Parable of the Sower & the Seed (Matthew 13:1-23)

Welcome to Wednesday in the Word with Krisan Marotta. What the Bible means and how we know. For more talks and study materials, visit wednesdayintheword.com. Speaker: Welcome again. We start our study in the parables of Jesus today with what is most likely the first parable Jesus taught, which is the parable of the sower and the seed, also known as the parable of the soils. And most scholars think this was the first parable Jesus delivered in his public ministry, and we think that by comparing the records of the Gospels. So he often Jesus often spoke in metaphor and simile, and he prefer referred to pictures drawn from life, but this appears to be the first time he taught publicly in parables. And his disciples are struck by that and they ask for an explanation. So they ask him both why is he speaking in parables and what this parable means? And we're gonna we're gonna look at both those answers. And he explains why, and he interprets two of the seven parables in this chapter for them, which gives them and us a model for understanding them. So the Gospel of Matthew records three great sermons of Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount, which you're probably familiar with, is chapters five through seven, the Sermon on the Sea, which is chapter 13, which is the one we're gonna look at today, or the one that contains our parable, and then the Olivet Discourse, which is chapters 24 and 25. And of those three, this section, the Sermon on the Sea, is probably the least well known. And it consists of seven parables that Jesus taught in one day. So this is gonna be a little long because we've got a lot of ground to cover. So we are gonna jump right in. In your books, you'll have the text on page eight, and there's space on page uh ten for you to take notes, and then I'm gonna refer to a chart on page twelve. So that's where we are in your study guide. All right, so this series of parables begins on a day when Jesus had been teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum, and Matthew tells us, this is in Matthew 13, 1 through 3, that day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea, and large crowds gathered to him. So he got into the boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach, and he spoke many things to them in parables, saying, and then he goes into our story. So the setting for this uh sermon on the sea, which includes our parable, is the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It's not very far from where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. He came out of the synagogue in Capernaum and went down to the beach, and the crowds gathered around him, and there were so many of them that in order to be able to address them all, he get he got in a boat and rowed out uh a little ways offshore, and from there he was able to speak to them all. So let's go on, let's go through our story, and this is probably one of the most familiar parables. Um this so we're gonna look at 13, 3 through 9. And he spoke to them, and he spoke many things to them in parables saying, Behold, the sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and birds came and ate them up. Others fell on the rocky places where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out, and others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Now most scholars think the setting for this parable is the exact setting where Jesus was delivering it, because from where he's from where the crowd stood on the beach, they could look up into the hillside and see the very kinds of of places that Jesus was describing. They could imagine a sower going forth to sow because all the soil types existed in that place where Jesus delivered the sermon. So there was most likely a path that would have been beaten across the field, and that would be where the ground had become hard, and the birds would pick up the seed behind the sower. They could see the rocky ground, the thorns, and so on. One commentator described it the setting this way. He'd actually been there, so I'm going to read his description. The ground on the northeast side of the lake is at least six hundred feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and at one time it must have been completely underwater. It is situated at the extremity of a volcanic range and at one time at one time in very active eruption. These factors give peculiar geological strata to the soil, which is very fertile in spots where the lava settled upon the limestone foundation, and very barren in places where the watershed bared the rock. In the same field may be found a deep rich soil, a gravel soil, and bare rocky patches. So the sowing of wheat takes place during the months of December and January. So the sower carries a bag of wheat tied to his shoulder and round his waist so he has easy access to the mouth, and from that bag he would withdraw the seed and scatter it on the field. It is, of course, inevitable that some of the seeds should fall on very shallow ground among the thorns or on the roadside or in the fields. So all the conditions of growth with which the people of the countryside were familiar were given their value and place in the parable. That's from Levinson. So before we look at the parable itself, we have to ask the question, is this an allegory? And we talked about, for those of you who weren't here last week, we talked about the difference between an allegory and an analogy, and I made the bold claim that parables are analogies, that is, they are comparisons. So something about the story is like reality. Whereas an allegory is a symbolic way of saying reality, where you expect a one-to-one substitution between the elements in the story and the elements in reality. And traditionally, the church assumed that this parable was an allegory. They interpreted it as an allegory until about the early 1900s. Modern scholars now agree that this is not an allegory, but some think Jesus still interprets it as if it is one, and they think he was wrong. How you get that? Like beyond me, but and some people think, well, the the interpretation must be a later addition to the gospel, so some overzealous scribe put it in, and because it's allegorical, it's not in fact Jesus' words. I think both those positions are wrong. I think this is an analogy, and I think Jesus interprets it as one. So let me explain why. First, the story makes sense as a story, just as you'd expect in an analogy. Everything in the story functions the way you'd expect it to function in a normal story. It works as a story, and in fact, everything in the story unfolds exactly as we would expect. So it makes sense as a story, which is a hallmark of an analogy. Second, there's no evidence that the elements in the story carried any symbolic meaning in first century Jewish culture. So the birds, the thorns, the rocks, all the things in the story had no symbolic meaning that we can find anywhere else. So we don't see them functioning, say, the way an eagle functions in American literature, where it's a symbol of freedom. These elements were just elements. They were just things that people would have seen. And in fact, given the setting, most scholars think that Jesus was just looking up into the hills and drawing the story from the place he was uh preaching from. So the third reason is the disciples have to ask what the parable means. And that suggests that they were not the symbolic elements that their culture was aware of and that they would have understood. Because if those elements had been symbols in their day, the disciples would have most likely have understood them and understood what the parable meant. Okay, and fourth, then, the so-called substitutions Jesus makes are actually comparisons, and we're going to look at that when we look at his explanation. In each case, he says the activity of the sower and what happens to the seed is in some way like reality. So what happens to the seed parallels and reveals reality, and the point of comparison is what marks an analogy. And then finally, when we look at Jesus' explanation, we'll see this. The elements in the story, when he explains the elements in the story, he explains them based on how they function in the story, which is again a hallmark of an analogy. He says there's some way in which the story itself is like reality, and that point of comparison is how he pulls out the the meaning. So his explanations are not based in any way symbolic, but on how the dynamic of the story unfolds. So he could have told the same story using a mountain and a flood and something instead of birds, for instance, in a road, and it would have had the same meaning. Okay. And in fact, this parable is different than all the other ones we're going to look at this fall in that it does not contain a twist. There is no surprise, there's no break, there's no like, well, we expect the story to go this way and all of a sudden it swings back and goes another way, which is typical of parables. This is the only one where exactly what we would expect to happen in the story happens. So we are so accustomed to reading this parable and its interpretation that we're apt to miss the fact that it must have sounded pointless to those who heard it, because this is like, okay, yeah, this is what sowers do, this is what happens, this is what we'd expect, there's no twist, there's no puzzle, there's no contradiction, uh, and there's very little context given to the multitudes. So they must have thought, so what? So why are you telling the story? And we're gonna look at that. We're gonna try to answer that question in a minute. Okay, so what I want to do next is go over the chart you'll find on page 12, which is Jesus' explanation, and I want to look at how he interprets it and how it is an analogy. So the crux of the parable is the condition of the soils into which the seed is dropped. And if I was going to summarize the whole thing, I would say just as there are various kinds of soil upon which the seeds fall, and the soils affect how the seed grows, so there are various kinds of people who will respond to the word of God differently, and their response affects whether they believe or grows. So that's the point of comparison, how you respond to the word of God. So let's look at it piece by piece. Verse 18 and 19. Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in this heart. This is the one on whom the seed was sown beside the road. So I would summarize this just as the seed which fell by the road produced no fruit, and the birds devoured it, so some people will hear the truth, do not understand it, and they will lose what little understanding they have. So the picture he's painting is like a path that is beaten across a field where people continually walk in the same spot, and the soil becomes packed down and hardened and narrowed by the traffic of human feet. So when you throw seed on that, it can't sink in. Similarly, there is a human heart that is hardened to the truth so that when it hears it, it will reject and fail to respond it. So perhaps this person is momentarily thoughtful, they go, hmm, something about that is interesting or challenging, and for a moment you wonder maybe there's something like this. Um but then, and it looks like maybe this person is really going to think about the truth or think about the idea, but then it requires more thought or or more self-evaluation self-evaluation than you want to do, and you just can't be bothered, so you shrug it off. And immediately our Lord says the enemy comes and snatches away the thought out of your heart and it doesn't come back. So you just go on untroubled thinking about the world and the way you've always seen it. So that's the person whose heart is hard and just the truth like bounces off. So Matthew 13, 20 and 21. And the one on whom the seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no firm root in himself but is only temporary. And when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. So I would say, just as the seed which fell on the rocky places sprang up but had no root to grow, so some people seem to respond to the truth with faith, but when that faith is tested, they abandon the truth because their faith is not genuine. So the picture here is you've got a few inches of good soil or earth on top of a shelf of bedrock. In other words, you've got this shallow, thin layer of soil with a la level of rock underneath, and that's the point of comparison. Jesus says he has no root in himself. The the seed can't go down and establish roots deep enough to grow. So this is the person we would call who lives a shallow life, who flips from one thing to that and from one experience to the other, and never commits to anything for very long. So these are the people, you know, that are restless and and continually searching and prowling, and you may have met people like this, you know, they're fattest. They they're enthusiastic for the gospel this week and then next week, you know, it's yoga or supervitamins or whatever new thing catches their eye. So they live on the surface and they're emotional, they can't there's no depth in their life, nothing goes to their heart, and they would move from fad to fad. So when the gospel reaches this kind of person, she would receive it with joy, maybe think it's great, very enthusiastic, but then when life gets hard, and when suddenly now you have to make a choice and it's no longer easy, they would turn away. And if you think about it, the for those of you who were here last spring, this is what James was talking about a lot. How trials prove and test our faith. So this would be the person who, when tested, says, Enough of that. If following God means I have to do that, I'm gonna go find something better, something easier. Okay, Matthew 13, 22, then. And the one on whom the seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. So I would summarize this. Just as the seed which fell among the thorns was choked, so some people hear the truth, seem to respond to faith, but they abandon that faith in favor of the cares and values of the world. So in my opinion, this is the typical American. We're just too busy to even think about it. So this would person may not be uninterested, he might be interested, and he's not a shallow person, he might be a very deep thinker, capable of analysis and long meditation. The trouble is too busy and you want it all. So you might want the fruitfulness of the gospel, but you also want all the fruitfulness of the world, the so-called finer things, you know, keeping up with the Joneses, buying things you don't need with money you don't have to impress people you don't like. You know, that that's the goal. So you want that color TV set and the swimming pool and the fine home and the two beautiful cars and the wide social life, and so you just don't have time to think about the gospel. There's just too many other things to do and pursue. Okay, and then finally, 1323, and the one on whom the scene was sown, did I read the right? And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and brings forth some a hundredfold, some sixty and thirty. So you could read that this is like the man he's making a comparison. And I would say, just as the seed which fell on good soil grew and produced fruit, so some people hear the truth and respond with faith that matures and grows strong and endures. So this is the person who responds with faith and continues to grow in faith and maturity and wisdom, and as life unfolds and and her faith is tested, it is grows stronger through the test. Um, you continue to turn to God, growing in maturity and wisdom. Now, a couple things to remember the sowing is not salvation. So just hearing the gospel is not sufficient. Many, many people hear, but not all respond, not all become believers. So truth must change your life. And again, this is one of the big themes we talked about with James last spring. So you hear the truth, and that's not enough. You it's not that you have you have to have more than an intellectual understanding or um you know an intellectual grasp of what the facts of the matter, it needs to take hold of your life and change your life. So even sprouting is not salvation. So the initial enthusiasm or the claim to faith, that's not yet salvation. So you can make a claim or a profession of faith, but that's not enough. The truth has to to change your life, to change the way you see yourself, you see the world, you understand reality, and so on. And we need to note that Jesus is describing our response to truth. He's not saying that once you're like a certain kind of soil, that's it. You're you are forever unchangeable. He's saying our hearts can be like this when we respond to the truth, but God is in the business of changing our hearts. He can alter our hearts by our circumstances in our life, by our understanding, by the things that come our way, by people we come in contact with, and it's quite possible that a single person could pass through all these conditions, could be like all these different types of soil before eventually coming to faith. So if you're wondering, gee, which type of soil am I, that's a good question to ask, but I would say, which type are you right now? Because God can change you. And if you don't like the answer that you're you if you look at your life and go, I don't like the answer I see, or you're unsure of the answer, all you have to do is pray and ask God to make you like the person described by the good soil, to make you a person of faith, to open your eyes so that you can see and understand. So, as we said, unlike the other parables, this parable fits all the cultural expectations. This is what you'd expect to happen when you sow seed. There's no twist, there's no puzzle, there's no contradiction, no one violates the cultural norms, and there's very little context given to the multitudes. So they must have thought, why would Jesus tell the story? And that's a question we're going to look at now. So we're going to go back and look at that middle section in between the parable and his explanation. So why would Jesus tell the story? What was his point overall? We can see that they're different people and they respond to different to faith differently, and why would that be an important parable to tell at this point? Well, scholars differ on this, but based on everything I've read, this is what I think is the best most explanation makes the most sense. So the people of the day had these expectations about what the Messiah would do when he came. And Jesus wasn't meeting their expectations. So the Jews believed that Jesus would come and establish the kingdom of God, that is God's rule over all the whole world, not just the Jews, but everyone, so that every tribe and every nation bowed before God. And now Jesus is here and he claims to be the Messiah, and that's not happening. In fact, the religious leaders, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, are becoming increasingly antagonistic toward Jew toward Jesus. He's not overthrowing Roman rule at the very least, so the disciples must have wondered, what's going on? I mean, when Jesus' teaching is so profound and he's performing these signs and wonders that confirm him as the Messiah, why is his ministry having so little effect? Well, the parable of the sower and seed is his answer. Essentially, his answer is just as in the natural world that this thing with the soil happens, so we see that in the spiritual world. Not everyone is going to respond. If the people who hear Jesus seem unresponsive, it's no surprise because only a certain type of person would respond. That's it in a nutshell. Let's look at his explanation. This is verses 10 through 17. And the disciples came to him and said to him, Why do you speak to them in parables? Jesus answered them, To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have in abundance, but whoever does not have, even what he has, shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, You will keep on hearing but will not understand, you will keep on seeing but will not perceive, for the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return, and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it. Now that's a pretty confusing section, right? You read that and you go, What's he saying? Because it sounds like he's intentionally trying to keep people from coming to the truth. I think it actually means the exact opposite of that. So we're gonna we're gonna parse it out and go through this piece by piece. So the key statement in this section is verse eleven. To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. I think he he lays that out as kind of a thesis statement, and then he the rest of that section is a support for what why he said that. So we're gonna first we have to make sure we understand what he's saying in verse eleven. So the first word we want to look at there is mystery, the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Some translations might have secrets. Mystery is a little better word translation, I think. It means something that was hidden and has now been revealed. So it's not a secret in the sense that no one knows it. It doesn't refer to something impossible to understand. It's not a puzzle, it's not an enigma, and it's not a paradox. Typically, this word, and I think in this context it's here, it's something that we should now be able to understand because it was formally hidden, usually from people, and now it's been revealed. God has explained it. So usually we're the ones who didn't understand, and God is the one doing the explaining. So it's something that we didn't understand before, we didn't have all the information necessary, we didn't have the divine revelation, but now something has changed and we should be able to understand it. So that typically that's what a mystery means in Scripture. It's a truth which cannot be known by the normal exercise of human wisdom or knowledge. So we're not going to find the answers in science or biology or in chemistry or in philosophy or any other field of human investigation. If we're going to be able to understand it, God has to teach it to us. So in that sense, it's a mystery. It's something that was hidden, but God has now explained or revealed it. So what Jesus is saying in verse 11 is prior to his coming, there was something about the kingdom of heaven that was still unknown, that was hidden, and now with his coming, has been more fully explained and more fully revealed. So, what is that? That's what we have to figure out. So, what's the kingdom of heaven mean? The kingdom of heaven, I think, is a synonymous phrase with the kingdom of God. So if you read, like, for example, the parable in Luke or in Mark, they might say the kingdom of God, and those phrases are used interchangeably. The Jews considered it irreverent to speak the name of God, so they would come up with ways around it so they wouldn't have to say God. And one alternative was to substitute the word heaven for God. So it was just uh it was a polite way of not having to speak God's name out loud, which they thought was blasphemous. So they would say the kingdom of heaven instead of the kingdom of God, and it means the same thing. So, what is Jesus saying about this mystery of the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven? First, let me tell you what it what it meant to the Jews at the time of Christ, and then I think I'll tell you what the ne what the piece of information was that came became clearer that was revealed. So the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, w the Jews understood that as the reign of God as king. So and this had two aspects. So it was God reigning as king over Israel, insofar as Israel obeys. So God would be the king of Israel, and his rule would be in s ineffective insofar as they took the law upon themselves, kept the covenant, and submitted to his rule. So in that sense, the kingdom of God was a present fact. It was God ruling over Israel as her king and them keeping their end of the covenant or attempting to. But there was a second aspect of the kingdom of God, which had not yet been established, and that was God as king over the whole world. So the Jews would talk about the kingdom of God as something yet to be revealed, because God one day would be more than the king of Israel. He would be king over the whole world, and the world would recognize him as such. So Israel looked forward to the day when the kingship of God would be recognized by every tribe and every nation. In fact, one of the prayers the Jews would pray at the time, and I think they still pray this, is may he establish his kingdom during your life and during your days and during the life of all the house of Israel. So it's the idea of looking forward to the time when God would be recognized as God in every nation. So that aspect of the kingdom was a future hope. Now the Jews expected that this would happen, this future hope would happen when the Messiah came. So there was this day coming, and the Messiah was going to usher it in where evil would be judged, all the wrongs would be put right, Israel would be vindicated, those who blasphemed against God would be judged and condemned, and the Messiah is going to do this and establish his rule. And what they were supposed to do in the meantime was scrupulously obey the law and keep their end of the covenant. So now Jesus comes along and he says these confusing things like the kingdom of God is at hand, or the kingdom of God is near, or even more strange, the kingdom of God has come upon you. So the Jews must have thought, how is that happening? Because they could look around and see the whole world's not bowing down to God, evil's not being judged, the powers of evil haven't been vanquished, the Romans are still in power, and they weren't living in communion with God as they would expect in this final age. And moreover, Jesus says this thing to sinners. So he's not going to the Pharisees and saying the kingdom of God is near. He's going to tax gatherers and sinners and prostitutes and people who are unclean and saying the kingdom of God is near. So they must have thought, how they're not even keeping the law. How could the how could he possibly speak this to them? Alright, so the next clue we have in this puzzle is that Mark uses the phrase the kingdom of God synonymously with eternal life. So he will interchange those two phrases. And eternal life means the life of the age of ages or the life of the age to come. So it's not longevity, it's not life forever, but it's like the kind of life we will have when the kingdom of God is here or when we're in the next age. So the kind of life we will have when all of the wrongs are put right, when the evil is judged, when tears are wiped away, and when death has been vanquished. So what Jesus, I think, is saying, what is new and what the new understanding about the kingdom of God is that now God's rule is effective in your life, not because of what you have done in keeping the law, but because of what God has done in sending his son and his spirit. So when Jesus says the kingdom of God has come upon you, he means something about your present experience has changed. Something has happened now which has not happened before, and that is God's rule is now effective in your life, not because you've now earned it or you've kept the law, but because God has promised to change you by his power and by his spirit. So he has given you faith, and through faith you are saved, and now you can begin to keep the law in a way you couldn't keep it before because now you have God working from the inside out to make you the kind of person he always intended you to be. So the kingdom of God is at hand. I think he means it's now possible in a way it wasn't possible before. It's near in that now we have this increased understanding of how it works and how we get there. And that came through the incarnation and through the Messiah and Jesus coming to earth. And remember, we talked about this last fall in Galatians about how the law was our tutor, and it was to not to save us, but to point us to the fact that we need a salvation uh savior, that we can't keep the law on our own. So no matter before we were under the law, we had to keep the law, and no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't do it, we couldn't measure up fully, inside and out, perfect a hundred percent of the time. And now God says, But I'm gonna give it to you as a gift. Uh not because you deserve it, because you don't, and not because you can do it all by yourself, because you can't, but because I'm a loving and merciful and compassionate God. So God is revealing this truth about his kingdom, and that's I think what Jesus is saying to you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. Some of you have been it has been granted that when you hear the truth about the kingdom of God, that it is now possible as a gift of grace, that was and that fact is more fully revealed by the coming of the Messiah, you will respond in genuine faith. But some are going to hear this and they will not understand and they will not respond. Okay? So follow me so far? Good, because now the rest will fall in place. So before we talk about the Isaiah quote, we have to understand one more word that Matthew uses differently, and that's the word fulfilled in verse 14. When he says, in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, so fulfilled in scripture has two different meanings. One is predictive prophecy. So one is I ex I say that something that has not yet happened is going to happen, and then it happens. And that in that sense, Scripture is fulfilled. So God said beforehand X would happen, now X has happened, He predicted it, it came true, the prophecy has been fulfilled. And that's the meaning we usually assume. But there's another meaning, and I I want to suggest for my study of Matthew, Matthew almost always means the second meaning, and I think he does here, and that is that there is a spiritual principle that is shown in its fullness or its completeness. So let me explain with an example. I might say that just as Moses led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt, God through Jesus has led us out of captivity in sin. And in there's a sense in which Jesus is the fulfillment of Moses. Now I'm not saying that Jesus was that Moses was predicting Jesus' actions. I'm making a comparison. I'm saying what Moses did in his day, Jesus did in his day even more so. He's the fullest picture of it, or the epitome of it, or the best, most perfect example of it would be another way. So Jesus fulfilled the principle in the most perfect way, or he's the culmination of it. And quite often when you see the scripture was fulfilled, especially in the Gospel of Matthew, that's what he's saying. There was something that we saw here as a shadow, and now we see the fullest picture of it in this new event. So, in that sense, scripture is fulfilled. The picture has been drawn out and completed. And I think what he's saying is just as the Jews of Isaiah's day heard Isaiah, closed their eyes and ears, and rejected this great, incredible prophet, now you have people faced with the flesh and blood Messiah, and they're rejecting him. So they're the epitome, if you will, of rejecting truth. So he's not saying that he's purposely misleading them so that they won't understand, and then what Isaiah said will will actually be what Isaiah predicted will come to pass. He's saying you saw this type of rejection in Isaiah's day with this great prophet of God, and now you're seeing the prophet of God, and it's the fullest picture of this kind of rejection. So it's one thing to reject a prophet, it's another thing to reject God Himself in the flesh. And that's the kind of the culmination or the the most uh fullest picture of it. Okay, one other word we want to I want to talk about because it makes a difference is the word otherwise in verse 15, or some translations might have left. That's the the word that makes it sound like Jesus is purposely trying to confuse them or confuse his hearers. Um and so that they won't repent, and I want to think that is not what it means. That word left means so that not, both in the Hebrew and Isaiah and then the Greek translation of it here, it has the idea of consequence or purpose. So if I say I'm going to sit down, otherwise I might lose my chair, that's the sense of it. It carries the idea that I'm sitting down with the purpose of hanging on to my chair, or with the consequence or the result that I won't lose my chair. And that's the sense here. They keep on hearing and seeing but not understanding because their heart says dull, and they've closed their ears so that, or with the consequence that, or otherwise they would repent. So the end result of that is that they don't understand and they don't repent. They've closed their ears and their eyes with the intent or the purpose of the result of not understanding. Now, what I've solved for you is the problem of Jesus trying to mislead them so that what was predicted to come to pass. So my answer is Jesus is saying to some it has been granted that when they hear the truth, that the kingdom of God is now possible as a gift of grace, and God will change you, they will understand and respond to that, and others will not. Some people will always reject the truth. And you're seeing the epitome of this rejection that we saw with the prophets, now you're seeing the epitome of it here with the Messiah. But truly blessed and truly fortunate are you because you see and understand. What I haven't solved for you is that either way you can't get around the fact that God is the one opening and closing their eyes and ears. So some it has been granted. Well, who's doing the granting? God is doing the granting. And I think this is another passage that teaches election and predestination, but we're not gonna go there. So at this point, I just caution you to remember to keep in mind that it's not as if there are people who want to be saved and God is denying that to them. The fact of the matter is none of us left to ourselves want to be saved. And all of us would trot merrily off to hell without a second thought, because we all have hardened hearts and we've all rebelled against God, and we all want to be the center of the universe, and we all turn our backs on God. So not only do we not deserve to be saved, left to ourselves, we don't even want to be saved. And what the heartbreakingly wonderful miracle and what Jesus is pointing out here is some of you, for some of you, this has changed. This is the amazing grace that we sing about. God has changed your heart such that now you want to be saved and you will respond to the truth and you will grow. Okay, one more question, and I'm I'm running a little long. So, why parables? You remember all of this came up because the disciples asked Jesus, why do you speak in parables? And how does this answer the question? So I think his first answer is look, some people are always going to reject the truth. That's the point of the parable of the soils. There are different kinds of hearts and they will respond differently to the truth. That was the point of Isaiah, the Isaiah quotes. Some people will always reject a prophet no matter how great he is. And I think we can deduce from that that if Jesus spoke the truth plainly, they would reject it outright. But a parable you have to think about. A parable is a story that draws you into the story. And instead of, it's you know, if I just make a didactic statement, it's going to get your backup and you're going to go, that's not true. But if I tell you a story, then you go, huh, let me think about the story, let me ponder it. And it has a chance of hitting home because you have to think about it longer. Tennyson wrote in one of his poems, Truth embodied in a tale shall enter in at lowly doors. It's the same idea. Truth embodied in a tale, you have a chance. It kind of sneaks in the back door when you're not expecting it. The best example we have of this is David and Nathan. And you'll remember this from our Samuel Son uh studies. When David has his misadventures with Bathsheba, and Nathan the prophet comes to reprovent reprimand him, he tells him a parable. Because if he had just walked in and confronted David with his actions, most likely David would have gotten defensive, denied it, and gotten angry and not repented. Instead, Nathan confronts him with a story. David is drawn into the story, he recognizes the principle the story teaches, and then Nathan applies it to him. And that I think is what Jesus is seeking to do. This truth embodied in a tale shall enter in at lonely doors. So he's saying, some people will always reject. I don't want outright rejection. And if I uh wrap the truth in a story that makes people think, that makes people ponder and consider, and they have to stop a moment and say, What did that mean? It gives the greatest chance of them hearing and understanding. Okay, so follow me through all that. Let me just go through this verse by verse to kind of wrap it up, and then I'll give you one point of application. So in 10 through 13, the disciples say, Why do you speak to them in parables? And he says, To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them as it has not. In other words, some people are going to respond to the truth and some aren't. And that's what we see with the parable of the soils. Then he says, For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance, but whoever does not have, even what he has, will be taken away. Now that seems fair, right? But what he's saying is, just as we saw in the parable, there's only one type of seed that will flourish, so there's only one type of person, um, there's only only those to whom God has given the gift of faith will flourish, but the promise is they will grow to abundance. They will reach maturity and wisdom, they will become strong and sh and have this unbreakable saving faith. So if you have been saved, you don't have to worry. Oh my gosh, maybe I'll I'll slip into one of the other soil types another day. He's saying, To those who have been given this gift, you will grow, you will flourish, you will grow strong. Okay, therefore I speak to them in parables, and he quotes Isaiah. He's saying, I teach them in parables because the normal state of the human heart is to reject God's truth. And just as you saw people rejecting the words of the prophet Isaiah in his day, even more so you see them rejecting the words of the Messiah, the Son of God incarnate here today. So their normal first response is to reject the truth, to close their eyes and ears, refuse to believe, so I tell them a story with the hope that it invites them into the story to think about it, to consider, to reflect on it, and it might land home. And then he concludes, Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear, for truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it. He's turning to the disciples, he's saying, You are the good soil, you are the ones who have been granted saving faith, whose eyes and ears have been opened, and truly, truly blessed and fortunate you are. Many people long to see the Messiah. Many people long to stand in the presence of the Messiah and hear him teach directly. I think that's what he means in 17. And they they weren't born at that time. To them it wasn't granted to see it, but you have fortunate you are to have this opportunity. Okay, so what are we supposed to learn from this? I say I'm gonna give you two points of application. I lied. So the first one is truth must be acted on in order to be retained. In other words, truth must be responded to. In some ways, this is again very like the message we talked about from James last spring. James told us that faith ought to make a difference in our lives, and that genuine saving faith would produce changes in our lives and our attitudes and the way we speak and the way we act and think, so that we become more and more people who think like God and respond with goodness and rightness and righteousness. So if we claim to have faith and we live our lives in the same sinful patterns, pursuing the same sins and the same goals we always had, then our claim to faith is empty. And Jesus is saying, to him who has more will be given, but from him who has, not e even what he has will be taken away. And Luke interestingly translates that even what he thinks he has will be taken away, which is a little interesting variation. So he's talking about the possession of truth, and truth which is acted on and responded to is when you possess it. So you don't have truth if you merely have it in your head. You have you only have truth when it moves from your head into your life and into your heart and changes you when it's affected you. So it doesn't do any good to learn something, to pass the test, and then throw all that knowledge away as if it makes no difference. You have to respond to it. And if you don't respond to truth, it's not really yours. You don't own it. And I think that principle is so fundamental, we see it in life. Um think you you know we see this on a physical level. If you you have muscles in your body, and if you deliberately don't use one, you lose it. You know, all you have to do to lose your arm is to tie it to your side for a couple of months, and it will weaken in atrophy, and what you have you will lose. And I think that physical example is a principle of the same thing that truth has to be acted on to be retained, it has to make its way from your head into your life. So if you don't use it, you lose it. Life is built this way. So truth must be acted on to be retained, and truth rejected or unused will be lost and forgotten. But then look how he concludes this. He concludes the section with two blessings, and that's the other point of application that I want us to look about. Um to you it has been granted, he says, in wait a minute. So the warning is in 11 and 12. He who has the truth and doesn't respond to it in faith will lose it. That's the warning. But he ends this with two blessings in 16 and 17. The one who responds to to the truth will be given more to the point of abundance. You in it's God is lavish in his grace, God is abundant, and this we might stretch the analogy a little to say the sower scatters seed with a lavish hand. God gives generously and abundantly. So, in this point, I think it parallels what we talked about in James 1 last spring, that if you lack faith or you lack wisdom, the kind of wisdom that results from an understanding of the truth, all you have to do is ask, and God gives generously and without reproach. So you should have great confidence that God will, in fact, strengthen and mature your faith and your understanding. He intends to, he's promised to, and he will bring it about. So the the one who has responded to truth and faith, more will be given and he will have an abundance. That's what's so amazing about grace. And then the second blessing, where he says to the disciples, Blessed are you because you see and hear and understand. The prophets of old longed to stand in the presence of the Messiah. They longed to see this mystery of the kingdom of God revealed through the incarnation and made certain by the empty tomb, but they they didn't see it. They knew it was coming, but they didn't live to see it. They heard this promises of the Messiah, but they weren't there when it unfolded in history. Now we stand on the other side of that promise too. So I think that applies to us because we stand on the other side of the incarnation and the cross and the resurrections. So we are more like the disciples today, and Jesus would say to us, Blessed are you because you see what they what they long to see. You can see through the gospels and through the rest of Scriptures. We can hear what they heard in the New Testament record of the life of Christ, and therefore we too are truly blessed, because we have set before us this unfolding of the mystery of the kingdom of heaven. As Paul says, in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. That's in Colossians 2, verse 2. So trust and believe in the promises of the gospel. That's essentially what he's saying. Seek and you will find. Ask and you will you will receive. If you respond to the truth, you act on it. Um God is generous and merciful to grant you more and to bring you into that um state of strong, mature, unbreakable faith. We've run a little long. Sorry. I knew this was going to be long today, but it was a great passage. So let me pray for us, and we'll take just a couple of questions and then I'll let you go to your small group. So let me pray. Father, thank you that you do, in fact, open our ears and our eyes and give us the the uh understanding to um see your gospel and to respond to it. And we pray that if anyone here has not yet responded or does not yet know your truth, that you will bring her to this point of understanding so that she could see um that she needs a savior, that sin is a problem we cannot solve on our own, that we don't deserve any we can't earn it, we don't deserve your salvation, but because of the blood of Jesus Christ, because of his death and resurrection, that penalty for our sin has been paid, and that you all we have to do is ask for your mercy, and you will grant it generously and obviously. And we pray that you would continue taking these truths, working them into our lives and our hearts, making us people who understand them deeply and fully, and such that they change our attitudes, our actions, the way we view and think about the world and each other, and that we become more and more people who love you and love each other with your love. In Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word with Krisan Marotta. What the Bible means and how we know. For notes and study questions, visit wednesdayintheword.com. We hope you'll join us again, and may God richly bless you.