Expectations are a funny thing. They can sustain you when all seems hopeless or they can put you in sorrow when everything is about to turn out perfectly fine. They are powerful to say the least. But one of the effects expectations can have is that they can cause you to miss the answer right in front of your eyes. For example, I don’t know how many people have walked into my office (which has pastor written right outside my door), looked at me, and asked if I know where the pastor is. All too often the temptation to say something sarcastic is overwhelming, but I proceed to tell them that I am he. The problem is, they were expecting something else, and therefore even though everything pointed to something as true, they couldn’t see it.
A similar thing happens with many of the Jews in respect to the kingdom of God that came with Jesus. They had expectations of a king riding in on a white horse, marching up to the Emperor, and dethroning him with the announcement that there was a new king in town whose people were the Jews. But that didn’t happen with Jesus. Jesus did not dethrone any political figure.
Therefore, when Jesus began speaking to the Jews about the kingdom of God, they were blinded from seeing it. They couldn’t see it because they expected something different. Matthew gives us a glimpse of this dialogue between Jesus and the crowds over the kingdom of God in Matthew 13.
The first thing that sets up the text is the realization that Jesus is speaking the first four parables to the entire crowd and the last four parables to his disciples (while explaining the parables only to his disciples – whether it is of the first four or the last four).1 Seeing this helps the reader understand why Jesus includes the content that he does in these parables.
In the parables to the crowd, Jesus points out the following:
Jesus shows this reality in the parable of the four soils. Some people will hear the gospel and reject it outright, others will hear it and like it, but will soon wilt when any challenge comes, others will grasp at it but find their desire weak in the face of other things that choke it out, and still others will accept it and produce fruit (thirty, sixty, and one hundred fold). This parable indeed shows the fact that many will reject the gospel and others, though making a profession of faith, will soon find themselves proving their professed faith was not genuine.
The interesting thing about this explanation from Jesus is that the Jews saw Jesus’ first coming like Christians see his second. That is to say, just as there will not be an opportunity for any mixed response at the second coming in the minds of Christians, so in the minds of Jews, there shouldn’t have been any opportunity for mixed response at the appearance of the Messiah. He was supposed to come and bring immediate judgment. This leads us, however, into his second parable and second teaching of the nature of the kingdom.
The point of the parable of the wheat and the tares deals with when to remove the tares. In the parable, there was a group of individuals who wanted to remove the tares immediately. Jesus, however, illustrates that just as there is time between the tares being planted and the tares being uprooted, so there will be time before judgment will come to those who do not believe.
This is ironic that the Jews wanted immediate judgment, for, though they did not realize it, they (that is those who are unbelieving) would be the very ones who would be judged. Jesus’ announcement, however, (even as it was unrealized grace to his audience) was that judgment would not immediately come with the dawning of the kingdom.
Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed and yeast illustrate the same thing, that the kingdom would start small and would grow. The Jews who denied Jesus expected Jesus to come, rally a strong army, and overtake Roman rule. But instead Jesus took eleven men, discipled them, and commissioned them to make other disciples. The kingdom started quite small and different from what many would have expected with the coming of the King of the Jews, but it came as it was supposed to come (only not as they expected).
Therefore, these first four parables are spoken to communicate to the crowd that the kingdom was different from their expectations, and if they failed to see it, they would not be a part of it. The final four parables, however, are spoken personally to his disciples (13:10-23), and he speaks to them the importance of being a part of the kingdom. Thus he tells them the following:
Jesus illustrates this point by pointing out a treasure and a pearl that is worth the loss of everything else if only one may acquire it. The point is simply made, however, the parable of the treasure may not make sense if one does not understand the background. For instance, a servant who found a treasure in a field that belonged to his master couldn’t dig it up and show it or else the master would (rightfully) claim that it is his. However, if after discovering it, he left it hid while acquiring enough money to buy that field, then he could buy the field from his master and rightfully claim the treasure as his own. Jesus says to his disciples (who had given up much to follow him), “It is worth it; it is worth giving up everything.”
The kingdom is worth it because there is joy to be found in walking under the rule of God, but it is also worth it because …
Jesus’ announcement that judgment would be delayed did not mean that it would be delayed forever. In fact, he tells his disciples that it won’t. The illustration he uses is that of a fisherman who gathers good and bad fish only to separate them, casting away the bad fish. Jesus says, “So it will be at the end of the age; the angels shall come forth, and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (13:49-50).
This is quite a vivid picture of destruction that awaits those outside the kingdom, and it no doubt produced in his disciples a longing to bring others into the kingdom. Therefore, Jesus tells them in the end …
Jesus compares his disciples to scribes and to those who are able to go into a storehouse, bringing out the old and the new. His disciples could point to the Old Testament and show Christ as the fulfillment of it, and in doing so, they would be able to make other disciples who could do the same. They are commissioned by Jesus to do with others what he has done with them – preach the gospel of the kingdom – eventually to all the nations.
But why did Jesus speak in parables when there were many who didn’t understand and many others who would need the parables explained (as did his own disciples)? The answer is that the secrets of the kingdom are not revealed to everybody (13:10-12). And for those whose eyes were not opened the parables would be that which pushed them farther away while for those whose eyes were opened, the parables would draw them to seek out the truth.
In short, (to reiterate the teaching of the parables) the secret of the kingdom is that, though at the end there would be a final and great judgment (when the kingdom comes fully), it is now quietly entering the world through those whose eyes God opened to see it.
In the end, those whose eyes were not opened to see the kingdom were not willing to see, for they were not willing to repent (13:13-17, 53-58). Such is the case with the crowds.
Thus, the final thing that we need to see and thank our God for is the reality that we have been commissioned (as an extension as that commission from Jesus to the eleven) to go and make disciples, sharing the secrets of the kingdom and watching God open the eyes of those whom he wills to join in the “treasure.”
We are indeed a blessed people whose eyes have been opened, whose hearts long for the kingdom, and whose commission is to go and gather others. Amen.