genuine character.
The false appearance! The mustard under certain circumstances, assumed to be more than it was. It belongs to the herbs; its very texture is not woody; and yet, its pretence is that of a tree. It professes what it does not possess. The phraseology of religion at the present moment falls into the same hypocrisy. Men talk glibly of the Kingdom of God, praise its proportions, reckon up its millions of subjects, prophesy its speedy conquest on the last continent and island, and all with a show, but without the substance, of truth. There is no such Kingdom. There is not even a Christian nation in the world! Every time you speak of one such, you coerce language. There are nations partially civilized by the touch of Christianity; but even in these, the majority are outside of the church, and the overwhelming majority have no kinship to the Kingdom of God. The three or four hundred millions of people who are in the professing church would be terribly reduced in number if there were applied any Christian test. The so-called Christian governments of the world, in their greed of territory, and in their conscienceless commerce, are illustrating a new cannibalism, more refined, perhaps, but not less consuming than that of the old savagery. R. F. Horton, the higher critic, is hardly chargeable with chiliasm, and yet, he says, The sorrow of history is the comparative rareness of humanity in it. And he adds, Our own government is partially humane because it is partially Christian. Some faint aroma of justice and mercy and truth is in our state apartments because the Son of Man has passed through them. The same writer remarked, Heaven is a state in which the will of God is entirely done; and earth is a place in which the will of God is habitually violated. The present constituted society is, as Trench remarks, like that of the ark, where unclean and clean mingle; like that of the pasture, the goats and the sheep are together; like that of the threshing floor, the chaff and the grain are mixed; like that of the field, the tares and the wheat growing together. At present, it is like the mustard seed, tree-like in appearance, but weed-like in nature and character.
The foul lodgers,
The birds of heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof.
There are two interpretations of this sentence, both of which, in my judgment, are correct. One set of teachers see in this sentence the beautiful shadowing and sustaining character of the Church of God. The worlds needy may find a refuge in it, be sheltered and fed by it; and some have even reminded us that the mustard seed is more than food; it is medicine. Thereby they have made their appeal that the church recognize its social obligations, and intelligently enter into the discharge of them.
Another class of interpreters say, No, birds in the preceding parable were agents of the adversary, and in other parts of Scripture, are commonly described as unclean, and the sentence suggests the great fact that the Church of God essaying to be a world-kingdom has been taken possession of by the unregenerate, who build their foul nests in its branches and bring up their broods under its shadow, and turn its beneficent character to the ends of commercial advantage, so that church-membership and corporate wealth are related the one to the other as birds are related to the hospitable, fruitful boughs.
Both are correct! The Kingdom of God, so far as it voices itself at all in that Church, which is preparing the way for it, should be a refuge to the worlds needy, clean or unclean. Jesus Christ was no canting Pharisee. He hesitated not to stretch out His hand of help to even the demonized; and He drew not His skirts about Him when the strange woman sought His counsel and begged His forgiveness. The Church of God that does not provide for the downs and outs, the branches of which suggest neither lodging nor food, nor medicine for the worlds children, is a poor representative of the Christ who received sinners, and did more than eat with them; He fed, counselled and healed them. Truly, as Bruce remarks, The choice few are to seek the good of the many; the fit are to strive to help the unfit. This is their special vocation, and when they cease to do it, they themselves become useless and reprobate!
Yet the other interpretation is equally and even more true. The very methods by which men in modern times have been rapidly increasing the growth of the church, are calculated to call the world into its membership, so that the unregenerate, in the interests of social standing and for the sake of commercial advantage, are joining themselves to the same. A minister told me that he had lost three of his best families to a wealthy neighboring church of the same denomination; that they had deliberately pulled them off through social functions, which tempted women whose husbands were men of moderate means, by offering them a fellowship with the wives of millionaires. This gives an appearance of the coming of the Kingdom, but no promise of it, save as it is a part of the apostasy that is to characterize the consummation of the age.
THE KINGDOM-PURCHASE.
The third and fourth of these field parables look to the Kingdom purchasethe purchase of the hid treasure and the peerless pearl of great price.
The hid treasure!
Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
A part of this parable has been interpreted for us already. The field is the world; the man is Christ; the price paid is His precious Blood. But what is the treasure hid?
Sometimes God hides from the wise and prudent that which He proposes to show to babes. I have read within the week from the pens of almost a dozen men attempting the interpretation of the hid treasure. Many of them were great men, but I found from the pen of one of less learning and less pretense the most intelligent interpretation, namely, that Israel is the hid treasure. Again and again in the Old Testament, she is called Gods treasure, and that she is hidden away now, in the nations, neither students of history nor prophecy can possibly dispute; and that Christ paid the price of His life for the whole world, knowing that by so doing He could win, first of all, His own, dearer to Him than all othersthe treasure, the very attractions of which brought Him from Heaven to earth, is the truth of many a text. Let one read Jer 32:37-42, and let him ponder Eze 37:21-25, and listen to the Psalmist while he sings also (Psa 135:4),
For the Lord hath chosen Israel for His peculiar treasure (Exo 19:5).
Paul loved his people with all the ardor of a Jew, and he could say,
I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites.
But Christ loved them even better, and He put His all upon the altar that they might be saved.
The peerless pearl!
Again the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
The jewels of Jesus will come out of the Gentile world. If the converts of Paul were his joy and his rejoicing, the Gentile converts to Christ shall shine forth with a brilliance beyond the sun in that day when He makes up His jewels. Truly one is justified in changing the hymn and making it read not
Ive found the pearl of greatest price,My heart doth sing for joy,
but rather,
He found the pearl of greatest price,My heart doth sing for joy,And sing I must for I am His And He is mine for aye.
The price paid in each of these purchases is the same: For the hid treasure all that he hath; for the goodly pearl, all that he had. When Christ redeemed Israel, it took all that He had; when Christ redeemed the Gentile world, it cost all that He had. The purchases are not two different ones made at different times; they are the same purchase! God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and Christ so loved the world that He gave Himself, and the world is the Jew and the Gentile.
This purchase was not the barter of a man who was buying something from the Adversary, for Satan never owned the world. As its God, he is a usurper; and the transaction is not that of a son, who is trying to come into the selfish possession as against his fathers ownership, for, from the beginning, the world has belonged to Jesus. He made it. Without Him was not anything made that was made. This buying back, then, is the barter of the goelprecious purchase of redemption. In the Old Testament, when for any reason whatever, an estate was lost to the household, the son who was able to redeem it, did so; or if the members of a family went into slavery, the relative who could accomplish it, paid the price of their freedom. Oh, what a Son in the house of our Father, and what a kinsman in the Christ of Calvary! When my Heavenly estate was forfeited absolutely and I was in spiritual bankruptcy; yea, when I had fallen into the power of the enemy and was stripped of my citizenship, destroyed and stained, He appeared as my kinsman to pay the price and make me free. He is the Goel; He is the Redeemer! Truly, as one says, His very Name delivers a message and it is this: dark, defiled, demon-haunted spirit, black with venom and despair; you, the worst of men, you are a man, therefore the Son of Man does not despair of you. Rather, He has set His heart on saving you. He has come to seek and to save that which is lost. Herein is the ground of our hope, the occasion of our confidence, the answer to our need, the redemption from our defilement, the release from our captivity, the establishment of our citizenship in the Kingdom, the pledge of our eternal heritage with Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.
Len Broughton tells of a friend he knew in youth who was always seeking, but could never find the Lord. On one occasion, Dr. Broughton went back to preach in the country neighborhood. This young man rushed up to him, flung his arms about him and expressed his joy in seeing him again, and Dr. Broughton said, You are to spend the night with me, and he said, No, I must go back home to my wife and children. Well, just send word you are going to spend the night with me. He did so, and we went back into the old room where we used to frolic in bed at night, where we had kicked each other out of bed a hundred times. There in that old bed, once more boys, I said to him, Have you ever found Jesus? He hesitated a moment before he said, No! Have you continued to seek Him? Yes, and I expect to be seeking Him until I die! I will never give up. I said, Why havent you found Him? I do not know! I have thought of your being a preacher and wondered why it was that I just could not find Jesus. I have tried as hard as you ever did and as hard as anybody ever did. I said, Will you let me tell you the secret of it? Yes, if you can. You have not found Jesus because you have not realized the fact that all this time and even before you began to seek Jesus, He was seeking you. It didnt take hold of him at first. He asked me some questions about it, and I put it to him again. Jesus is seeking you. He came to this world to seek and to save that which was lost. Are you lost? Of course I am. Well, He is seeking you, instead of your seeking Him; you have been running from Him, thinking that you were seeking Him. You were seeking something else besides Jesus. You have been seeking feeling; you have been seeking somebody elses experience. Jesus has been seeking you; now stop running after experience and let Jesus find you right here and now. I gave him Joh 3:16, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten San, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. In a moment or two I felt an arm slip around my neck and he began to cry; but it was not the cry of the seeker; it was the rejoicing cry of the saved. There in that bed, where we had frolicked in childhood days, he stopped running after an experience and simply let Jesus find him.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
(36) Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.The question was asked privately, probably in the house of Peter, to which our Lord had retired with the disciples after the listening crowd upon the beach had been dismissed. It implies that the disciples had thought over the parable, and had found it harder to understand than those of the Mustard-seed and the Leaven.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
36. Went into the house After dismissing his sea shore congregation he returned to his usual residence in Capernaum. Declare Explain or solve. Thus was it given to the disciples to know these mysteries of the planting, the development, the growth, the prevalence, and the final issue of the Gospel kingdom. The unbelieving opponents of our Lord would have reviled, denied, perverted, and abused this; and so, being unfit to receive them, these saving mysteries were forever hidden from their eyes. Thus were these things most justly hidden from the wise and prudent, and revealed unto babes. And this was not because God had arbitrarily excluded them from salvation, but because they do most freely exclude themselves. They all might, like the disciples, have received the truth and been redeemed by the blessed Saviour.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Then he left the crowds, and went into the house, and his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares (darnel) of the field.” ’
The session of preaching to the crowds being over Jesus retired into the house (compare Mat 13:1), and His disciples then came to Him and asked Him the meaning of the parable of the darnel sowed among the wheat. We do not necessarily have to assume that this was immediately after He had finished preaching. They might well have given Him time to rest first. Nor were the disciples necessarily totally baffled. Perhaps they just wanted to make sure that they had got their interpretation right. But the fact that they had to ask does demonstrate that while they had ‘understanding’ it was not full understanding.
‘Explain to us the parable.’ The difference between them and the crowds was mainly that they wanted to be sure that they had it right, and therefore asked.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Explanation of the Parable of the Wheat and Darnel (13:36-43).
The parables that have now been given have gradually built up a picture of the advance of the Kingly Rule of Heaven. Firstly the seed has been sown, having different effects depending on the hearers. Secondly the Enemy has sown pseudo-wheat so as to hinder the advance of the Kingly Rule, only for the Father finally to triumph. Thirdly the Kingly Rule will grow from the tiniest of seeds to a substantial bush in which birds nest in the branches. Fourthly the power of the leaven (the Holy Spirit) is working to permeate the whole.
But from this point on His words are spoken to the disciples for their understanding (Mat 13:51), and He commences by explaining the parable of the wheat and the darnel. ‘Hearing they will hear’.
Analysis.
a
b And He answered and said, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of man, the field is the world, and the good seed, these are the sons of the kingly rule (37-38a).
c “And the tares (darnel) are the sons of the evil one” (Mat 13:38 b).
d “And the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the world
e “And the reapers are angels” (Mat 13:39).
f “As therefore the tares (darnel) are gathered up and burned with fire, so will it be in the end of the age (world)” (Mat 13:40).
e “The Son of man will send forth His angels (Mat 13:41 a).
d “And they will gather out of His kingly rule all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity” (Mat 13:41 b).
c “And will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth” (Mat 13:42).
b “Then will the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingly rule of their Father (Mat 13:43 a).
a “He who has ears, let him hear” (Mat 13:43 b).
Note than in ‘a’ Jesus explains the parable and in the parallel all are to hear. In ‘b’ the good seed, sown by the Son of Man, are the sons of the Kingly Rule, and in the parallel they are to shine forth under their Father’s Kingly Rule. In ‘c’ the darnel is the seed of the Devil, and in the parallel it is cast into the furnace of fire. In ‘d’ the enemy sowed them and in the parallel they will be gathered out of the Kingly Rule. In ‘e’ the reapers are the angels, and in the parallel the angels are sent forth by the Son of Man. Centrally comes the end of the age when the darnel is gathered up and burned.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jesus explains the parable of the tares:
v. 36. Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house; and His disciples came unto Him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
v. 37. He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man.
v. 38. The field is the world. The good seed are the children of the Kingdom; but the tares are the children of the Wicked One.
v. 39. The enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
v. 40. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world.
v. 41. The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
v. 42. and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
v. 43. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. The narrative reveals a respectful intimacy on the part of the disciples. When Jesus had returned home, they did not hesitate to ask for an explanation, in order that the meaning of the parable might be altogether clear to them. He was patient with them. He interpreted to them one point after another. The wide world is the harvest-field of the Son of Man, who here represents Himself as the Lord of the Church. His seed are the believers; the unbelievers are the children of the devil. At the time of harvest their unbelief will become apparent, though they have skillfully hidden it under a semblance of piety. They are called offenders that hinder the development of the good grain; they are guilty of behavior contrary to law, of a deliberate ignoring of the law. These facts should not be a matter of surprise to the Christians. “Christ not only tells us about this, but also indicates the reason where such rubbish comes from, that in the Church where the true seed is sown, that is, the Word of God is preached in its truth and purity, there are still so many noxious weeds, so many hypocrites and false Christians. But He indicates the reason to warn us against the offense, which otherwise scandalizes the whole world and causes her to say that nothing good comes from the preaching of the Gospel. Such is not the fault of the doctrine, which is pure and wholesome: neither is it the preachers’ fault, who would like to see, and apply all diligence to have, the people become more pious. But it is the enemy’s, the devil’s, fault; he does like a wicked farmer or neighbor: When people sleep and are not thinking of harm, he does not sleep, but comes and sows tares in the field. That is the point which is brought out also in the parable before this: He takes hold of the hearts that they pay no attention to the Word, and thus day by day are farther removed from it, and let the devil lead and drive them as he will, into all manner of sin and shame.”
On the Day of Judgment the sifting will take place: The false Christians will receive their sentence and be condemned to suffer the tortures of hell-fire, where wailing and gnashing of teeth will be their lot. But those whom Christ has declared righteous, who are righteous in His eyes through the merits of the Savior whom they have accepted, they will receive the reward of mercy. Their glory will be a shining, visible brightness, as of the sun. And they will have the full realization that God is their true Father in Jesus Christ, through whom they are justified in His sight and have received the adoption of sons. It is a matter of earnest, prayerful anticipation.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mat 13:36 . ] the house mentioned in Mat 13:1 .
; comp. Mat 15:15 . Occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It denotes speaking in the way of explaining, unfolding anything. Plat. Gorg . p. 463 E, Theaet . p. 180 B; Soph. Trach . 158, Phil . 555. The reading (Lachmann, after B and Origen once) is a correct gloss.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1363
THE TARES
Mat 13:36. His disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
THERE is much in the Holy Scriptures which unenlightened reason cannot comprehend. Hence the proud and self-sufficient continue ignorant of many truths. But they who seek Divine teaching have more enlarged views. God can reveal to babes what he hides from the wise and prudent. Nor will he leave any in darkness who pray for his Spirit. The Apostles set us an example worthy of our imitation. Our Lord delivered many parables which none clearly understood. But while the Scribes and Pharisees stumbled at them, the more teachable Apostles entreated their Lord to explain their import. Both the parable of the tares and the explanation of it are contained in this chapter [Note: ver. 2430 and 3743.].
To elucidate it more fully, we observe, that the members of Christs visible Church resemble wheat and tares growing together;
I.
In their present growth
The Church, like a field in which different grains are sown, contains persons of very different characters
[Jesus sows much good seed in this wretched world: whatever use he makes of his ministers, the glory is his alone. But Satan is indefatigable in sowing bad seed in the Church: he takes advantage of the sloth and carelessness of Christs servants [Note: ver. 25.], and raises up hypocrites wherever Christ raises his elect.]
These grow together to the grief of all who are truly upright
[Faithful ministers carry their complaints to their Lord and Master; and from zeal for his honour would pluck up the tares [Note: ver. 27.]: but God will not suffer them to make this arduous attempt. No man whatever is capable of distinguishing all characters. Many, who have specious appearances, would be left by us as wheat; while many, who are inwardly sincere, would be plucked up as tares. From regard to these God commands us to forbear [Note: ver. 29 and Mat 18:14.]. He suffers us indeed, and commands us, to exclude the notoriously profligate; but he reserves to himself the office of judging the hearts of men. Till the harvest day therefore we must expect this mixture. Nor will it, in the issue, prove injurious to the saints. They are now stirred up the more to watchfulness and prayer; and hypocrites themselves have the offers of grace and mercy continued to them.]
The reproach occasioned by this will all be wiped away,
II.
In their future separation
The day of judgment is as the harvest
[The angels are represented by our Lord as his angels; and these he will use as his reapers [Note: ver. 39.]. He will endue them with wisdom to discern the characters of all, and will guide them infallibly in the execution of his will.]
Then the different characters shall be separated from each other
[The tares are they who offend, that is, by a false profession cause others to stumble at the ways of God [Note: ver. 41.]; and they, who, making no profession, commit iniquity without restraint. All these shall be gathered first and bound up in bundles [Note: ver. 30.]. Thus will they, who have been partners in sin, be made partners in misery. Alas! what groups of profane persons, formalists, and hypocrites, will then be bound together! May our souls never be gathered with these; but be bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord our God [Note: Psa 26:9. 1Sa 25:29.]! The wheat are the righteous, who are renewed in the spirit of their minds: they too shall be gathered in order to receive their portion.]
What a wonderful, but awful separation will there then be!
[Among the tares, not so much as one grain of wheat will be found: nor among the righteous will there be left one ungodly person. The ungodly husband shall be torn from the arms of his compassionate wife, and the profane child from the bosom of his religious parent. God will shew no respect to one rather than another. The wicked, stript of their veils, will be consigned over to punishment; and the righteous, freed from mutual jealousies, shall unite in perfect harmony.]
The awfulness of this separation will be more fully seen,
III.
In their eternal destiny
The wicked will first receive the doom for which they are reserved
[They will be cast, like worthless tares, into the furnace [Note: ver. 42.]; nor, however God pities them now, will he shew them any mercy then. Not that the fire shall consume them utterly as it would tares: to prevent this mistake, the metaphor is intentionally changed. They will wail the mercies they have despised and the opportunities they have lost: they will gnash their teeth with anguish and vexation of spiritagainst themselves (like a ruined gamester) for their follyagainst each other, for having enticed each other to sinagainst God, with impotent malice, for so punishing their transgressions [Note: Rev 16:9; Rev 16:11.]. And this doom will be inflicted first in the very sight of the godly [Note: ver. 30.]. Thus will the godly see how great mercy they have received.]
The righteous will then receive the kingdom prepared for them
[They, as wheat, shall be treasured up in the granary of heaven. Not that they shall continue there in a state of inactivity. To correct this idea the metaphor here is also changed. God himself will not be ashamed to be called their Father. They shall shine forth in his kingdom like the sun. Their splendour shall burst forth as from behind a cloud [Note: .]. They delighted to enjoy God; they shall now see him face to face. They longed to glorify God; they shall now have every faculty employed in his service for evermore.]
The most suitable improvement is suggested by our Lord himself [Note: ver. 43.]
1.
Let the profane hear
[You can be at no loss to determine whether ye be tares or wheat: your conduct will decide that point beyond a doubt [Note: 1Jn 3:7-8.]. And are you willing to be daily ripening for the furnace? Know that, as ye are at death, ye will continue to all eternity. But ye may now be changed from tares to wheat. Though this change cannot take place in nature, it can in the kingdom of grace. Entreat the Lord then that ye may become new creatures [Note: 2Co 5:17.]. All that are now in the granary of heaven were once as ye are [Note: Eph 2:3 and Gal 4:12. in the Greek.]; and ye, if ye will seek the Lord, shall become as they are.]
2.
Let self-deceivers hear
[It is in vain to think yourselves the Lords people when ye are not. Inquire whether ye have been truly born again [Note: Joh 3:3.]? See whether ye differ from the world, and from your former selves, as much as wheat differs from tares. Be not satisfied with a form of godliness, and a name to live. The day of final separation is near at hand: let every day therefore be spent in earnest preparation for it.]
3.
Let the upright also hear
[The unavoidable mixture in the Church is doubtless a burthen to you; and if you be not careful, it may also become a snare: but, without judging others, strive to approve yourselves to God [Note: 1Co 4:5.]. Speedily will the period of your happiness arrive. Look forward then to death, with composure and gratitude; regard it as the waggons sent to convey you home; and, till it arrive, be praying for the influences of the sun and rain. So shall you be gathered in due season as a shock that is ripe, and be transported with joy to your eternal rest.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
“Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. (37) He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; (38) The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; (39) The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. (40) As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. (41) The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; (42) And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. (43) Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
Our Lord’s explanation of the parable of the Tares, is so plain and simple, that it can need nothing further by way of illustration, I only pray the Lord to give both Writer and Reader such a sense of it, that it may be found we have the hearing ear, and the seeing eye, to know these things which are freely given to us of God.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
Ver. 36. Declare unto us the parable ] Private conference hath incredible profit. The minister cannot possibly say all in an hour: seek settlement from his lips, who both must preserve, and present knowledge to the people. Junius was converted by conference with a countryman of his not far from Florence, Galeacius Caraeciolus, by a similitude of Peter Martyr’s in his public lectures on 1 Corinth., seconded and set on by private discourse. David was more affected by Nathan’s “Thou art the man,” than by all the lectures of the law, for twelve months before.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
36 43. ] INTERPRETATION OF THE PARABLE OF THE TARES OF THE FIELD. Peculiar to Matthew .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 13:36-43 . Interpretation of the Tares . Not in Apostolic Document; style that of evangelist; misses the point of the parable so Weiss (Matt.-Evang., p. 351). But if there was any private talk between Jesus and the Twelve as to the meaning of His parables, this one was sure to be the subject of conversation. It is more abstruse than the Sower , its lesson deeper, the fact it points to more mysterious. The interpretation given may of course be very freely reproduced.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mat 13:36 . ( ) [85] [86] ) again in Mat 15:15 : observe the unceremonious style of the request, indicative of intimate familiar relations. Hesychius gives as equivalents for , , , , etc. . in Deu 1:5 = make clear, a stronger expression.
[85] Codex Sinaiticus (sc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.
[86] Codex Vaticanus (sc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mat 13:36 would seem to imply that the evangelist took these as spoken only to disciples in the house. ut as the Net is closely connected in meaning with the Tares , it is more probable that these parables also are extracts from popular discourses of Jesus, which, like all the others, would gain greatly if seen in their original setting. The Treasure and the Pearl would have their fitting place in a discourse on the kingdom of God as the highest good (Mat 6:33 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 13:36-43
36Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” 37And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 38and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; 39and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. 40So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness,42 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”
Mat 13:36-43 This was Jesus’ interpretation of the parable of Mat 13:24-30 given in private to the disciples.
Mat 13:37 “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man” These parables relate to both Jesus as God’s Messiah, who brings life and truth, and the gospel message as the content of that truth. God’s truth is both a person (sower) and a message (seed).
Mat 13:38 “the field is the world” This is a key for understanding these parables. It is not the Church but the world (cf. Mat 13:47). Only the parable of the sower seems to deal with those who have heard the gospel message and even then it could refer to (1) Palestine of Jesus’ day or (2) the places where the gospel was preached (i.e., the world, cf. Mat 28:19; Luk 24:46; Act 1:8).
“the sons of the kingdom. . .the sons of the evil one”
SPECIAL TOPIC: “SONS OF. . .”
Mat 13:39-40 “the end of the age” This is an eschatological setting. The kingdom is both “already” but “not yet,” as is judgment.
“fire” See Special Topic at Mat 3:12.
Mat 13:41 This is a partial quote from Zec 1:3. Notice that in this verse the Kingdom is called “His kingdom.” There are several places where the kingdom is attributed to the Son (cf. Mat 16:28; Luk 22:30; Luk 23:42; Joh 18:36; 2Ti 4:1; 2Ti 4:18). There are also several places where the kingdom is attributed to both the Father and the Son (cf. Mat 13:43; Eph 5:5; Rev 11:15).
The kingdom of the Son is not temporal (Joh 18:36), but eternal (cf. Dan 7:14; Luk 1:33; 2Ti 4:18; 2Pe 1:11). See Frank Stagg, New Testament Theology, pp. 164-165.
Mat 13:42 See note at Mat 8:12. See Special Topic: Where Are the Dead? at Mat 5:22.
Mat 13:43 “shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” This was similar to the statements of Dan 12:3.
“He who has ears, let him hear” Those whom God has allowed to understand the gospel must respond to it now! This cryptic phrase occurs many times in the NT (cf. Mat 11:15; Mat 13:9; Mat 13:43; Mar 4:9; Mar 4:23; Luk 8:8; Luk 14:35; Rev 2:7; Rev 2:11; Rev 2:29; Rev 3:6; Rev 3:13; Rev 3:22; Rev 13:9). These parables strike a note of urgency in the immediate need to hear, trust and respond to Him, and respond now!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
went into the house. This determines the Structure, on p. 1336.
the house. Peter’s house.
Declare = Expound. Greek. phrazo. Occurs only here, and in Mat 15:15.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
36-43.] INTERPRETATION OF THE PARABLE OF THE TARES OF THE FIELD. Peculiar to Matthew.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 13:36. , explain) The disciples, being teachable, ask for further instruction.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Jesus: Mat 14:22, Mat 15:39, Mar 6:45, Mar 8:9
and went: Mat 13:1, Mat 9:28, Mar 4:34
Declare: Mat 13:11, Mat 15:15, Mat 15:16, Mar 7:17, Joh 16:17-20
Reciprocal: Dan 8:15 – sought Zec 4:4 – What Mat 24:3 – the disciples Mar 4:10 – General Mar 9:28 – asked Mar 13:3 – privately Luk 8:9 – What Act 8:34 – of whom 1Co 3:9 – ye are God’s
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
3:36
The first verse of this chapter states that Jesus went out of the house where he spoke to the multitudes. He now dismissed them and went back into the house, and when the disciples came to him they asked for an explanation of the tares and wheat.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 13:36. Into the house. Probably His usual residence. The purpose was to explain the parables more fully and to add others for the benefit of His disciples that were about Him, with the Twelve; Mar 4:10.
The parable of the tares would be less likely to be understood by the multitudes.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Section 2. (Mat 13:36-52.)
Faith’s view.
The Lord now leaves the multitude and goes into the house: the audience is changed, and He is now with His disciples only, and able to speak out. He does now give them the explanation of the parable of the darnel, carrying it further also than the parable itself had done. But to this he adds three other parables, the third of which He partially explains, but not the others. We are left to spiritual apprehension to discern these.
Between these last three and the first four we shall find the difference which the numbers indicate. Four is the number of the world, and they are spoken in the world – before the multitude. We find in them, in fact, what we can see to be the external aspect of things, – the Kingdom in the form which it has taken manifestly, even though those who see it may discern little of its import. In what is said to the disciples in the house we shall find what is for those of the present time only spiritually discerned, – what is not public fact, but either lies beyond Christian times, or else is of such a nature as only to be understood by those who have learned it from God, from His word. It is faith’s view, then, that we now are to be occupied with, and it need not be a strange thing to us to find that we have very different interpretations to consider, and which it will be necessary to consider seriously, before we shall be entitled to speak with conviction upon the subject.
(1) But first of all we have what is itself an explanation. The interpretation of the parable of the darnel finds its place with the last three parables, and for this there must be some special reason. It would not be enough to say, it is an interpretation; for the Lord had before this explained that of the sower apart to His disciples, without reserving it for the after-teaching in the house. The true reason seems to be in that which is manifest in it, that it goes beyond the parable itself, and therefore beyond the end of the Christian form of the Kingdom of heaven. It presents, therefore, what must be to us as long as we are down here a matter of faith simply: and thus it comes into the second section here, and finds its place with the last three parables.
The parable ends with the gathering of the wheat into the barn. The saints of the present are removed, while the darnel, the fruit of Satan’s sowing, is left in the field – in the world; bound in bundles for the burning, but not burnt. It is noticeable that there is nothing else but this mentioned now. There are no mere lifeless professors, but only the followers of false doctrine, – the reason for which is an unspeakably solemn one, as explained by the apostle in the second epistle to the Thessalonians: the mere professors will be swept off by that “strong delusion” which will come with the apostasy of the last days upon all that have not received the love of the truth that they might be saved” (2Th 2:7-12). The public judgment here is upon those in manifest rebellion; not upon what is hidden but what is manifest. The words in the epistle are decisive as to this.
It is with what takes place after the saints are taken home that the interpretation of the parable has mainly to do: “As then the darnel is gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be at the completion of the age. The Son of man shall send His angels, and they shall gather out of His Kingdom,” – it is now His Kingdom, He is not simply sitting on the Father’s throne – “all things that offend, and those committing lawlessness, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.”
Notice the contrast: the Kingdom of the Son of man below, the Kingdom of the Father above: the righteous reign in the Kingdom of the Son of man; they shine in the Kingdom of their Father. The Sun of righteousness is risen upon the earth; and this is why the righteous shine as the Sun: they are with Him, sharers of His glory; not suns – central, independent orbs, – but lustrous with the glory put upon them. But this carries us, as is plain; beyond the present form of the Kingdom, as also we shall find the parable of the net does. For us, to whom all these parables of the Kingdom belong, it is a matter of faith alone. The numerical symbolism stamps this, I doubt not, as what it so plainly is, the beginning of the reign of righteousness.
2 We come now to two parables which ought, by their evident likeness to one another, to render mutual help in their interpretation – the parables of the treasure and the pearl. They are commonly understood by Christians as portraying in somewhat different ways the value of Christianity or of Christian blessings, and the need of sacrificing all else in order to secure them. But we must take them separately.
“Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in the field, which a man having found hath hid, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.”
An old note of Luther gives what is still the common view: “The hidden treasure is the gospel, which bestows upon us all the riches of free grace, without any merit of our own. Hence also the joy when it is found, and which consists in a good and happy conscience, that cannot be obtained by works. The gospel is likewise the pearl of great price.”
“True Christianity,” says Lange, “is ever again like an unexpected discovery, even in the ancient Church: the best possession we can find, a gift of free grace. Every one must find and discover Christianity for himself. In order to secure possession, even of what we have found without any merit of our own, we must be willing to sacrifice all; for salvation; though entirely of free grace, requires the fullest self-surrender.”
He is naturally perplexed, however, about the purchase of the field, to get the treasure. His solution of the difficulty is so strange that it can only be of value as showing to what strange methods people have to resort to interpret consistently: “If the ‘field’ refers to external worldly ecclesiasticism, the expression might mean that we were not to carry the treasure out of the visible Church, as if we were stealing it away, but that we should purchase the field in order to have full title to the possession hid in it. Accordingly it would apply against sectarianism.” It is hardly worth while to go further.
In fact the interpretation is scarcely scriptural in any part. A man like Luther may speak of “buying” the riches of free grace, and so, no doubt, does Scripture; but it never speaks of selling all that one has to do it. God says rather, “Come ye, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” And the Lord does indeed say, “Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple” (Luk 14:33); but He has taught us elsewhere how to understand all such expressions, and that the would-be disciple does not by this “buy” the grace of God, but must receive that grace first to enable for such whole-hearted discipleship. Not “whosoever will lose his life,” in order to find it, but he who does so “for My sake, shall find it” (Mat 16:25). For “though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing” (1Co 13:3). Love must be the motive power, or there is nothing that can count; but then we cannot love in order to gain for ourselves by it: there is but one way of acquiring it, and that is. as flame lights flame. So love alone kindles love: “we love Him, because He first loved us” (1Jn 4:19).
To sell all that one has to buy the free grace of God is not according to the gospel: that alone wrecks this interpretation; but, if we inquire further, What is the “field” that is bought to get the treasure? the Lord has Himself answered, not with Dr. Lange that it is “external worldly ecclesiasticism” – a strange thing indeed to buy at such a cost! – but the “world,” simply the world. That is the field in which the Word is sown; clearly; ecclesiasticism may spring up in it, but only after the sowing, and must always be a very different thing. But, if “the field is the world,” are we to sell all we have to buy the world, to find the gospel in it? That is mere absurdity, of course.
This interpretation breaking down; then; it only remains to reverse the order of thought, and find in it the Saviour seeking the sinner, instead of the sinner seeking the Saviour. Divine love is first and worthiest: and then how the central figure here shines out! HE went and sold all that He had – “emptied Himself,” as the word in Philippians literally is (Php 2:7, R.V.): “though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich” (2Co 8:9). Texts are easy enough to find in this direction, and simple enough, too, in application. Here is a view of the Kingdom which lies outside of the range of the first four parables, as the continuation of the second parable does, but antecedent, not consequent to them. But it is the foundation upon which all rests, and which could not be omitted from faith’s view of things. It is the fundamental view of the Kingdom itself, and now its being the field of the world that He buys, instead of being out of place, or difficult to understand, is most exactly accordant and most perfectly intelligible. “Even denying the Lord that bought them” is said of those who bring in “damnable heresies,” and bring upon themselves swift destruction (2Pe 2:1). They are not, therefore, of His redeemed (for redemption involves the forgiveness of sins, (Eph 1:7,) and is much more than purchase); nor of the treasure, therefore, for which He buys the field; but they are purchased, as all the world is purchased, and He is Lord over them: the word used here being not the usual title of authority, but “despot” (despotes), “owner.”
The world, then; belongs to Him, and the treasure He has found in it, and for which He buys it, must be His people, who are therefore His purchased ones, the people of His possession (Act 20:28; 1Pe 2:9, Gk.). Yet there are still points of difficulty about this parable, if we apply it to Christians now, as is usual and natural with those who accept the interpretation which we must believe to be the true one. For, according to this view, neither the (implied) first hiding, nor the finding, nor the re-hiding of the treasure is accounted for, and even the buying of the field does not seem fully explained, though the meaning of it in itself is clear enough. But beyond all this the parable that follows it, so similar, and which yet cannot be so close a repetition of it as it appears, needs explanation. We must go on; therefore, to this and compare the two together, before we can get a satisfactory view of the whole matter.
(3) Here “the Kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman; seeking goodly pearls; and when he had found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”
Such interpretations as those of Lange need not long detain us, since they are but slight variations of what we have, in the case of the former parable, already rejected. “The following points,” says Lange, “are plain: he who obtains the Kingdom of heaven is no longer represented, merely as a fortunate finder, but at the same time as an untiring searcher. He is consciously seeking and striving after goodly pearls, or precious spiritual goods. At the same time what was formerly described as a treasure is now characterized as a pearl of great price: it is presented in a concentrated form as the one thing needful, bright and glorious in its appearance, – i.e., the person of Christ and life in Him. are now all in all. Accordingly, all former possessions are readily surrendered.” Surely, one would not expect two parables to present things no wider apart than these; and the buying of Christ after this manner is an unscriptural thought. If we have had to refuse, moreover, the similar interpretation of the treasure, the parallel features in the two forbid our acceptance of dissimilar explanations for them. If Christ be the Finder of the one parable, He must be also the Seeker in the other.
But why, then; the two parables? If Christ be the central Figure in each case, there must be surely difference as to the object before Him; but the general thought of those who accept this view is that it is only one and the same object, though differently presented: “The parable of the hidden treasure,” it is said, “did not sufficiently convey what the saints are to Christ. For the treasure might consist of a hundred thousand pieces of gold and silver. And how would this mark the blessedness and beauty of the Church? The merchantman finds ‘one pearl of great price.’ The Lord does not see merely the preciousness of the saints, but the unity and heavenly beauty of the assembly. Every saint is precious to Christ; but He ‘loved the Church and gave Himself for it.'”
This, however, does not adequately distinguish between the two parables, and indeed passes over entirely some of the most conspicuous differences between them. One cannot understand, if this be all, why the “pearl” should not by itself suffice for both.
That the pearl is the Church is indeed capable of fullest demonstration. If, then; the Church, the heavenly object, be pictured in the second parable, does not this naturally raise the question whether the “treasure hid in the field” of the world is not intended to mark a contrast in this respect? If so, and in connection with the Kingdom of heaven; our thoughts are at once directed to Israel as brought before us in the treasure. Let us examine the possibility of such an application; and see whether it may not help us with regard to some of the otherwise unexplained differences between the two parables.
We have seen that the Kingdom was first announced to Israel. But they rejected the King, and on this account it passed from them. This is, no doubt, why the thought of Israel being before us here has not been more frankly entertained. The parables are “mysteries” of the Kingdom: but is not Israel’s rejection from that which according to Old Testament prophecy belongs to her (and which shall be yet hers in a day to come) part of these very mysteries? The words of the apostle of the Gentiles seem to be clearly in the affirmative with regard to this. He says: “For I would not have you to be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened unto Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in” (Rom 11:25). Thus he names the very thing which has caused the rejection of Israel for the present time as among the mysteries of this time. Is it not, then, antecedently probable enough that among these parables Israel’s relation to the Kingdom should be found to have a place?
When we look at the parable again; we cannot but be confirmed in this. To Israel it was promised that if they obeyed Jehovah’s voice, and kept His covenant, then they should be a peculiar treasure unto Him above all people (Exo 19:5); and the psalmist would wake up their praise by the recollection that “Jehovah hath chosen Jacob for Himself, and Israel for His peculiar treasure” (Psa 135:4). Yet when the Lord came to His own this treasure as such was hid in the field of the world, – as it were, lost among the nations. He discovered it, but could not possess Himself of it. He must first purchase it as at the cross, where Caiaphas, unconscious prophecy declared He would “die for the nation” (Joh 11:51). We see also why the field must be bought: it is in the world that Israel is yet to be displayed as Jehovah’s treasure. But the purchase being made, there is nothing further done as to possession: here the parable stops; the end of this belongs not to the “mysteries;” and in the meanwhile another purpose comes into sight, and is the very thing of which the next parable certainly bears witness.
Thus the interpretation in this way fairly and fully unlocks the whole parable; and a scriptural interpretation which does this must needs be the true one; for if not, – if two interpretations, equally consistent, could be given of the same words, then the words would not distinguish, would be defective in significance, as the Lord’s words could not be. We would have no means of discerning between the true and the false: a conclusion which would be the destruction of the power and authority of Scripture: for that whose meaning cannot be known ceases by that fact to have authority.
In the pearl of great price it is no wonder that Christians should imagine the Lord to be intended. But it is the Church which is thus spoken of, and its preciousness is not only insisted on, but in measure explained also. Its value is estimated by One who knows fully what it is He values. It is now not merely a man who finds, but a merchant who is seeking goodly pearls. The thing he finds he is in pursuit of, and with the practised eye of the skilled observer. Notice, too, that it is intimated that there are other pearls. This is one, however, whose value is such that, having found it, he will sell all he has to buy it.
But what is a pearl? It is, first of all, the product of a living being: it is the only jewel, as far as I am aware, that is so; and this is the first thing, surely, that we are intended to realize in it.
A pearl is the result of injury done to the animal that produces it. Its material is the nacre, as it is called, or “mother of pearl,” which lines the interior of the shell, and which is renewed by it as often as injured or worn away. A particle of sand getting between the animal and the shell, the irritation causes a deposit of nacre upon it, which goes on being deposited, layer after layer, till a pearl is formed. But “completely spherical pearls” – and these are the valuable ones – “can only be formed loose in the muscle or soft parts of the animal. The Chinese obtain them artificially by introducing into the living mussel foreign substances, such as pieces of mother of pearl fixed to wires, which thus become coated with a more brilliant material.”
The pearl is thus, as we may say, an answer to an injury; and it is the offending object that becomes, through the work of the injured one, a precious and beauteous gem. It is clothed with a comeliness put upon it, as the objects of divine grace are, with the beauty and glory of Him we crucified! It is in truth nothing else that He sought in coming among us but objects of divine grace.
Between a common pearl and one of great price, the difference is only of degree. The size and brilliancy depend, not upon the grain of sand which may be enwrapped, but upon the number of layers of nacre which enwrap it. The greatness of the grace bestowed is the distinguishing feature in what is here. Different bestowals of grace there are, and Scripture asserts this in the fullest way. The calling of Israel is not that of the Church, which is Christ’s body; and though the departed saints of former dispensations will plainly be in heaven as we shall be, Scripture again makes a difference between the Church of the first-born ones whose names are written in heaven” (Israel being the first-born upon earth) and the “spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb 12:23). God is going “in the ages to come to show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:7).
Israel may be the treasure in the field, but the pearl speaks of personal adornment. Christ will have the Church in heaven with Himself, putting in the highest place what is to show most conspicuously the glory of His grace. It is one pearl; as the body of Christ is one. There cannot be, it is evident, another body of Christ. The “fullness” or complement “of Him that filleth all in all” admits of no other.
The treasure and the pearl both speak of what is faith’s view as to the Kingdom, not the external view presented in the first four parables. In the treasure we find Israel preserved for blessing, but reserved, they having in the meanwhile rejected the only possible way in which it could be theirs. In the pearl we have that in which, during this reservation, the purpose of God as to the Church comes out. It is the first expression of it, and as yet we do not realize just what it is: as the “assembly which is His body,” or even as “the house of God,” it is not yet mentioned, but as people for Himself, destined to display His glory – the glory of His grace: heavenly, therefore, not earthly, the earthly promises being Israel’s still. The revelation will, of course, become fuller as we go on. The light increases to the perfect day.
(4) Israel comes no more into this picture all has been said about it that needs. The rest is told. fully in the Old Testament prophets. What we have in the last parable here concerns neither Israel nor the Church, as is plain by the interpretation which our Lord Himself gives: it is the mercy to the Gentiles, after the purpose of God as to the Church is complete. A new gathering now begins with the net cast into the sea, the figure of the Gentile nations. It gathers of every kind, and is then drawn to shore, and the sorting of the good from the bad is by angel-hands alone. This is at the completion of the age, and while coincident with the final harvesting of the wheat-field, is a different thing from it. To the present time it cannot apply: the putting the fish into denominational vessels, as some have applied it, is not a possible thought here: for we are not in the “completion of the age,”* which is, as our Lord explains, the time of harvest; and the sorting in this case is not by human but angelic hands.
{*The full explanation of this term will be given in the notes on the twenty-fourth chapter, where the whole prophecy relates to it. “The end of the world” is a wrong translation.}
The net applies to the going out of the “everlasting gospel,” as in Rev 14:6-7, after the Church is removed to heaven, and where the terms of it show at once the difference between it and the gospel at the present time. We cannot say, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come,” and on the other hand the grace which it is ours to proclaim is infinitely fuller. The issue of what is here is, no doubt, seen in the separative judgment of the living, when the Lord appears, as shown forth in the “sheep” and “goats” of the twenty-fifth chapter. In the wheat-field of Christendom there will be at the end no separation of the wicked from among the righteous, but the righteous will be gathered first of all, and removed to heaven; after which nothing but the darnel will remain to be gathered and burnt. With the fish here and the sheep and goats in the later chapter, there is a true judicial separation of the “sheep from the goats,” the wicked departing into everlasting fire, and the righteous left for blessing upon earth under the “Shepherd” rule of the Son of man now come.
This is the end of the parables of the Kingdom; and the Lord’s words that follow to His disciples are self-evident in their application to them. New things have been declared and put in connection with the old; all the latter part being such an adjustment. The scribe of the old dispensation, becoming now the disciple of the new, is brought into the fullness of the whole revelation of God.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
The parable of the tares of the field, Christ is pleased to explain to his disciples after this manner. The person sowing good seed was himself, The Son of man; who first planted the gospel: the field in which the seed was sown was the world; that is, the church in the world: the good seed, called, The children of the kingdom, are sincere Christians: the tares called, The children of the wicked one, are profane sinners, and unsound hypocrites: the enemy is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world, and the angels are the reapers.
Learn, 1. That the mixture of the tares and the wheat, of the righteous and the wicked must and shall remain in the church unto the end of the world.
2. That in the end of the world the angels shall perform the work of separations, gathering the righteous from among the wicked: when everyone’s harvest shall be according to his fruit; The righteous shining in the kingdom of their Father, the wicked cast into a furnace of fire.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mat 13:36-39. Then Jesus sent the multitude away The evening probably drawing on, for the people had now been long collected together: and went From the vessel where he had been preaching; into the house Probably a friends house, that he might refresh himself a little: and his disciples came, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares They say nothing of the two other parables, because, probably, they understood them; or, perhaps, this parable affected them more than either of the others, in regard of its dreadful conclusion. Jesus readily granted their request, pleased, doubtless, that they were desirous of understanding every part of his doctrine. He answered, He that soweth the good seed, is the Son of man Christ sowed the good seed of truth by preaching the gospel, and thereby, through the influences of his Spirit, forming and raising up real Christians, with whom to plant his church. The field is the world To enlighten and save the world is the great end for which the gospel is preached, and out of it believers are gathered. Or rather, as appears from the parable itself, the church in the world is meant by the field. The good seed are the children of the kingdom That is, the children of God, the righteous. But the tares [or darnel] are the children of the wicked one How much soever they may have of the form of godliness, and however unblameable they may appear in their outward conduct, not being justified by grace, nor renewed in the spirit of their minds, but still in a state of guilt and depravity, they are not the genuine children of God, but those of the wicked one. The good seed, says Baxter, as sown, is the gospel; but as springing up in fruit, it is the faithful, who are properly the members of the Church of Christ. The tares, as sown, are evil doctrines and temptations; but as sprung up in fruit, are the children of the devil, who is the father of wickedness, and that enemy of God and man who sowed them. The harvest is the end of the world Even the day of final judgment and retribution; the reapers are the angels Who shall be employed in the services of that day, and especially in gathering together the saints, and separating them from the rest of mankind, in order to their eternal salvation, and in executing the sentence of condemnation passed on the ungodly.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
LIV.
THE FIRST GREAT GROUP OF PARABLES.
(Beside the Sea of Galilee.)
Subdivision F.
THE PARABLE OF THE TARES EXPLAINED.
aMATT. XIII. 36-43.
a36 Then he left the multitudes, and went into the house [probably Simon Peter’s house]: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Explain unto us the parable of the tares of the field. 37 And he answered and said, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; 38 and the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; 39 and the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are angels. 40 As therefore the tares are gathered up and burned with fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. 41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, 42 and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. 43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears, let him hear. [This parable and its explanation are sometimes urged as an argument against church discipline, but such a use of them is clearly erroneous. The field is not the church, but the world, and the teaching of the parable is that we are not to attempt to exterminate evil men. Any who attempt to exterminate heretics in the name of Christ by physical force are condemned by this parable.]
[FFG 339]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Mat 13:24-30, Mat 13:36-43. The Wheat and the Tares.Mt. only. The parable is a substitute for rather than an adaptation of Mar 4:26-29*. We need not deny its genuineness on the plea that the standpoint is that of the Church with its mixed elements. The field is the world, not the Church. As in the parable of the seed growing secretly, the non-interference of man is illustrated. Only the great Assize can determine between good and bad. The genuineness of the explanation is more doubtful than in the case of the Sower, and may be an imitation of it. It is mechanical and conventionally apocalyptic.
Mat 13:31-35. The Mustard Seed and the Leaven (Mar 4:30-34*, Luk 13:18-21)The leaven (omitted from Mk.), usually an illustration of evil, is here a ferment of good (cf. salt, Mat 5:13), either the disciples or the Gospelthe doctrine of the Kingdom. The point of the quotation (Psa 78:2; some MSS. curiously add Isaiah after the prophet) in Mat 13:35 is in the second clausethe Kingdom foreordained and predestined is now ushered in by Jesus.
Mat 13:36-43. See above.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Verse 36
The house; the house in which he dwelt in Capernaum.–Declare unto us; explain unto us.
Matthew 13:38-43. It would seem impossible to teach more plainly than it is taught in this language, that there is day of judgment and retribution to come, after this life is ended; and that those who shall then be condemned will find themselves involved in hopeless and eternal ruin.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
The explanation of the parable of the weeds 13:36-43
Matthew separated the explanation of this parable from its telling in the text (Mat 13:24-30). He evidently did this to separate more clearly for the reader the parables Jesus spoke to the multitudes from the parables He told His disciples.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Jesus now removed Himself from the crowds by reentering the house, evidently in Capernaum, from which He had departed to teach the multitudes (Mat 13:1). There he explained three of the parables (Mat 13:10-23; Mat 13:37-43; Mat 13:49-50) and taught His disciples four more (Mat 13:44-48; Mat 13:52). Jesus’ disciples were not different from the crowd because they immediately understood the parables. They were different because they persisted in asking Jesus to help them understand the parables, whereas the crowds showed less interest. Why did Jesus continue to teach His believing disciples by parables rather than with straightforward explanations? Evidently so many people were following Jesus that whenever He spoke, except in private to His disciples, a mixed audience heard Him.