Matthew 13:1–9

At the close of the previous chapter our Lord disowned all the natural ties which bound Him to Israel. I am speaking only of His bringing it out as teaching. In terms of history, the moment of the final break with them was the cross. But in terms of His ministry, if we may say so, the break happened, and He signalled it now. He took advantage of a reference to His mother and brothers to say who His real kindred were. They were no longer those connected with Him after the flesh. The only family He could own now were those who did the will of His Father in heaven. He recognises nothing but the tie formed by the word of God received into the heart and obeyed.

Up to this time the house of God was connected with Israel. There God dwelt, as far as this could be said of the earth; He counted it as His habitation. But Jesus went out of the house, and sat by the seaside. We all know what the sea stands for in the symbolic language of the Old and New Testaments. It represents masses of men, roving here and there outside, not under the settled government of God.

He leaves the house, to sit by the seaside. Let anyone compare the picture of the woman who "is seated on many waters" in Revelation 17:1, and he will find the meaning of this. The angel interprets it for us in that chapter: "The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages." So here the Lord leaves the house, the place of recognised natural relationship. He takes His place, as it were, in the highway of the world's trade, which is what the sea is.

He separated Himself from the multitude. While in the first part of this Gospel He moves among the crowds, here He takes His place alone. There on the seashore stands the crowd, and He is alone, some way out — no one can reach Him by touch now.

He leaves the house, goes to the seaside, no longer seeking fruit in His vineyard, which bore none but bad — sowing that from which fruit was to come. The kingdom of heaven in its mystery, with an absent king, takes the place of Messiah upon earth.

The seven parables unfolded there bring in the idea of an entirely new departure and manner of activity on God's part. The law addressed itself to man as though God had until then been seeking to get something from man. He got nothing. Now that day was over, and a new kind of ministry was coming. God was going to put something into man, instead of trying to get something out of him — that was the principle of law: "A sower went out to sow." And "the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" take the place of the kingdom in open display. That open display is put off to a day of glory still to come.

And now the Lord begins to speak in parables. This is deeply significant of the moment, because this way of speaking was one kind of judgment upon Israel... The Lord tells us Himself that He was now speaking in parables to fulfil the word of the prophet: "You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive." Each parable had its own secret; but it was not given to Israel to know it. The Lord had a people whom these parables would instruct — instruct in mysteries, mysteries of the kingdom; but they left Israel in darkness.

Up to this time the house of God was connected with Israel. There God dwelt, as far as this could be said of the earth; He counted it as His habitation. But Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea... The very action of our Lord showed that a very widespread testimony was coming... The Holy Spirit here gives us seven connected parables, all brought together into one consistent system, to give a complete account of the new order of things about to begin — Christianity and the Christian world, the true as well as the false.

Israel is seen as set aside because of unbelief. The Lord went out of the house — a picture of Israel's house — and sat by the seaside. The sea pictures the Gentile nations (Rev. 17:15). So in Chapter 13 we can expect the teaching of a new era: the gospel going out to all the world. Because of great crowds gathered to hear Him, He preaches from a boat to His audience on the shore of the lake.

So He leaves the house, the sphere of natural family ties, and takes His place by the sea. The sea is the picture of man in the restlessness and barrenness of nature — man apart from God, and so the Gentiles. The gathering crowd does not hold Him back; it hurries His departure. He gets into a boat and sits down there — taking His place apart from them for good.

He separated Himself from the crowd. In the first part of this Gospel He moves among the crowds; here He takes His place alone. What a scene it must have been! There on the seashore the multitude, and He alone some way off from the shore — No one can reach Him by touch now. All is significant. Then, when all eyes hung upon His lips, He began to speak.

And now, in the same way, the Lord begins to speak in parables. This is full of meaning for that moment, because this way of speaking was one form of judgment upon Israel... They had their own secret, each of them; but it was not given to Israel to know it. The Lord had a people whom the parables would teach — teach them mysteries, the mysteries of the kingdom. But the parables left Israel in darkness.

On the shore of the lake of Galilee the Lord spoke four parables where the crowd could hear: the sower, the weeds, the mustard tree, and the leaven. Inside the house, alone with His disciples, He explained the parable of the weeds... In parables to the crowd the Lord gave the outward character of the kingdom of the heavens, as men would see it. Its aspect from God's point of view He kept for the special instruction of His disciples.

He leaves the house. That is a sign, I do not doubt, of the immense change in the ways of God. He sits in a boat on the sea and presents Himself as a sower — that is, He no longer seeks fruit, but carries with Him into this world what was to produce it.

This is the first time the word parable occurs in the New Testament. The disciples, struck by this method of teaching, asked the Lord: "Why do you speak to them in parables?" (v. 10). The Lord's answer is telling. It confirms that the teaching of the parables of the kingdom of heaven relates to the rejection of the king… This is solemn indeed. They could not see because they had refused to see.

The identity of the sower is not difficult to clear up. In explaining the second parable our Lord says: "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man." Our Lord Himself is the Sower. He came with the precious seed, the fine wheat, and of course He Himself is the grain of wheat. The seed He sows can only bear fruit as it falls on good ground. In the ground it dies, and out of death comes the fruit… We would take this parable in the first sense to apply to the days of our Lord on the earth. In a wider sense we must take it as a picture of the whole age, while He is absent from the earth and the Kingdom is in the hands of men. The sowing He began continues still, and the result of sowing is likewise the same.

The Saviour likened Himself to a sower of seed (Matt. 13:3–8). This marks a new departure in the ways of God with man. In the earlier ages of the world's history God had been looking for fruit from man, above all from Israel. He had every right to do so. But He sought it in vain, because flesh is evil beyond cure… God no longer looks for fruit from man. His present action is to sow the good seed of the gospel, and so produce His own fruit. This work has been proceeding ever since the Son of God came to earth.

Mark calls the seed simply the word, with no qualification. In Luke we read something more exact: "The seed is the word of God." This phrase states the divine origin of the word… But in Matthew we have not the general term but the specific one. The seed is there described as the "word of the kingdom." This phrase covered the subject of the word, while that of Luke looked to its Author.

The seed was pure; it was the word of God. There could be no doubt about its power to grow… So wherever it fell, the only hindrance to a full crop would be the condition of the ground — in other words, the heart of the person it might come to. Men might think of blaming the Word for the apparent failure of the work. Against such thoughts the Lord would warn us… All who preach or teach may make sure that it is the word of God they are using. They can count on it being enough, as the Holy Spirit applies it, to do a divine work in the hearts and consciences of men.

The first parable is not a representation of the kingdom, but of the work by which the kingdom is formed. All the other parables in the chapter rest on it… The seed falls on four kinds of ground, and in only one does it bring forth fruit… How empty is the hope that preaching the gospel everywhere would bring blessing everywhere! … Gentiles as well as Jews were to hear the word of the kingdom.

The very fact that Christ came as the sower proved that Israel was set aside. If He had still been coming to Israel as His vineyard, He would have come looking for fruit from the vine He planted long ago. He had already come to Israel, looking for fruit and finding none. Now He comes in the new character of the sower, which is a completely different thing. He comes into an empty world, where there was nothing, and He starts a fresh work.

Here the sowing produces nothing at all. The seed falls on a hard, closed heart. It does not even sprout. Man's spiritual enemy carries it off at once. None of the blame for this failure belongs to the Sower or to the seed. Both are perfect, without a fault of any kind. But the ground was hard and beaten down, never ploughed, and the birds of the air were watching to steal the good seed.

It is a solemn thing to read even of a man like this that the word was "sown in his heart" (v. 19). That does not mean he was converted. He does not even "understand." But why? Because, like the path, the ground it is sown on is trodden too hard for the seed to sink in. The seed lies out in the open in front of the birds of heaven, almost inviting the tempter to "catch it away." There are many souls like this. They are taken up with things that harden them and deaden them to everything else — business or pleasure, lawful or lawless.

The "wayside" hearers are those who hear, but the word never reaches their conscience. It is like seed that falls on the hard road and never sinks below the surface. The birds of the air can eat such seed without trouble. Satan can take away what held only passing interest for the mind and never touched the conscience.

Birds are used as symbols of evil agents. In the dream of Pharaoh's baker, the birds ate the baked goods he was carrying on his head (Gen. 40:17). In the parable of the Sower, Christ explains that the birds which ate the seed by the path stand for "the wicked one" (Matt. 13:4, 19). In the parable of the Mustard Seed, the kingdom of heaven becomes a great system with roots in the earth, and the birds of the air shelter under it (Matt. 13:31-32). The Greek word is the same in both parables: πετεινόν.

Birds you never saw a moment before appear and carry off crumbs thrown on the ground. In the same way the enemy takes away the seed that was sown, because the hearer did not care for it.

But is this a question of mental capacity, of intellectual understanding? Not at all. The Lord says the word was "sown in the heart." It aimed itself at the conscience, and the hearer could accept it or reject it. But the heart would not have it and turned against it. "And does not understand it" means "he would not understand or receive it."

The man who heard it is no less guilty. What was sown in his heart fitted every need — man's nature and man's condition.

It is rocky ground, not stony: bedrock, with a slight layer of earth over it. In it the seed grows fast, but only at the surface. That is the very thing that destroys it a little while later. At first the rock works like a hot-house: "immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil." Then the sun grew hotter and scorched it. And because it had no root, it withered away.

There was a more hopeful appearance in this case. The word was received, but the ground was rocky; there was no depth of earth. Appearances came very quickly — "immediately they sprang up." There is little or no sense of sin. Everything is taken in far too readily. "The plan of salvation" may be thought excellent. There may be no denying that his mind has been enlightened. But such a person has never measured his awful condition in God's sight. The good word of God is tasted, but the ground is rocky. Conscience has not been properly exercised. Whereas, in a real work of heart, conscience is the soil in which the word of God takes effect. There can never be a real work of God without a sense of sin.

Here it is the nature of the ground that is at fault. With the hearer beside the path, you could argue that circumstances made him what he was. The traffic over that ground had packed it hard. Here it was the nature of the ground itself. The prophet — or rather, God through him — speaks of a "heart of stone" (Ezekiel 36:26). Beyond question, that is exactly what is pictured here. Yet there is earth as well, a surface responsiveness which promises a great deal at the start.

In the next class of hearers, the stony ground illustrates the opposition of the flesh. And for this purpose it is pictured, not at its worst, but at its best... Here is not the natural man's rejection of the Word, but his reception of it. Yet there is no more real fruit than in the first case.

Some also received the word with joy. This was proof that the conscience was untouched. When the conscience is reached, the result is anything but joy — until forgiveness is known. The feelings may be stirred for a time, and the word listened to with a joy that will give way to sorrow. The reason truth is taken up so lightly with joy is that there is no root, and so it is received in joy and given up in trouble.

Everything is fine with those who receive the word with joy but have no root, while they live at ease in the world. They produce fruit as fair and promising as any seen in the church. But then comes worldly loss and persecution for confessing Christ. When trials and afflictions and the cross meet them on their way, they stumble. These are the scorching sun that withers the seed and all its fruit.

The importance of this process in the soul cannot be overestimated. The lack of it is the secret of so much of the shallow profession all around us. The seed gets no deep root in unbroken ground. The deeper the furrow made by the ploughshare of conviction, the deeper the root, and the more abundant the fruit in later days.

It is rocky ground, not stony: bed-rock with a slight layer of earth over it. In that thin soil the seed grows fast, but only near the surface. The very thing that destroyed it a little later was what first produced this hot-house growth: "immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil." Later the sun grew hotter and scorched it. Because it had no root, it withered away.

In the next case the word is received at once with joy. That tends to prove the heart will not keep it, for the conscience was hardly reached. A conscience touched by the word makes a man serious. He sees himself in the presence of God, and that is always a serious thing, however much His grace attracts him or His goodness gives him hope. If the word has not reached the conscience, there is no root. He received the word for the joy it gave; when it brings trouble, he gives it up.

All is well with those who receive the word with joy but have no root, while they live at ease in the world. They produce fruit as fair and promising as any seen in the church. But then loss in the world and persecution come on them for confessing Christ. When trials and afflictions and the cross meet them on their way, they are offended. These are the scorching sun that withers the seed and all its fruit.

Normally the sun's rays would have driven the seed to root deeper and firmer, as the root struck downwards in search of moisture. Here the heat withered it instead, and hurried the growth to its total destruction.

In this case the seed sprang quickly into life and showed very rapid growth. But the burning sun beat down on these lush young plants. They were so scorched that they withered and died. There was a great deal of green stalk and leaf on display, but no matching root development. So at the crucial moment, when they needed it most, they "lacked moisture" (Luke 8:6), and they withered away. They had no underground connection with springs or streams of water, such as the tree of the first Psalm had.

So there is no root in the man himself; Christ is not his real and great necessity. Therefore, "when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away." This is the religion of the flesh, of sentiment, of unreality. This is its end. It lacks the sign and seal of a work that is truly divine — permanence. It "lasts for a while." "I perceive that whatever God does endures forever" (Ecclesiastes 3:14).

Notice the words, "immediately receives it with joy." There is no deep work of conscience, no moral judgment of self or of sin. As a result there is no depth of root, no power of endurance… We should ponder with the greatest care how these expressions hang together: "immediately, with joy," "no root," "withered away." A person may take in the plan of salvation with the mind only, with no spiritual work in the conscience. That is a great danger. Such a reception often comes with the most joyful emotions. It stirs the natural feelings, but the truth has not entered the heart. The Word has cut no furrow.

Here the ground is already occupied with something else, and something that is native to the soil as well. The thorns were there before the seed fell among them. So much so that Matthew takes no account of the seed's apparent growth at all — only of the thorns. Luke mentions that growth only to show that the flourishing thorns choked the seed.

In the thorny ground hearers, the roots of thorns already filled the ground before the good seed fell into their hearts. Those roots are the desires for the things of this life, for riches and pleasures. They sprang up and choked the word. Although the roots were already in the heart, they did not spring up until the good seed was sown there. The heart may not show how firmly present things grip it. No one may even realise it, until the word of God comes and tests it.

"Other seeds fell among thorns." There you have the world. The Lord says, "the cares of this age" — that is the first thing mentioned. Then "the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things," or "pleasures of life." Those are the three things mentioned in Mark and Luke.

Poverty and riches, as Agur long ago noted (Prov. 30:8-9), are seen here as alike unfavourable to spiritual life. Yet riches may entice the poor, and care may weigh heavily upon the prosperous rich man. The deceitfulness of riches is so great a snare that the Lord said elsewhere a rich man can hardly enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 19:23). But He was careful to keep this from meaning that salvation itself differs for different classes of people. Everyone who realises his need of salvation belongs to one class only: "Christ died for sinners" covers every case.

The influence of present things on eternal things is not openly hostile, as affliction and persecution were in the previous class. But it is just as deadly, and far more dangerous, because it works so quietly. The thorns were growing too near the seed. A mile away it would not have mattered. Because they were close, they could secretly and effectively rob the good seed of the light, air, moisture and nourishment it needed from the soil.

The Lord shows here how utterly impossible it is to produce fruit for God while the heart is occupied with the world. In Luke the whole range of worldly influences is shown — its cares, its riches, its pleasures. The three combined, or any one of them, may so fill the heart that the word of God does nothing in it. It falls on the ear. The mind may even quietly agree with it. Yet it produces no saving faith in the soul and no fruit in the life, because there is no purpose of heart for God and no break with the world.

We all know that since the fall the ground produces thorns and briars. People have tried many methods to get rid of them. Experience has taught the farmer that there is only one way to do it. He may plough and harrow, but for every root he breaks, two plants will grow up, and his field will become a briar patch. Let him instead sow the field with grass seed, and as the grass grows up it will drive out the briars. This is overcoming evil with good... Let the positive things of Christ fill the heart. Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. Then we will have little room and less desire for the lusts of the flesh.

The Saviour likened Himself to a sower of seed (Matt. 13:3-8). This marks a new turn in God's ways with man. In earlier ages God had looked to man for fruit, and to Israel above all. He had every right to do so. But He looked in vain, for the flesh is evil beyond cure... God no longer looks for fruit from man. He now sows the good seed of the Gospel, and so produces His own fruit.

The sower here is the Lord Himself, yet out of four casts of the seed, three are unsuccessful. Only in the last case does the seed bear ripe fruit. Even there the result is mixed and held back — "some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." Natural things still hinder fruitfulness, more or less.

Someone may ask why the hearts of some are compared to good ground, when Scripture teaches that every heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. It is not because there is anything good in them by nature. Only the facts are given here, not the cause behind them. We simply see the preaching of the word and the receiving of it.

We are not told what has made it good. But if we have the devil, nature, and the world in the first three parables, what influence is left? There is nothing but the Holy Spirit. Today we badly need to say that the plough must come before the seed-basket. What makes the heart good? He who has gone out to plough the unbroken ground and sow the seed.

This group alone describes true believers, and all of them bear fruit, though the Lord names three different measures. Thirty-fold is not large, but it is fruit; sixty-fold is more fruit, and one hundred-fold is much fruit (John 15:2-5).

In the other cases the power of Satan and the attractions of the world kill the growth completely. Here they only reduce the amount of fruit produced.

If all that is in the natural heart hates and rejects the word, why does it bear fruit here? Our Lord Himself tells us at the start of John 15: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser." That is why the seed takes root in any heart and produces fruit. God values and loves every branch of the true vine so much that He Himself stoops to be their vinedresser. First He gives them the power by which the seed takes root and grows. Then, when it becomes a branch in Christ, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

Does the difference come from faithfulness or from opportunity? The Lord does not take up the question here. But other scriptures show that God will take both into account in the great Day of Rewards.

Is this difference of order a mere accident? No, it is designed, and there is a divine purpose in it... the order of the words in Matthew points to the decline of the whole company of people who profess faith — yes, even in the fruit-bearing of the good seed. This is not through any defect in the good seed, which is the Word, but through some bad quality in the good ground.

The suggestion that an age running to its end may account for the falling numbers will hardly fit here... Even so, may our hearts long to prove in full the work of God in our souls.

Even where the heart does not refuse the truth, but receives it outwardly, it can abandon it just as quickly. The same will that makes a man gladly receive the gospel makes him drop it in the face of difficulties. But in some cases the word does produce blessed effects. It fell on good ground and brought forth fruit in different degrees. "Who has ears to hear, let him hear." This is a solemn warning to souls. They must look carefully at whether or not they produce according to the truth they have received.

While He was here on earth, the Lord often cried, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." That is, the one who has an inward ear — an ear opened by the Holy Spirit to listen to the messages given and to receive them.

It is an ear to hear. It is the very lowest qualification. It is not, Can you work? Can you do anything? Israel in the wilderness had no ear, and was overthrown; so will you be also if you have none. God says: Does My word have any entrance into your hearts? Have you gained any blessing from anything I have ever said to you? Here is My challenge to you: "He who has an ear, let him hear."

He ended it with the solemn words, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Having ears to hear, or not having them, would show at once whether a man belonged "within" or "without." Most of His listeners thought it was a pretty story, pleasant to the ear. They left it there, which showed they were outside. Others, including the disciples, were not content with this. They pushed further to reach its inner meaning. They belonged to the inside.

It is not the law laid down to an ordered people on penalty of death. It is the word, wherever received in faith, to produce fruit. The great principle the Lord introduced when He was here is individual responsibility. This He repeats from on high. The kingdom, when set up, in no way weakens it, as we learn here. The church, as we know from elsewhere, brought in the communion of saints, shared submission, and shared action. Even so, God never allows anyone to give up individual responsibility.

"He who has ears to hear" answers, in principle, to "The sower went out to sow." He spoke it to Israelites, but not to them as a nation in a fixed position. He spoke it to the gracious work going on in their own minds and souls. But in principle, whoever had ears, this being so, it applied to him and was for his profit too; and here any Gentile, or anyone whose ear God opened, came in. It stands as a solemn warning on the sowing of the seed: everything is ruined, and God is acting in grace, taking these pains before judgment falls.

It was a summons to the individual to free himself from the heedless mass. The Lord made this appeal to His people on earth. He repeated the same cry to each of the seven churches in Asia: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." In the middle of general church decline, the Lord calls for individual faithfulness in paying attention to His word and His warning.