The parable of the sower
1 That same day Jesus left the house and sat down by the lakeside.
2 As many people gathered around him, he got in a boat. There he sat
while the whole crowd stood on the shore,
3 and he spoke to them in parables about many things.
4 Jesus said, ※The sower went out to sow and, as he sowed, some seeds
fell along the path and the birds came and ate them up.
5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground where there was little soil, and the
seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was not deep.
6 But as soon the sun rose the plants were scorched and withered because
they had no roots.
7 Again other seeds fell among thistles; and the thistles grew and
choked the plants.
8 Still other seeds fell on good soil and produced a crop; some produced
a hundredfold, others sixty and others thirty.
9 If you have ears, then hear!§
10 Then his disciples came to him with the question, ※Why do you speak
to them in parables?§
11 Jesus answered, ※To you it has been given to know the secrets of the
kingdom of heaven, but not to these people.
12 For the one who has, will be given more and he will have in
abundance. But the one who does not have will be deprived of even what
he has.
13 That is why I speak to them in parables, because they look and do not
see; they hear, but they do not listen or understand.
14 In them the words of the pro phet Isaiah are fulfilled: Much as you
hear, you do not understand; much as you see, you do not perceive.
15 For the heart of this people has grown dull. Their ears hardly hear
and their eyes dare not see. If they were to see with their eyes, hear
with their ears and understand with their heart, they would turn back
and I would heal them.
16 But blessed are your eyes be cause they see, and your ears, be cause
they hear.
17 For I tell you that many pro phets and upright people would have
longed to see the things you see, but they did not, and to hear the
things you hear, but they did not hear it.
18 Now listen to the parable of the sower.
19 When a person hears the message of the Kingdom but without taking it
to himself, the devil comes and snatches away what was sown in his
heart. This is the seed that fell along the footpath.
20 The seed that fell on rocky ground stands for the one who hears the
word and accepts it at once with joy.
21 But such a person has no roots. No sooner is he harassed or
persecuted because of the word, than he gives up.
22 The seed that fell among the thistles is the one who hears the word,
but then the worries of this life and the love of money choke the word,
and it does not bear fruit.
23 As for the seed that fell on good soil it is the one who hears the
word and under stands it; this bears fruit and produces a hundred, or
sixty, or thirty times more.§
The parable of the weeds
24 Jesus told them another parable, ※The kingdom of hea ven can be
compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
25 While everyone was asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the
wheat and left.
26 When the plants sprouted and produced grain, the weeds also appeared.
27 Then the servants of the owner came to him and said: &Sir, was it not
good seed that you sowed in your field? Where did the weeds come from?*
28 He answered them: &This is the work of an enemy.* They asked him: &Do
you want us to go and pull up the weeds?*
29 He told them: &No, when you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the
wheat with them.
30 Let them just grow together until harvest; and at harvest time I will
say to the workers: Pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and
burn them; then gather the wheat into my barn.§
The mustard seed and the yeast
31 Jesus put another parable before them, ※The kingdom of heav en is
like a mustard seed, that a man took and sowed in his field.
32 It is smaller than all other seeds, but once it has fully grown, it
is bigger than any garden plant; like a tree, the birds come and rest in
its branches.§
33 He told them another parable, ※The kingdom of heaven is like the
yeast that a woman took and buried in three measures of flour until the
whole mass of dough began to rise.§
34 Jesus taught all this to the crowds by means of parables; he did not
say anything to them without using a parable.
35 So what the Prophet had said was fulfilled: I will speak in parables.
I will proclaim things kept secret since the beginning of the world.
36 Then he sent the crowds away and went into the house. And his
disciples came to him saying, ※Explain to us the parable of the weeds in
the field.§
37 Jesus answered them, ※The one who sows the good seed is the Son of
Man.
38 The field is the world; the good seed are the people of the Kingdom;
the weeds are those who follow the evil one.
39 The enemy who sows them is the devil; the harvest is the end of time
and the workers are the angels.
40 Just as the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so will it be
at the end of time.
41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will weed out of his
kingdom all that is scandalous and all who do evil.
42 And these will be thrown in the blazing furnace, where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.
43 Then the just will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Fa
ther. If you have ears, then hear.
The treasure, the pearl and the net
44 The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. The one
who finds it buries it again; and so happy is he, that he goes and sells
everything he has, in order to buy that field.
45 Again the kingdom of heav en is like a trader who is looking for fine
pearls.
46 Once he has found a pearl of exceptional quality, he goes away, sells
everything he has and buys it.
47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a big fishing net let down into
the sea, in which every kind of fish has been caught.
48 When the net is full, it is dragged ashore. Then they sit down and
gather the good fish in buckets, but throw the worthless ones away.
49 That is how it will be at the end of time; the angels will go out to
separate the wicked from the just
50 and throw them into the blazing fur nace, where they will weep and
gnash their teeth.§
51 Jesus asked, ※Have you un der stood all these things?§ ※Yes,§ they
answered.
52 So he said to them, ※You will see that every teacher of the Law who
becomes a disciple of the Kingdom is like a householder who can produce
from his store things both new and old.§
53 When Jesus had finished these parables, he left the place.
54 He went to his hometown and taught the peo ple in their synagogue.
They were amazed and said, ※Where did he get this wisdom and these
special powers?
55 Isn*t he the carpenter*s son? Isn*t Mary his mother and aren*t James,
Joseph, Simon and Judas his brothers?
56 Aren*t all his sisters living here? How did he get all this?§
57 And so they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them, ※The only place where prophets are not welcome is
their hometown and in their own family.§
58 And he did not perform many mira cles there because of their lack of
faith.
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Comments Mathew, Chapter 13
• 13.1 Here we have the beginning of the third ※discourse of Jesus§ in
Mat thew*s Gospel (see Introduction). Jesus had his apostles proclaim
the coming of the Kingdom; the first signs were seen: healings and
victories over demons but opposition was not wanting and it would seem
that on the whole, people did not respond. What must we think of this
※King dom of God§ which changes very little of real life? Matthew
replies with the following seven parables.
Jesus uses comparisons just as simple country folk and working people
usually do. Proverbs and parables have always been an effective way of
teaching wisdom. But we must observe that a parable is not just any
comparison; its characteristic is to awaken in the listeners an
awareness of their present situation and oblige them to make a decision.
For those listening to Jesus, the reign of God signified first of all a
liberation of his oppressed people, and this called for clear
explanation. Jesus, for his part, could only give an answer to those who
accompanied him; for the Kingdom is one of those things that cannot be
seen as long as one has no belief in it. Jesus will only speak of it in
images and we will understand according to the degree of our experience
of that Kingdom which is developing throughout the world.
For this parable of the Sower which gives the general direction of this
chapter, see the commentary of Mk 4:1 and Lk 8:4.
• 10. To you it has been given to know the secrets of the Kingdom. To
you who took Christ*s call seriously and decided to fol low him. Because
you came to be the co-workers of Christ, the Father will reveal to you
his secrets.
The quotation from Isaiah that follows may shock us due to the fact of
our not fully understanding Hebrew expressions. Does Jesus speak in
parables because the audience does not want to understand, or so that
they will not understand? It could be both at the same time (compare vv.
13 and 15, and also 35). See the commentary on Mk 4:11.
For the one who has will be given more. Here has means produce, bear as
does the tree that ※has§ fruit. It will be given to those who are
fruitful.
The kingdom of heaven. We already said that ※Heaven§ was a Jewish
expression referring to God. The kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of
God, as the Father of Heaven is God the Father. Not realizing this, many
have mistakenly thought that the Gospel announced only the kingdom of
God in Heaven after our present life. Actually Jesus came to tell us
that God had come to rule among us.
Kingdom or Reign of God? See commentary on Lk 8:10.
• 18. Who will welcome the Word of God? This has nothing to do with
intelligence or ability to reflect, or interest in religious things:
those who are open to hope receive the Word.
Those along the footpath are those not interested in the word they have
received, perhaps because they cannot see further than their own
interests (they are selfish), or perhaps they have taken another
direction in life.
Next come those who do not dare to face contradiction and are easily
discouraged and cowed: these are soon burnt. Yet to hope means to be
firm despite any obstacle. If God puts us on a road in life, this road
will lead somewhere. Hope is courage and endurance.
Next are those that fell among the thistles. They are believers, but the
fruits to be harvested along the difficult path seem not to satisfy
them. They want to ※save their lives,§ to serve God and Money at the
same time. They are dragged down by their aim of winning material
success, and hope in the kingdom of God becomes but a flimsy desire for
them.
• 24. With the parable of the weeds, Jesus answers those who are
scandalized at seeing evil everywhere. Good and bad will be mixed till
the end of the world. Good and evil will always be found together in
persons and institutions.
God respects people. He knows that temptation is often stronger than
their good intentions and they need time to find and to choose steadily
what is good.
God is patient. The reconciliation of so many contradictory groups,
forces and cultural currents active in the world will be attained only
at the end of time. In the meantime we are not to label any of them as
※the§ good ones and ※the§ bad ones.
Jesus himself commented on this parable: see v. 36.
• 31. With the parable of the mustard seed Jesus shows us that the
kingdom of God must be a sign; it has to be something very noticeable in
the world.
Any spiritual aspiration, cultural innovation or revolutionary movement
must be expressed concretely, through one or several institutions, to
make it a clearer and more visible entity. Likewise Jesus projects his
Church as the bearer (not the owner) of the kingdom of God. Church
means: ※Assembly of those called together.§ Two of the characteristics
of this Church are indicated here:
每 first it must be very visible and fruitful for the world, like a tree
giving shade to birds;
每 secondly, it must be immersed in human reality.
Believers are not to separate themselves from those who do not believe,
for they are the yeast of the world.
Jesus does not want an ※invisible Church,§ that is an emotional
fellowship and spiritual com munion among all those in the whole world
who believe in him. He wants a gigantic tree (in another place Jesus
says: a city built on a hill), so that everyone can recognize that the
seed was good and full of life. We need organized Christian communities,
and ties between these communities, a hierarchy# Nevertheless the
believers are not to enclose themselves in their chapels or little
communities or to spend all their energies working for ※their§ Church.
They must be useful and fruitful in the world together with all people
of goodwill.
Let them be yeast for the dough, not small separate and finer dough. The
yeast transforms human history, not by bringing all people into the
Church, but by infusing into human activity the spirit that gives life
to humankind.
• 34. Jesus taught all this to the crowds by means of parables. On
reading Matthew 13:12, we might think that Jesus speaks in parables in
order to hide his teaching. Here we find another explanation that
corrects and completes the first. Jesus spoke in parables because that
was the best method to convey a teaching relevant for all times.
I will speak in parables. These are the first words of Psalm 78, as
adapted by the evangelist. He means that the secrets of the kingdom of
God revealed by Jesus answer the most important questions of humankind.
From the beginning of civilization, people were confronted with problems
and challenges they could not solve on their own, and Jesus offers the
key to these contradictions. Science has discovered many elements of
human destiny; we have still to discover who we are.
Jesus* answer is not given as a theory and it upsets the ※little
intellectuals§ who are used to the language of books. He gives us
something much richer with these images or enigmas which require some
creativity and to which we have to return. Each of us will have to
ponder them as long as we live, and humankind as long as history. Only
with time shall we discover all that they mean.
• 36. The field is the world. This parable does not refer to what
happens within each of us, or only in the Church, as described in the
net (13:47). Rather it teaches that the kingdom of God exists and grows
in the world, in all dimensions of the secular world. Sacred history is
more than an ancient history in the land of Jesus; it is the entire
human story of which the risen Christ is Lord.
So will it be at the end of time. Jesus speaks to us of a judgment. The
expectation of God*s judgment on the world was an essential element of
prophetic teaching. Let us not only see in it a desire for vengeance on
the part of honest people who suffered. To know for certain that our
life will be judged by one who knows us through and through is one of
the bases of the Christian vision of existence. This enables us to
understand the tragic character of the decisions we make from day to day
directing us either to the truth or a refusal of the light.
This certitude shocks many of our contemporaries just as in the past it
terrified the majority of people. It is for that reason they have often
taken refuge in metem psy chosis 每 a series of existences. The faults of
the present life could be rectified in the one that followed. The
importance of our choices is doubted, and the sense of sin is blurred
just as is the sense of the presence of God. Before long we could doubt
the unique value of our life and of the human person.
While reaffirming the judgment, this short parable contains an extremely
revolutionary element: the judgment is God*s secret and up to the end of
the world, both good and evil are in each of us, as well as in
institutions. When we read the Bible, we are perhaps shocked to see that
not only in the Old Testament but also even in the New, the world is
constantly divided between the good and the wicked. It seems to us that
it should not be: the inner being of a human is a deep mystery. There
isn*t a group of the good (we, of course, and those who believe in God,
and those who observe the same morality that we observe#) and then the
others. Why then does Jesus divide humans?
Our quick reply is that Jesus has spoken as the prophets spoke. To speak
of the good and the wicked was a simple way, suitable to the mentality
of people less developed than ourselves, to show that each one of us, in
each of our acts, takes a step in one of two opposed directions. For
centuries women and men have felt them selves interpreted by this way of
speaking: it is still effective and pedagogic for us on many occasions.
It is very important to understand that Jesus is not duped by images.
For the majority of us, the separation is not made, even if after a
conversion or two, until we have taken decisive steps.
The servants represent the believers, but especially the ※supervisors§
of the Church. Their zeal for repressing those they judge as straying in
order to preserve what seems good to them may well be tainted
interiorly. They would like to suppress all the errors. Rather they rely
too much on force, or on authority. If the ※masters§ of the faith were
not to give the faithful the possibility to think for themselves and
make mistakes, the Church would be without life.
God prefers to let matters clarify: he wants people to learn from
experience. Evil is part of the mystery of the cross; in doing what is
good and living in the light we defeat evil (Rom 12:21).
• 44. The parables of the treasure and the pearl invite us not to let
opportunities pass by, when the kingdom of God comes to us.
Some have been waiting for years for that word, or person or sign of
hope that would give new meaning to their lives. One day they found it.
Sometimes it was found through simple things: a forgiving word, a
friendly smile, a first commitment offered to them and accepted. Then
they understood that this was the way to gain all they were waiting for,
and they entered the Kingdom happily.
The parable says: he hides it again. Ordi narily it is God who hides the
treasure again after having shown it to us, for it will be really ours
when we have worked for it and persevered.
Everything must be sold. We have to divest ourselves of all those
habits, plea sures# that occupy our hearts without filling them. When
trials come upon us like a frosty, icy night, we should not forget the
treasure we have once seen, until we recover it. Plato, the great pagan
philosopher, said, ※It is during the night that it is beautiful to
believe in the light.§
※The pearl§ is, in a certain sense, Christ him self. He alone gives
meaning to all the sacrifices of a Christian life. These are not really
※sacrifices,§ but the search for a love that has already been proven.
EVIL IN THE CHURCH
• 47. The Church has given the Kingdom to those who entered, but some of
them be long to the visible family of the chosen ones, without having
the spirit of the Kingdom.
By speaking of the net, Jesus reminds us that the first activity of the
Church must be mission: ※to catch people.§ Many of them surely will not
per severe, but a Church that closes itself would die.
How we would like to have a perfect Church made of upright persons, in
which each one would discover the gifts of God! Christ, however, did not
want a Church like that, nor is that the way for the Church to save the
world.
HELL
They will throw them into the blazing furnace. This affirmation which we
have already seen (13:30) only confirms what the whole Bible says: we
shall be judged and the plenitude of life offered to those who will be
※in§ God will have as counterpart the despairing lot of those who have
refused life.
The Church has always spoken, according to the terms of the Bible, of an
eternal hell. She has also adopted towards the twelfth century the word
※purgatory§ to designate the pain ful purification the saved will ex pe
rience, unless they have already known on earth the terrible burning of
the pure love of God.
The affirmation of purgatory shocks those who have not experienced
divine holiness which is never without a burning of everything that
belongs to us; have they ever really pondered what ※becoming God in God§
exacts of us? Hell does not hurt less. We know, of course, that fire is
only a figure and we should not interpret it as a vengeance of God: it
is the ※damned§ who are unable to renounce the harrowing solitude in
which they have en closed themselves; it is at the same time their
enjoyment and their torture. However, we no longer accept the idea of
pain that has no end and we readily support this with philosophic
argument.
Certainly Jesus spoke the language of his time, not ours. This division
of the world into good and bad was present in all culture. It is also
certain that Jesus had deep and true knowledge of God and human beings.
Had he found in this punishment something contrary to the infinite
goodness of God he would have said so with out any concern of scandal.
He has spoken as he did because the infinite love of God does not take
away our freedom to escape him and defy him.
However it is to be noted that Jesus does not only speak of condemnation
for some horrible crimes: loss or salvation is an option for all. We
must also recognize that he does not speak according to our categories
of hell and purgatory: Gehenna (Mt 5:22; 10:28), or fire (Mk 9:42) are
imprecise terms that can designate both at the same time. The ※fire of
hell§ is said to be ※eternal§ in several places (Mk 9:47; Mt 18:8; Mt
25:41), but this word has not exactly the meaning we give it: it could
be something that goes beyond our experience of time.
We can then ask questions, but we must also question ourselves on two
matters. Firstly, to speak of what God should or should not do is rather
like asking him to be just. But ※justice§ is not something that exists
in itself: it is only an aspect of the mystery of God. What do we know
of his mystery? Then let us not teach him justice. We must also reply to
this question: if Jesus wanted to say that certain people go to unending
suffering, how must he say it in order that we may not doubt it?
The mystery remains. If we understood to what God invites us 每 and for
an eternity in its truest sense, and that life is unique and that here
below we shall give our response and finally give birth to our eternity
每 are there words too strong for someone who has lost everything?
• 53. Compare Luke 4:14. See commentary on Mark 3:31.