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Wilfrid J.
Harrington: Matthew, Sage Theologian Chapter 6.
Let anyone with
ears listen! (Mt 13: 9)
Opposition and Division, chs
11-12
Revelation of Father and
Son 11:25-30
Controversy with the
Pharisees
Sermon in Parables, ch 13
The Sower
13:3-9,18-23
Seed
Parables 13:24-35
For the
Disciples 13:36-52
The
Conclusion
Who is John the Baptist? 11:2-29 The mission of
the Baptist (3:1-17) had inaugurated the ministry of Jesus. As Jesus resumes
his mission after his instruction of the Twelve the Baptist is reintroduced.
Matthew compares John and Jesus and stresses the rejection of both by their
people. The relationship between Jesus and John is illustrated in question
and answer (11:2-6), in Jesus' assessment of John (vv 7-1) and in the
rejection of both John and Jesus (vv 16-19).
John the Baptist, in prison (see 4:12), has a
problem (11:2-3). His question was prompted by the fact that, in his eyes,
the coining Messiah was an awesome judge of he end-time (3:12); Jesus'
approach was so different from anything he had expected. John himself was a
prophet of doom who warned that the axe was laid to the root of the trees; hence,
'every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the
fire' (3:10). Furthermore, he is convinced that the Coming One would follow
his line: 'His winnowing fork is in his hand... the chaff he will burn with
unquenchable fire' (3:12). In point of fact, Jesus proclaimed that 'the
kingdom of God is at hand' (Mk 1:15). Where John prophesied the judgment of
God, Jesus prophesied the salvation of God. Hearing, in prison, of the
activity of Jesus, a perplexed John sent two of his disciples to enquire:
'Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?' (Mt 11:2).
And the answer was: 'Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind
receive heir sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear,
the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them' (11:4-5).
In effect, the answer is that, while Jesus does not fit the unsparing role
the Baptist envisaged, he is attuned to another prophetical tradition. Jesus
reminds John (through John's disciples) that he had not come to condemn but
to save and that healing forgiveness and redemption are the hallmark of God's
judgment. John is a prophet of doom, in the line of Amos, Jesus is a prophet
of love and forgiveness, spokesman of the Spouse and Father (Mother) in the
manner of Hosea (see Hos 1-3; 11).
How is one to evaluate the Baptist? One is not
likely to improve on Jesus' assessment (11:7-19). Jesus' testimony firmly
relates John to God's plan of salvation. The rhetorical questions ('What did
you go out into the wilderness to look at?', 11:7, 8, 9) serve to define - in
terms of what John was not - the role of the Baptist. John is no reed bending
to every breeze but a granite figure; he is no flaccid courtier but a
prisoner of conscience in Herod's dungeon. He is indeed a prophet, a
spokesman of God. For that matter, he is 'more than a prophet' because as
Elijah redivivus (v 14) he is precursor of Jesus and because no other, not
even one of the prophets of old, is greater than he. The further statement -
'yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater then he' (v 28) - does not
cancel the unique status of John. Rather, the contrast is between the age of
promise and the age of fulfilment.
We can picture the little scene that Jesus
describes in 11:16. The children, sitting in the marketplace - the boys
playing the flute and the girls chanting a funeral dirge - form part of a
game. The remaining boys are expected to dance (the round dance at weddings
was performed by men) and the rest of the girls ought to have formed a funeral
procession. Since they have failed to do so, the others loudly complain that
they are spoilsports. The point of the parable, then, is the frivolous
captiousness of these children and the thrust of it is obvious: the conduct
of the scribes and Pharisees is no better. At the moment of crisis, when the
last messengers of God had appeared, they hearkened neither to the preaching
of repentance nor to the proclamation of the Good News, but criticised and
sulked. This was the experience of Matthew and his community in respect of
their fellow Jewish adversaries.
Mention of Jesus at prayer is relatively
frequent in the gospels but only rarely, in the synoptics, are we given any
words of his prayer. Matthew and Luke have preserved this lovely prayer of
his (Mt 11:25-26; Lk 10:21). It is prayer which brings consolation to all the
'little ones' who feel that they have done nothing more than believe. If they
have indeed listened they have already done a 'good work.' Their achievement
may seem, in their eyes, a small thing. Because it is gift of the Father, it
is of priceless worth. Both evangelists go on, in strangely Johannine terms,
to stress the unique relationship of Father and Son, and to explain why Jesus
had joyfully thanked the Father for his gracious gift to the little ones (Mt
11:27; Lk 10:22). Equality of Father and Son underlines the unique sonship of
Jesus. That Son now invites his disciples to a share in his sonship - there
is a comforting glow to his gracious invitation (Mt 11:28-30). There is an
echo of Old Testament personified Wisdom (see Prov 8-9; Sir 1:23-27). A
two-fold invitation is matched by a two-fold promise. Or, rather, the
invitation is 'come... and take' and the promise is 'rest'. Jewish rabbis
spoke of the 'yoke of the Torah' - a yoke which, because of the unwieldy
'tradition of men' raised on the law of Moses (see Mk 7:6-8), had become an
intolerable burden (Acts 15:10). The 'yoke' of Jesus is the demand for love
of God and neighbour (Mt 22:34-40) - and 'his commandments are not
burdensome' (1 Jn 5:3). His yoke is easy and his burden is light because of
who he is - one 'gentle and humble in heart.' He is no taskmaster but a
Master who is a Friend (Jn 15:14-15). He finds his 'meat', his fulfilment, in
doing the will of the Father (Jn 4:34). In that will is the disciple of the
Son to find rest.
The spiritual rest Jesus gives (cf Jer 6:16)
comes not from practicing 613 commandments, but from assimilating and living
Jesus' attitudes, indeed, his very person. In Jesus the Wisdom of God, the
teacher and the subject taught are one and the same. Adherence to his person
is the sum-total of the law, a yoke that proves most light to the true
disciple.15
Most of Matthew 12 is drawn from the conflict
stories of Mark 2:1-3:6. In Matthew, however, there is bitter controversy as
Jesus hits back. In Mt 12:1-8 the clash between Jesus and the Pharisees is
over one's image of God. Is God a legalist who goes by the book, or a God of
liberating mercy? The Hosea-like prophet Jesus quotes Hosea: I desire mercy
and not sacrifice.' In Mt 12:9 Jesus entered their synagogue: Matthew's
community had broken with Judaism. The message of w 10-13 is that mercy is
lawful on the sabbath - a touch of irony. Aware of a plot to get rid of him,
Jesus withdrew -yet carried on his healing mission. This occasions Matthew's
longest fulfilment citation (12:18-21; see Is 42:1-4). The meek and merciful
servant, Jesus, is responding to the divine will.
The intransigence of the Pharisees surfaces in
12:24 when they purport to see the hand of Beelzebub in Jesus'-exorcisms. In
vv 33-37 Jesus sternly denounces them. They are bad trees bearing the evil
fruit of malicious words. They will be held to account. In vv 38-42 Jesus rejects
the request for a sign. The resurrection of Jesus, typir fied by Jonah, will
be the only sign God will grant. The pagan Ninevites repented at the summons
of an insignificant Jewish prophet (Jonah 3:4-10); the Pharisees will not
listen to a far greater prophet. The queen of the South undertook a long
journey to hear the wisdom of Solomon; the Pharisees have turned a deaf ear
to the greater than Solomon among them.
Jesus had freed people of 'unclean spirits'.
The 'house' of the healed person is now 'swept, and put in order.' It should
not remain empty but become a dwelling of God in the Spirit (see Eph 2:22).
Otherwise there is the danger of a disastrous re-possession. Jesus has broken
Satan's hold over Israel. If Israel does not acknowledge its messianic deliverer,
its state will be worse than ever. For Matthew, the destruction of Jerusalem
was a measure of that disaster.
Chapter 13 is pivotal in Matthews's gospel.
What we find is that just as Jesus used parables to meet the demands of his
own situation, so does Matthew use them to meet the needs of his community.
He has put the parables of ch 13 at the service of his own age and of his own
theology. The parable passage forms the second part of the whole section
11:2-13:53. Part one (chs 11-12) records the mounting opposition to Jesus and
the rejection of him by the leaders of the people. This is underlined by the
words of thanksgiving for the revelation to 'infants' of what remains hidden
to 'the wise and the intelligent' (11:25-26), and culminates in the passage
about the 'true relatives' of Jesus, those who do the will of the Father
(12:46-50). Then, in 13:1-15, Jesus addresses the 'crowds' as representing
the whole of unbelieving Judaism - those who are blind, deaf, lacking understanding
(13:10-13). Matthew is saying that the first half of Jesus' parable discourse
is an apologia; it is his reaction to his having been rejected by the Jews.
But the second half of the discourse (13:36-52) marks a sudden shift to the
disciples (13:36). They are such as do God's will (13:49-50). Jesus instructs
them as to what doing God's will really means.
Parables
At least in his chapter 13, Matthew's use of
parable seems to conform to that of Mark in two respects. Matthew regards the
parable as an enigmatic form of speech directed primarily at outsiders. He
distinguishes between a time when Jesus addressed the Jews openly and a time
when he begins to address them in parables. In particular, he suggests that
Jesus' reply to his rejection by the Jews was distinctively parabolic in
form. Jesus had come to the Jews, preaching and teaching, but was rejected by
them. He reacted by addressing his apologia to them, but in parables, that
is, in riddle, in speech for outsiders. By this fact he proclaims that the
Jews are no longer the privileged people of God but, rather, stand under
judgment for having spurned their Messiah. This factor (Jesus' turning from
the Jews and towards his disciples) is the great turning-point of the gospel;
Matthew uses his parable chapter to mark the turning-point. But, for him,
this is not a matter of past history: it has immediate relevance for th
church to which he belongs. It reflects the relationship, one of virulent
animosity, between his Jewish Christian community and contemporary Pharisaic
Judaism. While the evangelist does consider the leaders of Judaism to be
incorrigible, radically closed to the saving message of Jesus, the same does
not hold true for the Jewish people as such. The people of the Jews may still
be evangelised and the gospel is addressed to them.
In chapter 13, Matthew called attention to the
great turning-point in several ways. For one thing, he studiously avoids
designating Jesus' speech in parables to the Jews as teaching (didaskein) or
preaching (keryssein); instead, he describes it as lalein, that is, a
'speaking.' Furthermore, Matthew consistently refers to the Jewish crowds in
13:1-35 as 'them' (autois); he thereby depicts the (unbelieving) Jews as a
people that stands outside the circle of those to whom God imparts his
revelation and promises his end-time kingdom. He introduced the term parabole
for the first time in chapter 13 and then distinguishes between a time when
Jesus spoke openly to the Jews and a time when he began to speak to them
enigmatically. Finally, he gathered eight parabolic units (and two
explanations), provided a framework for them, and so drafted a parable speech
in two parts.16
The parable of the sower (13:3-9) might, just
as well, be called the parable of the soils because, throughout, the emphasis
is not really, on sower or seed but on the different kinds of soil on which
the seed falls. As a parable this is not, as might seem, an agricultural
vignette. And the situation depicted is not typically Palestinian as has
frequently been urged. Instead one should take the peculiar actions of the
sower as part of the deliberately unusual dimension of the story.
The early church's explanation of the parable
(vv 18-23) takes it to be concerned with 'the word of the kingdom'. This word
is sown in the hearers. Four categories of hearers are distinguished in terms
of the place where the seed has fallen: 'on the path', 'on rocky ground',
'among thorns', and 'on good soil'. The fate of the word differs in each
case. The evil one comes and snatches the word as it is preached (v 19).
Initial joy at the hearing of the word will not compensate for lack of root.
Here is a person of the moment who will not persevere in the face of
tribulation and persecution (vv 20-21). The description of the third person
(v 22) is the analysis of a moralist who leans in great part on explicit
teaching of Jesus. The fourth person (v 23) suggests that it is enough to be
good soil, to be receptive, in order to bring forth fruit. The application is
not unfaithful to the parable, for it only takes the subjective aspect of the
proclamation and applies it to the hearers. They are shown that the story f
the sower does concern them.
The explanation came about because Christians
had discovered to their shock and sorrow that few really believed Jesus'
message. They asked the burning question: how could it be that there was such
a gulf between themselves and those who could not or would not see? They
found an answer in the words of the parable. Think what happens when the
sower scatters his seed. Much is lost, for one reason or another. Similarly,
many are like the person on the pathway: the word cannot reach them, it is
swiped away. Or many prove to be shallow - ready enough to receive, but the readiness
did not persist. Many are like seed under thorns: they hear, but the word
fights a losing battle against cares and distractions. The shallow mind, the
wayward heart, worldly preoccupations, persecution - all these are the
obstacles which frustrate the growth of faith. The explanation offers a
warning and an encouragement (the harvest) to Christians in such conditions.
The parable of the weeds among the wheat
(13:24-30,36- 43) - whatever its original intent in the preaching of Jesus -
is intended by Matthew as a description of the church, as a reminder that it
is not a community of the elect and eternally secure, but a mixed body of
righteous and unrighteous, all of whom stand under the mercy of God. It is a
parable of the 'kingdom of heaven'. The kingdom is not primarily a state or
place but rather the dynamic event of God coming in power to rule his people
Israel in the end-time. It should however, and can, become a reality here and
now. God's rule becomes real when it finds expression in human life.17 In its
present form is not yet ready for the harvest. Nor has the harvest time
arrived. For the present there are good and bad within the kingdom itself. It
is only at the judgment that the separation between the two kinds will take
place (13:30, 49-50). Emphasis is on the coexistence of good and bad within
the kingdom. Because the parable is intended as a repudiation of ay elitist
or purist view of the kingdom it contains a message of hope. As long as the
kingdom is growing, it remains possible to change from 'weed' into 'wheat'.
For that matter, part of the message of the parable is to exhort the 'weeds'
to change.
Between the parable of the weeds and its
explanation, Matthew presents two parables with the same message: the contrast
between the small, unpromising beginnings of the kingdom (the preaching of
Jesus) and a glorious result (the Kingdom of God). These parables (vv
31-32,33) would have been the answer of Jesus to an objection, latent or
expressed: could the kingdom really come from such inauspicious beginnings?
His reply is that the little cell of disciples will indeed become a kingdom.
And in the last analysis, if the kingdom does reach its full dimension, it is
not due to anything in the men and women who are the seed of the kingdom; the
growth is due solely to the power of God (see 1 Cor 3:6-7) This is why Jesus
can speak with utter confidence of the final stage of the kingdom. And that
is why these parables are a call to patience.
Besides, Matthew has an apologetic intent..
Contrary to Jewish belief, Jesus declares that the kingdom has come in his
person, though, because of its humble beginnings, not as they had expected
it. He sounds a paraenetic note: the Lord fortifies the Christians of
Matthew's church in the conviction that they are the eschatological
community. The words on Jesus' use of parables (vv 34-35) conclude the first
half of Matthew's parable discourse. It anchors Jesus' use of parables in
salvation history: the sermon in parables is fulfilment of prophecy. Jesus
thereby testifies to his messiahship and the claim of his church in his
regard is vindicated.
"Then he left the crowds and went into the
house' (13:36). It is a major change of setting. The second half of the
parable discourse is directed solely to the disciples. Therefore, Matthew
chooses for Jesus the privacy of a house. The explanation of the parable of
the weeds (vv 36-43) is manifestly later than the parable and, very likely,
is Matthew's creation. The Lord exhorts the Christians of Matthew's community
to be children of the kingdom who do God's will. Here Matthew's ethical
concern is bolstered by apocalyptic imagery. This shows how the evangelist
regards eschatology as bound up with ethics. That is to say, the coming Age
exerts a pressure which works itself out in the practical life of Christians.
So, the old-style mission hell-fire sermon was meant to have a salutary
effect on the daily lives of the hearers. That the effect was salutary is
questionable.
The parables of the treasure and the pearl (vv
44, 45-46), closely related and proper to Matthew, are linked by the formula
'the kingdom of heaven is like.' The key to them is found in the phrase 'in
his joy' (v 44). A poor farm-labourer had profited from the fate of some
wealthy man who, in a moment of crisis, had hidden his valuables but (most
likely) had lost his life. The finder does not hesitate. He has to sell
everything he has - but he must have that treasure. The pearl merchant has
found what he had dreamt of: the perfect pearl. Gladly he sells his caravan
or his ship (depending on whether he was a merchant on land or sea) to get
that pearl. To an outsider, the conduct of peasant and merchant must seem
crazy. But they know that their course of action is the only one that makes
sense. They had discovered the treasure of the kingdom and had realised that
it is worth any price. What seems crazy to others is, to them, the only
sensible way to act. Note: there is no stress here on sacrifice. Both men
glady give their all because they know that they have found so much more.
The parable of the dragnet (vv 47-50) conveys
basically the same message as that of the wheat and the weeds (13:24-30,
36-41): the kingdom at the present time contains both 'good' and 'bad'; it is
only at the end that a separation will be made. By placing his emphasis on
judgment, Matthew sounds a note of warning.
At the end of the discourse (vv 51-53) the
readers are drawn into a parable, one that has to do with understanding.
Matthew considers understanding to be essential to the making of a disciple.
In Mark the disciples are devoid of understanding until the resurrection of
Jesus; in Matthew they, true children of the kingdom, understand and accept
the message of the kingdom. One who has become a disciple of the kingdom
knows and understands both the old (the Old Testament) and the new (the Good
News) and is in a position to see God's promises in the Old Testament
fulfilled in Christ (which is what Matthew does in his gospel). Matthew, at
the close, presents his description of a Christian of his community who
treasures the old (the Jewish heritage) and the new (the good news of and
from Jesus). It may, consciously or not, be a self-portrait.
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