And the disciples came up and said to him, Why speakest thou to them in parables?
Israel has refused its King. Instead of announcing a kingdom, the Lord tells the crowd a story about a sower — and the disciples want to know why. Their question draws out one of the most solemn answers He ever gave.
The disciples had just heard something new. Their Master had always spoken plainly; now He told a story.
"The disciples came up to Him and said, Why do You speak to them in parables?" This question came right after He had finished this first parable. They had never heard a parable from His lips. Before this, He had spoken to the people and their leaders in simple words that everyone could easily understand. Now, for the first time, He said something they could not grasp. It was veiled. The answer our Lord gives is deeply solemn, because it announces the judgment upon Israel.
The change of setting explains the change of method. He leaves the house behind and takes His place by the sea.
The prophet had said, "Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness" — here the King is rejected. Yet if they rejected Him, grace still goes on, and flows out to the Gentiles. The Lord had closed Jewish relationships, and spoken at the end of chapter 12 of a new family, a new relationship formed by the word of God. So He leaves the house, goes to the sea, and instead of a king reigning, it is "Behold, a sower went out to sow."
A parable does two things at once. The same story that opens the truth to one hearer closes it to another.
The same parable would be just like the cloud of Israel in a former day — full of light to those within, full of obscurity to those outside. So it is with the sayings of our Lord. The crisis with unbelieving Israel was so solemn now that it was not His intention to give clearer light. Conscience was gone. They had the Lord among them, bringing in full light, and He was refused, especially by the religious leaders. He had now broken with them: here was the clue to His conduct. … The truth stayed hidden from the crowd, because they had already rejected the clearest possible proofs that Jesus was the Messiah of God.
His answer links the parables to something that had already happened.
The Lord's answer is telling. It confirms that the teaching of the parables of the kingdom of heaven ties directly to the rejection of the King. This was a case of "judicial blindness." … This is solemn indeed. They could not see because they had refused to see.
Did God shut these people out on purpose, so that they could never be saved?
This does not mean God hid these things from them because He did not want them converted. In fact, if people would only admit their ignorance and ask in earnest, they too would be converted and find forgiveness of sins. Those who chose to stay ignorant would remain that way.
This way of teaching also put distance between the Lord and the crowd.
A parable, then, especially in its more formal form, stated divine truth under the cover of an illustration. Only those who were truly hungry for the truth would look inside. For them, there would be no difficulty. … But this speaking in parables suggests a moral distance, a separation between the Lord and the mass of the people. If they were to grasp His teaching, they had to want to.
In His answer the Lord speaks of "mysteries" — the word the ESV translates as "secrets." It does not mean something too deep to grasp. It means a secret now told.
The mystery is no longer "hidden in God" — it is disclosed. You must always keep this in mind when you read about the mystery: it is now revealed, and nothing is left in the dark. The secret is set out in the light of God, and the simplest Christian is expected to receive it. So Christ said to His disciples, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." … Can any words do more to clear away the common idea that a mystery is something we cannot understand?
- Rejection — Israel refused its King. So He leaves the house and sits by the sea. The picture changes from a king reigning to a sower sowing.
- Veil — The disciples had never heard Him speak this way. His first parable hid the truth under a story, and His reply announced judgment on Israel.
- Two sides — One parable works like the cloud of old. It gave light to those inside and darkness to those outside. Conscience in the nation was gone.
- Refusal — The blindness was judicial, yet self-chosen. They could not see because they had refused to see. Only the hungry look inside a parable.
- Secret told — "Mysteries" are not truths too deep to grasp. They are secrets now brought into the light, and the simplest believer is meant to receive them.
And he answering said to them, Because to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, but to them it is not given;
The disciples had just asked why their Master taught the crowds in stories instead of plain speech. His answer draws a line straight through His audience. Two questions follow. What are these "secrets of the kingdom of heaven"? And why does one group receive them and not the other?
The turn to parables came after a crisis. The same words that opened the truth to some left others in the dark, like the cloud that once stood over Israel.
The same parable would be just like the cloud of Israel long ago — full of light to those inside, full of darkness to those outside. So it is with the sayings of our Lord. The crisis with unbelieving Israel was so solemn that He did not intend to give clearer light. Conscience was gone. They had the Lord among them, bringing in full light, and they refused Him — above all the religious leaders. He had now broken with them: here is the clue to His conduct. It stayed hidden from the crowd, because they had already rejected the clearest possible proofs that Jesus was the Messiah of God.
The withholding was not random. It answered what the hearers had already done to themselves.
This was a case of "judicial blindness." The Lord quotes Isaiah to show it. That people's heart had grown dull. They barely heard with their ears, and they had shut their eyes. This is solemn indeed. They could not see because they had refused to see.
The word does not mean a puzzle too deep for anyone to solve. In the Bible it means a secret that God has now told out.
The mystery is no longer "hid in God"; God has disclosed it. Always keep this in mind when you read about the mystery: it is now revealed and nothing is left in the dark. God sets the secret out in His own light, and the simplest Christian is expected to receive it. So Christ said to His disciples, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven." All the other mysteries of God are made known in the same way. Could anything more completely clear away the common idea that a mystery is something no one can understand, and that godly people dare not look into?
Revealed, yes — but not to every reader alike. Reading alone will not take it in.
In Scripture the word mystery does not point to what is mysterious, the way people use the word. It presents some distinctive truth that God has disclosed for our understanding. The New Testament holds many such mysteries, and what they contain is there to enlighten the saints. But only those with faith can profit by these divine unveilings. Only the faithful are let into their truths. Only those who have the Spirit of God have the capacity and the power to grasp the mind of God revealed in this way. God wants to bring you and me into His secrets: do we want to know them?
The kingdom itself was no secret. The prophets had already described it. What was new was the shape it took after Israel rejected its King.
We have not had the word "mysteries" before in connection with the kingdom of heaven. The testimony of the prophets about the kingdom had no mystery about it. This comes as a result of Israel rejecting Christ. So notice, in verse 35, that all this stayed secret until now.
So the kingdom took a form no one had foretold. Its King is not on the scene.
While the King is rejected His kingdom cannot be a public affair. When it is public, the kingdom of heaven will be on open display: the thousand-year reign of Christ. Meanwhile the kingdom is in mystery. The rightful Heir is away, so the kingdom is left in the hands of men who are responsible for it. It stands in a world that has rejected the rightful Heir, a world whose every principle is against God.
The disciples did not earn their understanding. They had received Him, and knowledge followed as a gift.
Because of their faith, the Lord would make known to them the mystery of the kingdom of God. Even this was a display of His grace. Many prophets and righteous men in Old Testament times had longed to hear the things they were now hearing, but they never had that privilege. You could say this was the Lord's sovereign grace. He chose to bless those who had done what they were responsible to do: they received Him.
- Given. The knowledge is a gift, not a reward. The disciples received the Person first; the understanding came after, as grace.
- Given as a secret told. In Scripture a mystery is not something too deep to grasp. It is something once hidden that God has now said out loud.
- Given to those with the Spirit. The secret is out in the open, yet only faith profits by it. The power to take in God's mind comes from God Himself.
- Given because the King was refused. The prophets described a kingdom in open glory. Christ's rejection brought in a kingdom in mystery, run by men while the rightful Heir is away.
- Not given, and why. The same parable lit the way for one group and left the other in the dark. That blindness was God's judgment on people who had first shut their own eyes.
for whoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall be caused to be in abundance; but he who has not, even what he has shall be taken away from him.
Jesus has just told the crowd the parable of the sower, and His disciples want to know why He now teaches this way. His answer gives a rule that sounds harsh at first: what a person already holds decides what he receives next.
The verse begins with "for". It gives the reason why some understand the Lord's parables and others do not. One writer applies the two halves to two groups: the disciples, and the leaders who had refused Him.
The same parable would be just like the cloud that led Israel long ago — full of light for those inside, full of darkness for those outside... The Lord was among them, bringing in full light, and they refused Him, above all the religious leaders. He had now broken with them, and that is the clue to His conduct... So it was with the disciples. They had already received Him, and now the Lord would give them truth to lead them on. "But from the one who has not" (Israel, who was rejecting Christ), "even what he has will be taken away" — the Lord's presence in person and the proof of His miracles would soon pass away.
One writer passes on another's description of two kinds of hearer:
Whoever has really made the truths he has heard a living possession will always be given more. But the one who has received it only as something dead and outward will lose even what he seems to have, but really has not.
Another writer ties having to use:
What we do not have in the power of faith for real use, we do not have in deed and in truth.
The second half of the verse lands on a nation with a real head start. One writer explains what Israel held, and what it lacked:
To understand this verse we must see these people in the place of privilege God had given them as a nation. As such they had something the other nations did not have. But they did not have this new thing which Christ was opening out. So as a nation they were about to lose the standing they once had before God. Those who had received Jesus as their Messiah, though, were about to be brought into the kingdom of heaven in its heavenly character.
The saying is not only about Israel long ago. One writer sets it beside the parable of the talents, where a servant loses the one talent he had:
The end of verse 12 is very solemn: "from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." In another place it reads "seems to have." It is possible to have something that will be taken from you. Where the Lord speaks of the talents, the man with one talent is a servant of the Lord Jesus, yet his talent is taken from him and given to the man who had ten. That talent was light he had; people are responsible for the light they have.
The rule did not end with Israel. One writer applies it to our own day:
But this two-edged sword cuts another way as well. The principle our Lord states here is still at work. The true believers who make up the church have, and in due time we shall have abundance. Meanwhile a Christian world that has fallen away from the faith has not, and will lose even what it boasts of having.
Another writer brings the rule down to one believer's daily life:
If you do not go forward, you will go backward. If you are not making progress, you are falling behind. If you are not entering into what God has given you in His word, you are losing what you already have... Thanks be to the grace of God, this loss is not absolute and final. But we do lose the enjoyment of what is our own.
- Given — The disciples had already received Christ Himself, so He gave them more truth.
- Grasped — To "have" is to make truth a living possession. Truth held only outwardly is what a person merely seems to have.
- Gone — Israel had real privilege as a nation, but not the new thing Christ was opening. Refusing Him, it lost the standing it held.
- Governing — The rule still runs: light is a trust, and people are responsible for the light they have.
- Growing — There is no neutral ground. Not going forward in what God has given is already going backward — losing the enjoyment of it, not the security of it.
For this cause I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear nor understand;
Matthew 13 finds the Lord by the sea, teaching the crowds in stories. His disciples ask why He changed His way of speaking, and this verse gives His reason: the crowd could see and hear, yet took nothing in.
The change did not come out of nowhere.
This is the first time the word parable occurs in the New Testament. The disciples, struck by this way of teaching, asked Him: "Why do you speak to them in parables?" (v. 10). The Lord's answer is telling. It links the parables of the kingdom of heaven directly to the rejection of the king… This was a case of "judicial blindness". The Lord quotes Isaiah to show it: "their eyes they have closed" (v. 15). They could not see because they had refused to see.
That rejection changed God's dealings with the whole nation.
This rejection of Jesus, and the destruction of Jerusalem that followed, cut short all God's dealings with them as a nation for the time. They were set aside, and a new work began. Meanwhile judicial blindness falls on them, and the words of Isaiah the prophet come true. So He speaks to them in parables… Before this the Lord had not spoken in parables. But now He is the rejected One, and Israel is cut off for the time. None understand except those He instructs.
The verse describes eyes that work and still see nothing. So who closed them?
These people the Lord was speaking about had closed their eyes. It does not say God closed them. They closed them themselves, and so they did not receive the light of this new thing.
The order runs one way, and it still holds today.
Matthew 13:13-15 shows plainly that Israel's wilful blindness came before their judicial blindness… In His absolute justice, God has now confirmed that blindness for the whole time that grace is going out to the Gentiles.
The third failure in the verse is not about eyesight or hearing at all. The Greek word carries the idea of assembling things in the mind.
suniemi (from sun and iemi) means "to bring or set together"… It then stands for the soul's built-in capacity to do this. It joins the outward object to the inward sense. It is to weigh a thing, think it over closely, and so grasp its meaning. See Matthew 13:13-14 and the parallel passages.
Which failure gets named depends on who was listening:
Take people who did not have the word of God, whom the gospel would test when it went out to them in due time. For them the question was believing something they had never heard before. In Matthew the words go to a people who already had the word, and for them the great thing was to understand it. This they did not do.
A parable does not hide the truth from everyone. The same words land in two ways.
The same parable would be just like the cloud of Israel in an earlier day — full of light to those inside, full of darkness to those outside. The crisis with unbelieving Israel was so solemn that He did not intend to give clearer light… He kept it from the crowd because they had already rejected the clearest possible proofs that Jesus was the Messiah of God… They loved darkness rather than light. What is the good of a light to one who shuts his eyes?
Sharp intelligence is no help here; the difference lies elsewhere.
The design lies on the surface, so the opened eye can read it. Yet, clear as it is, "the wise and prudent" of this world do not see it… But it is always like this in God's teaching: to grasp the truth we must be taught by God. This is absolutely necessary. The keenest intellect is wholly unable to discern the mind of God.
The Lord had warned them first.
He had also warned them plainly. If they refused to hear Him, He would bring on them the sentence He went on to pronounce… So they were without excuse. No one can accuse the Lord Jesus of unfairness when He chose to begin speaking to them in parables. The Judge of the earth will always do right, even in judgment.
Yet the door stayed open to anyone who would ask.
If people would only admit their ignorance and ask in earnest, they too would be converted and find forgiveness of sins. Those who chose to stay ignorant would remain that way.
- Refusal first. They saw the clearest proofs and turned them down. Their own hands closed their eyes, and God's judgment then sealed them shut.
- Sentence next. They rejected the King, so His plain speech gave way to parables. He did not take the light away; He veiled it.
- Understanding is the issue. The failing word means to put things together and weigh them; a people who already held God's word would not do it.
- Two sides of one cloud. The same parable is light to those inside and darkness to those outside. Only those taught by God take its meaning.
- Still just, still open. No one can charge God with unfairness here. Anyone who admits ignorance and asks gets an answer, as the disciples did.
and in them is filled up the prophecy of Esaias, which says, Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and beholding ye shall behold and not see;
The disciples asked why their Master had begun teaching the crowds in stories they could not decode. His answer reached back seven hundred years, to words God gave Isaiah about a people who would hear and never understand. The Lord said that word was coming true, in full, in the crowd standing in front of Him.
The verse turns on one verb. Writers who trace the Greek note that "understand" here means more than hearing a sound:
suniemi (from sun and iemi) means "to bring or set together"... As a picture, it came to stand for the soul's own power to do this: it joins the outward object to the inward sense. It means to weigh a thing, think it over carefully, and so grasp what it means.
So the failure is not in the ears. These people would not put what they heard together with what it meant.
God did not act on Isaiah's word at once. He waited on the nation for centuries:
Israel, as such, had forfeited its place, and therefore was "a people of no understanding" (Isa. 27:11). Long patience had waited on Israel. Seven hundred years had passed since God gave Isaiah the word, "Go and tell this people: you will hear indeed, but not understand." As individuals they might gather around the person of the Lord, but as a nation they were blinded... The testimony to Israel is now closed, though God's final purpose for them is not.
Does God blind people, or do they blind themselves first? One writer traces the order and the result:
The blinding here is plainly judicial. God Himself has given them sightless eyes and unhearing ears. But why is this? It is no arbitrary judgment. Matthew 13:13-15 shows clearly that Israel's wilful blindness came before their judicial blindness... Now God, in His absolute justice, has confirmed this blindness. It stands for the whole length of the present period of grace to the Gentiles — "until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in."
Matthew's wording of Isaiah does not match the Hebrew text. In the Greek Old Testament the shut eyes are the people's own act, not something done to them. That is the version the Lord used, and He spoke of the prophecy as now completely fulfilled:
Turn to Matthew's Gospel and you will see this. The Lord speaks of the complete fulfilment (anapleroo) of this prophecy, and He quotes the Greek version, not the Hebrew text (Matt. 13:13-15). The people had themselves closed their eyes. Mark and Luke record only the first part of the prophecy, which states Israel's condition of hearing and not understanding. All three agree in showing that the Lord took up teaching in parables because of their unfeeling moral state.
In Isaiah the same words are followed by a question and an answer. That answer marks out the age the parables describe:
Our Lord quotes another prophecy of Isaiah, which was now coming true... These words come from Isa. 6:9-10, and there they are joined to what follows. The prophet says, "Then I said, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities lie waste with no inhabitant, and the houses are without people, and the land is utterly desolate, and the LORD has removed people far away, and there is a great forsaking in the midst of the land." The Saviour's quotation from this passage matters. It settles that this predicted period of Israel's desolation is the period in which the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven exist and develop.
One writer points out that the same chapter of Isaiah is quoted three times in the New Testament. Read together, the three show one process running to its end:
Paul spoke a final word to the unbelieving Jews before they left, quoting the passage from Isaiah 6 — the passage the Lord Himself quoted in Matthew 13, and John quotes in chapter 12 of his Gospel. This sad and terrible process of hardening and spiritual death had set in even in the days of Isaiah some seven centuries before Christ. It was much stronger when Christ was on earth, and now it has reached its final stage... As a nation they are blinded and without understanding in the things of God, though very sharp about the things of the world. This does not, of course, conflict with God still calling out a remnant according to the election of grace, as Romans 11 states.
- Patience. Seven hundred years stood between Isaiah's word and this moment; God waited before He acted on it.
- Refusal. The blinding was not arbitrary — wilful blindness came first, judicial blindness after.
- Their own hands. Matthew quotes the Greek version, where the closed eyes are something the people did to themselves.
- Sentence. Isaiah asked how long, and the answer was desolation. That stretch of time is where the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven run their course.
- Remnant. The nation is set aside for this age, yet grace still calls out people one by one — the hardening is national, never total.
for the heart of this people has grown fat, and they have heard heavily with their ears, and they have closed their eyes as asleep, lest they should see with the eyes, and hear with the ears, and understand with the heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
The Lord has just answered a question about why He teaches the crowds in parables. His answer reaches back to Isaiah. Here is a people surrounded by light who cannot take it in. Did God blind them, or did they blind themselves?
The Lord changed how He taught because the nation had rejected Him.
The Lord's answer is telling. It confirms that His teaching in parables about the kingdom of heaven is directly related to the rejection of the king (vs. 11, 13). This was a case of "judicial blindness." The Lord quotes from Isaiah to show this. This is solemn indeed. They could not see because they had refused to see.
The verse names three things: a heart, ears, and eyes.
The heart of the people had grown fat. A thick insulation encased it, so that the precious truth of God could make no impression. Their ears had become dulled so as not to hear properly, and they themselves had closed their eyes. This was willful blindness, because they did not want the truth.
The wording matters. Commentators note that this quotation follows the Greek version of the Old Testament. That version puts the closing of the eyes down to the people themselves.
Compare these passages. The Gospels quote this prophecy, and so does the apostle Paul when he speaks to the Jews at Rome. Both point to the nation deliberately closing its own ears. "Their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed" (Acts 28:27). This wording comes from the Greek version of the Old Testament, which gives the passage this turn. Their sin was therefore their own deliberate action, and the nation is held responsible for it.
This raises the hardest question in the verse: does God make people blind?
The hardening itself is clear and certain. God never made any man bad. But He may give people up to the consequences of their own folly and evil — and in certain cases He does. That is, He hardens in judgment those who despise and reject His grace. All are responsible. Sin destroys the capacity, not the responsibility, of obeying God.
One writer puts the two blindings in order:
The blinding here is a judgment from God. He Himself has given them sightless eyes and ears that do not hear. But why is this? It is no arbitrary judgment. Matthew 13:13-15 shows that Israel's willful blindness came before their judicial blindness. God, in His absolute justice, has now confirmed that blindness for the whole length of the present period of grace to the Gentiles — "until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in."
Mary shows what an open heart does with truth it does not yet understand.
Understanding is of the heart (Matt. 13:15). Mary kept the deep sayings about the Christ in her heart. In secret she kept pondering them, so that she might understand them in time (Luke 2:19, 51).
The verse ends with healing. For Israel that word covered more than the body.
If Israel would only listen to His voice, every present earthly blessing was to come upon them and overtake them, as the Lord's glorious promise put it. Among these blessings was the removal of all sickness, as we read again and again (Ex. 15:26; Ex. 23:15). So the pardon of their sins and their healing are treated as the same thing (see Matt. 13:15 and Mark).
A sentence passed on a nation is not a sentence passed on every person in it.
The nation as such is given up to hardness of heart. There is no use in increasing their condemnation with more light. And yet the very fact that He speaks to them at all shows that all are not given up. If any are in earnest enough to look past the outward form, they will still find a gracious heart beating towards them. The national rejection leaves individual responsibility where it always is. He that has an ear, as the Lord tells them, still may hear.
The warning reaches past Israel to anyone who reads it:
Are you a self-satisfied rejecter of the truth? Then beware, in case He gives you up to blindness and hardness of heart too. How long has God held out His hands, ready to receive you?
- Refused — the eyes in this verse are shut from the inside; they could not see because they had refused to see.
- Confirmed — God never starts the hardening. He gives people up to the consequences of their own choice. Sin removes the ability to obey, never the responsibility.
- Heart — understanding is of the heart. Truth pondered there is truth grasped in time.
- Forfeited — what they shut out was healing, which for Israel meant the pardon of their sins.
- Open — the sentence fell on the nation, not on every soul in it; anyone with an ear to hear may still hear, and the warning stands for every reader.
But blessed are *your* eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear;
Jesus has just described a crowd who look without seeing and listen without understanding. Then He turns to the small group beside Him and calls their eyes and ears blessed. So where does such sight come from, and can anyone have it today?
Earlier in the chapter, the same words about seeing and hearing point the other way. One writer shows how the two statements mirror each other, and why the word order changes:
That is how the Lord refers to them in verse 16 of our chapter... It is negative in verse 13, but positive in verse 16. It is striking that when our Lord quotes from Isaiah it says, "You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive." That looks at their side, their responsibility. So hearing comes first. But where God is working in the heart, seeing comes first. The Pharisees saw only what natural eyes can see. They could not see these spiritual realities.
Sharp senses and a quick mind do not produce this sight.
People say that we gain knowledge in three ways. By observation, using our eyes. By teaching, using our ears. By intuition, using our brains. But these human faculties are of no use when it comes to grasping divine things. That is why we read, "But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear."
This is why one and the same parable can enlighten one listener and leave another in the dark:
The design lies on the surface, where an opened eye can read it. And yet, clear as it is, "the wise and prudent" of this world do not notice it. Like the pillar of fire, it gives light to Israel and is only darkness to the Egyptian. But it is always like this in divine teaching: to grasp the truth we must be taught by God.
The Lord Himself says who they are. He points to what they had already done with His voice:
Speaking to His disciples, He said, "Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear." They were His followers, because they had heard Him. As the sheep of the "little flock" they had heard the voice of the good Shepherd. When He was instructing His disciples, He described them as those who heard... These had hungered and thirsted after the word of righteousness. They were blessed indeed, for His ministry as the Prophet filled them.
They did not take it all in at once. Their understanding came later:
Until after the blood had been shed, they knew very little of what those words meant — "Blessed are your eyes, for they see." But what did they see? "The glory of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." And what they saw, and heard, and touched, they received — the eternal life which was in the bosom of the Father.
The Lord sets their position beside those who lived before them. One writer draws out the difference in a line:
He Himself emphasised the privileges of their position in Matthew 13:16-17... Others had looked and longed for His coming; the disciples had Him before their eyes day after day.
The same capacity belongs to believers now:
The Spirit forms in the believer a faculty to understand what is revealed. We read in 1 Corinthians 2:16, "But we have the mind of Christ." This is a remarkable statement. It means we have the thinking faculty of Christ. God has worked in our hearts, so that we recognise He is revealing Himself. And He has given us His Spirit, so that we may understand what is revealed.
So the same words become a question for us:
The Lord once said to His disciples, "Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear." The crowd around them were hard of heart, dull of hearing, and their eyes were closed... Are our eyes and ears spiritually alert in this day? Are we able to enter into the mind of the Lord, and so walk intelligently in a dark world?
- Contrast — Verse 16 is the bright reverse of verse 13: closed eyes there, opened eyes here.
- Given — Our own eyes, ears and reasoning cannot reach divine things. God gives this sight.
- Heard — The blessed ones had listened to His voice, like sheep hearing the Shepherd.
- Seen — Their eyes were blessed because they saw the glory of the only Son from the Father, day after day, where others had only longed.
- Alert — The Spirit gives believers now the same capacity to understand. So the question stands: are our eyes and ears awake?
for verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous [men] have desired to see the things which ye behold and did not see [them], and to hear the things which ye hear and did not hear [them].
The Lord has just explained why the crowd hears only riddles, and now He turns to His own with a word of blessing. This verse shows how much they had. Many faithful people before them wanted the same thing and died without it.
The blessing falls on a small group set apart from the nation. One writer explains why the two stand so far apart.
In verse 11 the Lord shows why He speaks in riddles to the crowd. There is now a clear distinction between the remnant and the nation. The nation was under the judgment of blindness that the prophet Isaiah pronounced. Blessed were the eyes of the disciples that saw Emmanuel, the Messiah — the One so many prophets and righteous men hoped for and longed for. All this marks judgment, and a called and spared remnant.
Nothing in them earned that place. One writer shows what stood behind it:
Because of their faith, the Lord would make known to them the mystery of the kingdom of God (v. 11). Yet even this was really a display of His grace. Many prophets and righteous men in Old Testament times had longed to hear the things they were now hearing, but had not had that privilege.
The word behind "longed" is not a negative word. Older versions translate it "desired."
The word epithumeo means "to desire earnestly," and is often translated "desire," without the thought of the desire being an evil one, as in Matt. 13:17; 1 Tim. 3:1; 1 Peter 1:12.
So why did the prophets miss it? The reason was not in them.
The prophets did not see these things because they were not presented to them. They only came to light when the Lord brought them out. The Father raised up so many of those faithful men and gave them life. They worked wonderfully for God in their day, yet they did not know these wonderful things which have now been made known to us.
The prophets even had to study their own writings. They learned that their service reached past their own lifetime.
The prophets of old spoke both of the sufferings of Christ and of the glories that would follow. But we stand now between sufferings finished and glories yet to come. The prophets were foretelling these things, but they had not yet come. So they searched to see what kind of time the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing to. As they studied their own testimonies, it was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but us. This is very striking. They were so far from telling out the expectations of their own minds that they had to study their own prophecies to understand them, if possible.
Earlier believers had real dealings with God too.
We can recall the privileges of the patriarchs, the prophets and the kings of Old Testament times. The Lord appeared to them and spoke to them. But great as these things were, they could not compare with the presence of the Son of God who had come as man, and the words He spoke and the works He did.
That day was not the high point.
But it is plain that even that wonderful privilege was below the mighty increase brought in by His death, resurrection and ascension. That was even more true once the Holy Spirit was given, to grasp it all fully and to bear witness to it.
What about those who longed and died before that day?
Many prophets and righteous men had wanted to see what the disciples saw, but never lived to their day. Will they be robbed of their joy? No. They shall see the day of Christ's glory. They shall see the crop that has come from the seed they sowed in patience and under hardship — seed known perhaps only to themselves and to God.
- Longing — the word behind "longed" means earnest desire, with nothing bad in it. Prophets and righteous people wanted this with all their heart.
- Withheld — they did not see, because the things were not yet brought out. They studied their own prophecies and learned they were serving a later generation.
- Given — the disciples saw the Messiah Himself. No earlier appearance or word from God could match that.
- Exceeded — even that fell short of what the cross, resurrection, ascension and the gift of the Spirit brought in. Later believers hold more than the disciples held that day.
- Repaid — those who longed and died waiting will still see the day of Christ's glory. They will see the harvest from seed only God saw them sow.
*Ye*, therefore, hear the parable of the sower.
The Lord has just told the crowd a story about seed falling on four kinds of ground. Now He turns to His disciples and explains it, and that explanation unlocks the rest of the chapter.
The Lord does not leave the picture to His hearers. He names the birds, the rocky soil and the thorns Himself.
Then follows the explanation of the parable. We have the meaning of "the birds of the air" given to us. It is not left to any guesswork of our own. In Matthew the point is understanding; in Luke, believing. The Jews already knew the word of God, so their great point was to understand what God taught — and self-righteousness never understands. Though they heard with their ears, they did not understand with their hearts.
This first parable comes before the rest for a reason. It sets out the way God now works.
The first parable stands by itself. Unless we understand it, we shall not understand the others. The great work now was to be the sowing of the "word of the kingdom" in the hearts of men. This does not give any special place to the Jew. In verse 19, Jesus said, "When anyone hears," so that opened the door to each hearer of the word, whoever he might be. What was needed was to hear with understanding. Three things work against that: the activities of the devil, the fickleness of the flesh, and the cares and riches of the world. But some do receive the word, and there is fruit in varying measures. This method of divine working is still in use. It marks the day in which we live. Christianity is based not on what it finds in man but on what it produces by the power of God.
Christ takes a new role in this parable. The change marks where Israel then stood with God.
The very fact that Christ came as the sower proved that Israel was set aside. If Israel had still been His vineyard, He would have come seeking fruit from the vine He had long before planted. He had come to Israel before, seeking fruit and finding none. He now comes in the new character of the sower, which is quite another thing. He comes into a waste world, where there was nothing, and He begins a fresh work. God is not now looking for fruit from man in one sense, because man has been proved to be a bad tree.
Another writer asks what people can produce on their own.
The Lord came and began to sow the seed which alone can make anyone fruitful. His coming and service proclaimed the ruin of man by the Fall. By nature none of us can be fruitful for God. The first need is the seed, and it must come from outside. The seed is the word of God (Luke 8:11). Nothing less will do. Civilization, training, education and example are all useful in their way. But alone or together, they cannot take the place of the seed. God's voice must be heard in the soul.
Matthew alone gives the seed this title, and the wording fits the book it sits in.
In Matthew it is the soil. He said, "Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom" (13:18-19). It is not hard to see why this should be so in Matthew. There Matthew presents Christ to Israel as the Messiah. Only this Gospel calls the seed "the word of the kingdom." Everything depended on how people received that word about His person and kingdom. That word tested the character of the soil.
So what stops a hearer from understanding?
We learn another solemn truth from this. The great thing that hinders spiritual understanding is religious prejudice. The Jews were charged with not understanding. They were not idol-worshippers or open unbelievers. But they had a system of religion in their minds, one they had been trained in from childhood. It darkened their grasp of what the Lord was bringing out. So it is now.
Everyone in the crowd heard the same words. What they did next divided them.
All heard, but how few cared to know the interpretation... There were those outside — and how many — who did not care to know. There were some who wanted to understand, which showed they were inside. To such it was given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. This was great favour, but it came with responsibility. The light they received was to be shown to others. So they had to take care what they heard.
- Sower — Christ came sowing rather than seeking fruit, because man as he is has none to give.
- Seed — The word of the kingdom comes from outside us. Education, training and example cannot replace it.
- Soil — The seed is faultless, so any failure lies in the ground; the word tests what it lands on.
- Understanding — Matthew asks the hearer to understand, and religious prejudice is the great blocker.
- Key — Miss this parable and the rest of the chapter stays shut. Grasp it, and the light you receive becomes a light to pass on.
From every one who hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand [it], the wicked one comes and catches away what was sown in his heart this is he that is sown by the wayside.
Here the Lord starts to explain His own parable. He begins with the saddest case: seed that never gets below the surface. Two questions press. What does it mean to hear and not understand? And how can an enemy carry off what God has just sown?
Luke tells the same parable but names the seed differently. That difference fits the aim of each Gospel.
Matthew speaks of understanding — that is the great point for the Gospel writer who speaks of the word of the kingdom. Luke speaks of the word of God — "the seed is the word of God" — so that those who believe (not those who understand) should be saved. Matthew speaks of hearing and understanding, Luke of believing and being saved. This fits the different aims of the Gospels well. In Matthew we see a people of God whom God is already dealing with. The Messiah proclaims the kingdom of heaven and puts them to the test. Those who had set their hearts on worldly things did not understand the Messiah, and did not care for the word of the kingdom.
The failure here is not intellectual slowness. The verse itself says where the seed landed — in the heart.
Is it a question of mental capacity, of an intellectual understanding? Certainly not. The Lord says the word was "sown in the heart;" it had appealed to the conscience, and the hearer could either 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."
A road is hard because of what has passed over it. Commentators point to two different kinds of traffic. One is religious training that leaves no room for anything new from God:
Here is another solemn truth. The main thing that blocks spiritual understanding is religious prejudice. The charge against the Jews was that they did not understand. They were not idol-worshippers or open unbelievers. But they carried a system of religion in their minds, one they had learned from infancy, and it darkened their grasp of what the Lord was bringing out. So it is now.
The other is everyday preoccupation. Either way the ground stays too hard for the seed:
The ground where the seed falls is too hard-trodden for it to sink in. It lies exposed to the birds of heaven, and almost tempts the tempter to catch it away. There are many such souls. They are taken up with what hardens them and deadens them to other influences — business or pleasure, lawful or lawless. What matters here is the effect, not how it came about.
The Lord does not say the word bounced off. He says it landed in the man's heart. That makes the outcome more solemn, not less.
True, the Lord says it was "sown in his heart," and that is a solemn thing... In the parable the word has first been sown in the heart: Satan could not prevent that. It has made its appeal to the conscience and commended itself there as truth. It was sown in the heart for the man to accept or refuse. Conscience approves it, but that is not faith; faith always engages the person's will. Conviction is not acceptance.
The seed suited the hearer's every need, so he cannot hide behind the enemy's work:
The word may be sown in a heart that does not understand it. It may create no link of understanding, of feeling, or of conscience between the heart and God. Then the enemy takes it away, and it does not remain in the heart. The one who heard it is no less guilty. The seed sown in his heart suited every need, both the nature and the condition of man.
In the picture, birds took the seed. Here the Lord names them: the evil one. Nothing is left in this first hearer.
The wayside hearers are those who receive nothing from God. The evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in the heart. Unless the word reaches the conscience, and the man judges his sin before God, there is no new life. The one who only hears stays in a death never lifted from him; he is not born again; he cannot see or enter the kingdom. The seed does not take root. Instead the birds devour it, that is, the enemy.
- Sown. The word of the kingdom is placed in the heart itself; Satan cannot stop the sowing, only the taking root.
- Refused. "Does not understand" means the heart would not have it — a decision of the will, not a shortage of intelligence.
- Hardened. Religious prejudice, or plain business and pleasure, beats the path hard. The parable notes the effect, not the cause.
- Snatched. With no root, the enemy carries the word off. The Lord names the birds as the evil one.
- Guilty. The hearer is still responsible. The seed suited his every need, and conviction that stops short of acceptance is not faith.
But he that is sown on the rocky places -- this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy,
Jesus has just explained the first kind of soil. Now He turns to seed that falls on rock covered by a thin layer of earth, and to a hearer who takes the word at once with joy — a welcome the Lord still calls a failure.
One writer explains what this ground really is:
"Stony ground" may not mean quite what we usually mean by the word. It is not ground with stones in it, because stones alone would not stop the root from getting down into the earth. What the blessed Lord means here by stony ground is a solid surface of rock, with a very slight and thin coating of earth over it. The seed falls there and — a very remarkable thing — it springs up at once. … It springs up fast in proportion to the lack of depth.
One writer shows which part of the man the word reached, and which part it did not:
"As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy" (v. 20). There you have the heart, moved in its affections, but without exercise of conscience. He receives the word with joy right away. There is great gladness about it, but there it ends. Only the Holy Spirit acting on the conscience makes a person see things as they are in God's sight.
One writer sets this joy beside the joy of true converts:
The stony ground hearers are the impressionable yet superficial folk. They respond to the word at once with gladness, but have no real sense of what it means. It was said of true converts that they "received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit" (1 Thess. 1:6). That affliction came before their gladness. It came from the word convicting them and waking them up to their sin. The stony ground hearer skips over the affliction, because he does not feel his real need. So he lands in a gladness that is only on the surface. It fades when testing comes, and he fades with it.
The first soil showed the word rejected. This one shows it welcomed — and the outcome is the same:
In the next class of hearers, the stony ground illustrates the opposition of the flesh. And for this reason it is pictured, not at its worst, but at its best. This man "hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself." This is not the natural man rejecting the Word. It is the natural man receiving it, and yet there is no more real fruit than in the first case. The seed grows fast. The rocky bed works like a natural hot-bed, so the seed shoots up quickly and full of promise. But the very thing that makes it grow so readily is what stops it from lasting.
The same writer draws a fine but decisive line:
Such a man believes. He is not insincere, and he is not a hypocrite. The Word simply has no root in him, like seed in stony ground. His heart was never ploughed up by conviction of sin, so it stays as hard as it was. The joy in him was too "immediate"; there was no finding out of self, no taking the place of the lost, that Christ might save. He believed a doctrine; he never came to Jesus. He had joy, not peace. There was no change in the man himself, and no root. Note, it was not what had root that withered, but because it had no root it withered away. It would not have withered had it had root.
Another writer draws out what the day of testing exposes:
Let us rejoice with trembling to see how far a person may go, and yet be deceived! … But the testing time came, and if there was no root, there would be no fruit.
- Rock — not a field with stones in it, but a slab of rock under a thin layer of earth. The trouble lies underneath, out of sight.
- Speed — the seed springs up fast because the soil is shallow. Quick growth here is the symptom, not the success.
- Joy — the gladness is real, but it comes out of order. Where God works, the word reaches the conscience first, and joy follows conviction.
- Root — nothing withered that had root; it withered because it had none. This man believed a doctrine and had joy, but not peace.
- Fruit — here human nature is at its best. It welcomes the word instead of refusing it, and still bears no more fruit than the first soil. A person can go this far and still be deceived.
but has no root in himself, but is for a time only; and when tribulation or persecution happens on account of the word, he is immediately offended.
The Lord is explaining His own parable. This second soil is the most unsettling of the four. The seed springs up fast, the hearer is glad, and then it all collapses. Two words carry the weight: "root" and "immediately." Why does a start that looks so promising end in nothing?
The picture is not a field with stones scattered through it.
The phrase "on stony ground" does not quite mean what we normally mean by that word. It is not ground with stones in it. Stones by themselves would not stop the root from getting down into the earth. By stony ground the Lord means a solid bed of rock with a very thin coating of earth over it… Its growth at the start is as fast as its withering at the end. It springs up quickly in proportion to how little depth there is… If the first case is indifference, this is shallowness.
Speed and gladness are not the marks of a deep work. Commentators trace the missing root back to something the word never touched.
A conscience touched by the word makes a man serious. He sees himself in the presence of God. That is always a serious thing, however strong the attraction of His grace or the hope His goodness inspires. If the word has not reached the conscience, there is no root. He received the word for the joy it gave; when it brings tribulation, he gives it up.
The parable's three phrases hang together as one chain.
We cannot think too carefully about how these phrases connect: "immediately, with joy," "no root," "withered away." There is great danger in taking in the plan of salvation with the mind only, with no spiritual work in the conscience. This often comes with the most joyful emotions. It works on the natural feelings, but the truth has not gone into the heart. The word has cut no furrow there.
"Endures for a while" sounds like life that later died. The Lord's own reason says otherwise.
Such a man believes. He is not insincere, not a hypocrite. Simply, the word, like seed in stony ground, has no root in him. His heart, never ploughed up by conviction of sin, stays in unchanged hardness… He had joy, not peace. There was no change in the man himself, and no root. Note, it was not what had root that withered; it withered away because it had no root. It would not have withered if it had had root.
The trial in the verse is not random misfortune; it arises "on account of the word," and it does a work of its own.
It is God's design for the trial of His saints. It distinguishes true saints from hypocrites. Unsound hearts make a fine show in prosperity, but in a time of persecution they fall away. Hypocrites will follow Christ to the Mount of Olives, but not to Calvary. Suffering times are sifting times. "When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold."
Older translations say "offended" where the ESV has "falls away." What springs the trap is the same faculty that welcomed the seed.
He heard the word and immediately received it with joy, yet it had no root in the man himself. It lasts only for a while. But when persecution or tribulation comes because of the word, immediately he is offended — the same word as "immediately" above. Feeling is not conscience. Feeling will act at once to receive. But when trial from within or without tests it, his own feelings turn against him and catch him in a trap.
The same sun that scorches shallow corn ripens deep-rooted fruit. What makes the difference lies deeper than the trial itself.
Every test and trial of life has its sure effect on us. They either scorch and wither us, like the corn on rocky ground that dies when the sun is up. Or they bring our Christian life and fruit to maturity. Our secret life with God decides which of the two happens in us. If we are much with Him, we strike our roots down into the knowledge of Him. We draw our refreshment and strength from the hidden springs in Him. Then we need not dread the trial.
- Rock — the soil is a slab of stone under a thin skin of earth; the problem is not interference but shallowness.
- Root — the missing root is a conscience the word never reached. Joy came fast because the word had ploughed nothing up first.
- Reality — what withered had never taken root. The Lord's own reason is "because it had no root," not that living faith died.
- Refining — trouble that comes because of the word is God's sifter. It marks off true saints from those who follow Christ only as far as the Mount of Olives.
- Rooting — the same sun that withers the shallow ripens the deep. We strike our roots down in secret with God, before the heat comes.
And he that is sown among the thorns -- this is he who hears the word, and the anxious care of this life, and the deceit of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
In the parable of the sower, this third soil looks the most promising of the failures. The hearer takes the word in, and something starts to grow. Yet nothing ripens. The reason is not persecution, but the ordinary weight of everyday life.
The trouble starts before the seed lands. The thorns were in the soil already.
The seed fell, but the ground that received it was already overrun with thorns. They appeared well. As far as anyone could see, they had received the seed. There were indeed roots in them, but they were the roots of something else — "other seeds fell among thorns." Those roots were growing there before the seed was scattered. No doubt these thorns seemed weak and unimportant when the word first fell on the soil. Someone may have thought they were pulled up. But the roots stayed in the ground. They sprang up, pushed out the good seed and choked it — and so no fruit came. These hearers profess to receive the word of the kingdom, but they are taken up with the things of this world — its sorrows, its sadness or its delights. The things they busy themselves with are the things that choke the seed — things tied, not to Christ, but to what He will judge.
The hearer here never rejects the word. He simply ranks it below other things.
The third class of ground, full of thorns, gives the seed no proper welcome either. Perhaps the seed makes a feeble attempt to grow, but the thorns crowd out the grain: it does not continue. This is explained in verse 22 as describing those who, though they hear the word, do not give it a more important place than the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. Present material concerns and desire for this world's goods choke out the more vital, valuable blessing of the word of God. Too many today prefer thorns!
What makes "the cares of the world" so dangerous is that they rarely look like sin.
These "cares" are very subtle things. They come in as necessary duties, and there is no sin in doing one's duty. In fact, it is right that a man should do his duty in his daily work. But if these duties choke the word, and a man loses his soul through it, what then? And if the love of possession slips into the heart, it checks the power of Christ over the soul and conscience. It eats out the practical life of the Christian, and his soul is withered, withered, withered.
The two thorns named here are not aimed at the same person.
The "cares" point especially to the poor man's struggle over how to live at all, how to keep the wolf from the door. This is the struggle for daily food, the cares of this life. If faith does not meet them, they stop the word from thriving in the heart. Those who are well off are especially open to the "deceitfulness of riches," above all when the love of money comes with having it (1 Tim. 6:9-10).
The verse calls riches deceitful. Two pictures show why — one for how empty they are, one for the pain they bring.
As riches are compared to "wind" to show how empty they are (Hosea 12:1), so they are compared to "thorns," to show the trouble they bring (Matt. 13:22). Thorns are no more likely to tear our clothes than riches are to tear our hearts. They are thorns while we gather them; they prick us with worry. As they pierce the hand with the worry of getting, so they wound the heart with the fear of losing.
It does not take much wealth to do this.
As to the deceitfulness of riches, the smallest possession that the heart is set on is enough to choke the word. How we see this in people who make a profession of faith and have lost all freshness!
Nothing dramatic happens to this hearer. That is exactly what makes the warning so serious.
This is perhaps a more solemn warning than either of the others. Here the word seems to have taken deeper hold. What overthrows this faith is not the violent assault of persecution, but the quiet influence of things that surround us all. Care for the soul is not despised; it is just crowded out. No sudden attack, no pressure of temptation — just the ordinary wear and tear of life, and, like seed among thorns, the promise of fruit was choked.
Attacking thorns directly does not clear them. A farmer's field shows the better way.
The farmer may plough and harrow, but for every root he breaks, two plants will grow up, and his field will become a briar patch. Instead, let him 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, and we will have little room and less desire for the lusts of the flesh.
- Roots first. The thorns were in the ground before the seed arrived. The word does not create the rival; it exposes one already there.
- Rivals, not enemies. Cares arrive dressed as necessary duty, and there is no sin in doing your duty — until the duty chokes the word and the soul withers.
- Both ends of the scale. Cares press the poor man scraping for daily bread; the deceit of riches works on those who have plenty. No one is out of range.
- Quiet ruin. No persecution, no sudden attack — just the ordinary wear and tear of life, and the promise of fruit is crowded out.
- Cleared by planting. You do not clear thorns by hacking at roots. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, and there is little room left for anything else.
But he that is sown upon the good ground -- this is he who hears and understands the word, who bears fruit also, and produces, one a hundred, one sixty, and one thirty.
The parable of the sower ends with the one soil that yields a crop. Three questions follow: what made that ground "good," what "understanding" means here, and why the harvest differs from person to person.
One sower, one seed, four soils — and the outcome turns on the ground.
The sower here is the Lord Himself, yet out of four casts of the seed, three are unsuccessful. It is only the last case where the seed bears ripe fruit.
Scripture elsewhere says the human heart is deceitful, so calling any soil "good" needs explaining.
Why are the hearts of some compared to good ground, when Scripture teaches that all hearts are "deceitful and desperately sick"? Not because there is anything naturally good in them. This gives only the facts, not the cause at work. It is simply the fact of the preaching of the word, and the reception of it.
If the first three soils show the devil, human nature, and the world at work, one influence remains to explain the fourth.
We are not told what has made it good, but suppose we have the devil, nature, and the world in the first three cases — what is the only remaining influence? There is nothing but the Holy Spirit. It is very necessary these days to testify that the plough must come before the seed-basket. What makes the heart good? He who has gone out to plough the fallow ground and sow the seed.
Everyone in the parable hears. The single word that separates this hearer from the rest is "understands."
What distinguishes the good ground, as far as receiving the word goes, is that a man understands the word. In the opposite case, strictly speaking, he does not understand it. In the two other cases there is the appearance of it, but no fruit. Here one regards nothing but fruit.
Another writer defines that understanding by what the gospel says to a lost person.
What is it here to "understand"? It is the perception that the word of the kingdom, or of God, is what the soul needs. "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). If one may speak this way, God in the gospel says to the sinner: I know your need; you are lost, but I have given My Son to save you.
Matthew, Mark and Luke each name a different inward action before fruit appears.
In this instance the word is heard in a prepared heart — in an "honest and good heart," as the Lord said (Luke). Looking at the three Gospels, we see three inward actions before the fruit-bearing. 1. Matthew: the hearer understands the word. 2. Mark: he receives it. 3. Luke: he holds it fast.
Each emphasis fits the readers the writer had in view.
In Mark, as with a view to service, it is a question of reception or not. In Luke, as looking on to strangers of the nations, the point is "believing" and being "saved," keeping the word and bringing forth fruit with patience. But the Jew lived in constant contact with religious prejudice and tradition. So he was in particular danger of not "understanding" what was new and of God — the present test of faith.
The harvest varies, but no one in this class is barren.
This class alone describes true believers, and all bear fruit, though in three differing measures. Thirtyfold is not large, but it is fruit; sixtyfold is more fruit; and a hundredfold is much fruit (John 15:2-5).
The forces that destroyed the first three soils do not disappear once a person believes.
Good ground is always prepared ground. The conscience has been reached, and as a result fruit is produced — but even so, it is in different degrees: some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundredfold. The things which are fatal to the unbeliever may seriously hinder the fruitfulness of the true believer.
One writer weighs two reasons for the different amounts.
Is the difference to be accounted for on the ground of faithfulness or opportunity? The Lord does not take up the question here, but other Scriptures show that both will be taken into account in the great Day of Rewards.
- Plough first. Good ground is prepared ground. Nothing in the heart is naturally good, so the plough comes before the seed-basket.
- Seed same. One sower scatters the same word on all four soils; the difference lies in the ground.
- Understanding decides. The mark of this hearer is not hearing but understanding — seeing that this word is what the soul needs.
- Fruit follows. Understanding is proved by a crop, and every one of this class bears some — thirty is not much, but it is fruit.
- Measure varies. The devil, nature and the world no longer destroy the believer, but they can still cut the harvest down.