What Did Jesus Teach in His Parables?

Matthew summarizes Jesus’ teaching with these words, “All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable” (Matt. 13:34). Rather than being easy-to-understand illustrations of his message, Jesus uses these parables to overturn people’s expectation and cut to the heart of belief and unbelief. Let’s see what we can learn about what Jesus taught in his parables. We adapted the content of this blog post from David Jackman’s volume on Matthew in the Teaching the Bible series.

The Parables’ Message in Matthew 13

Christ’s Kingdom – Its First-fruits and Fulness

The big picture of Matthew 13 seems to be as follows. The kingdom of heaven has arrived and it is growing, secretly, but penetratingly. Whenever someone hears the message, there is confrontation and division. Those who are deaf and blind confirm it by their stubborn refusal to consider the claims of Jesus, the king, seriously. But while the kingdom is here now, it is also not yet here in its fullness. When that day comes, as it most certainly will, then the seed will be fully grown and there will be no more rejection of the king, simply his rejection of those who have rejected him. That will be the sorting of the fish, good from bad, and the separation of the wheat from the weeds.

The sequence of six parables therefore begins and ends with the ultimate reality of the eschatological judgment, the far horizon.

• That final day is the clear focus of the first parable, of the wheat and weeds, and the last, of the dragnet.
• The second pair (the mustard seed and the yeast) teach the small beginnings of the kingdom, with its gradual growth and ultimate triumph. They warn the skeptical outsiders not to judge the invisible realities by they see.
• The third pair (the hidden treasure and the pearl) teach the priceless value of membership of the kingdom, far beyond all that one might have in this world. They encourage the sacrificial disciples to know that they have chosen eternal wealth, in following the king.

Present Realities and Future Certainties

The Parable of the Wheat and Weeds

The parable of the Wheat and Weeds (vv. 24–30) is a comparatively simple story, which our Lord interprets in verses 37–43. One of the keys to the parable is his clear statement in verse 38, “The field is the world”, but countless preachers and commentators want to make the field mean the church. We are told that the first-century congregations, in which Matthew’s Gospel circulated, would be very concerned about false teaching which was beginning to invade them. They use the parable as an example of how we should never aspire to have a pure church, but recognize that there will always be a mixed multitude in the church, and only the Lord can sort that out at the end.

But Jesus said the field is the world, not the church, and the good seed stands for the “sons of the kingdom.” This is a parable which deals with the problem of the delay in the kingdom’s full arrival and with the present realities and opposition believers will always face until then. As Don Carson puts it, with his customary pithiness, “The parable deals with eschatological expectation, not ecclesiological deterioration.” In other words, its primary purpose is to explain how the kingdom can be present now without sweeping everything out of its way, and destroying all its opponents.

Do we not need that sort of parable in a generation like ours which is obsessed with power?

One of the unrecognized motivations, surely, in the quest for “kingdom power” within the contemporary evangelical church, is that we do not actually believe that a parable like this is true. We want to see the triumph of the kingdom in the here and now. But Jesus denies us that. He says that in the world the sons of the king and the sons of the evil one will exist side by side, until the last day. It is an explanation of precisely why the kingdom is not triumphantly sweeping all before it in the present world order. It will always be that way until the last day when the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, and the Son of Man sends out his angels to gather the grain into his barn. That is clearly the focus.

The Parable of the Dragnet

Similarly, the parable of the dragnet, at the end of the sequence, is a parable about that future separation:

This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace.”

Matthew 13:49–50

But only at the end of the age. Because there will be a dividing, you must therefore make your decision now in the light of that, says Jesus. You have chosen the treasure hidden in the field, the pearl of great price, and on that day you will know that it was right. But you may well find in the days in between, that you are tempted, like John the Baptist, to say, “Is he the one? Have we followed the wrong course?” And you may well find when they persecute you from one city to the next, and when you see apparently very little good soil and a great deal of scorched seed, choked seed and rocky places, that you will be tempted to say, “Was it really worth it?”

Inconspicuous Yet Irrepressible Growth

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

That is the nature of the kingdom from which we can take great encouragement in the parable of the mustard seed (vv. 31–32). It is a very vivid picture. The mustard seed is, proverbially, the smallest seed. It was cultivated in the rich soil of the Jordan valley and commonly it grew to ten feet or so, into a very substantial bush, or small tree, large enough for birds to come and rest in its branches. In spite of all the hindrances and disappointments, God grows the obscure beginnings into a kingdom that expresses his power and glory.

It was true of Jesus himself. Born of a peasant girl in an obscure corner of the Roman empire, cradled in a manger, a refugee in infancy from fanatical attempts at infanticide, living insignificantly in Nazareth, nowhere to lay his head, no home to call his own, hounded by those who had influence, murdered on a cross, buried in a borrowed tomb. No one would choose to write a drama or a novel about a great world figure with that kind of background. No, but that is the point about the kingdom of heaven! There is the life of God in this seed. It is indestructible, so it will grow, as many people in many nations press into it and submit to the authority of Jesus the king.

We may not yet see it growing in our land as we long to see it, but it is growing. It has to grow; that is the nature of the kingdom. We are not to measure spiritual work by its size, but by its vitality; not by all the trumpet-blowing about how important it is going to be, but by its penetration into the lives of people.

The Parable of the Yeast

It is expectation of this kind of growth, which is often very inconspicuous, that comes out in the parable of the yeast (v. 33). Here is the method by which God’s kingdom grows. Often in the Bible, yeast, or leaven, symbolizes the penetration of evil, but here the opposite is true. The housewife works the yeast into the dough until the whole batch is affected. That is the kind of change which submitting to the rule of Jesus makes in our lives. It works the authority of Christ into our whole being.

Because Christ is working like that in individual lives, where you put those individual lives together, they begin to affect the whole community. This is very important with regard to our Christian influence in society. The kingdom of heaven does not come with observation; it is within God’s people, like yeast hidden in the dough. It is not an earthly kingdom at all, yet it can penetrate every level and area of society. God’s kingly rule is not remote from the world, but hidden in it, to benefit it.

This should greatly encourage us. Perhaps we spend too much time looking at the weeds, though we do need to be realistic about the world in which we live. But there is another side of the coin. God is constantly at work and we never know whose life he may choose to touch through us, if we are prepared to be involved for the kingdom. We cannot compel any human being to accept God’s truth, but we can be infectious. That is the means the Holy Spirit often uses, as we mix in the natural units of life.

Solid Joy and Lasting Treasure

The Parable of the Hidden Treasure

We can only be content with such a state of affairs if we do not take the last pair of parables equally seriously.

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

Matthew 13:44

The keynote of the story is that the hidden treasure seems to have been found almost by accident. Someone has put it there in the past, presumably for safety, but the sheer joy of the unexpected discovery is the overwhelming impression.

The Parable of the Valuable Pearl

In the story of the pearl, the merchant discovers the treasure after carefully searching. He was looking for fine pearls, perhaps for many years: “When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it” (v. 46). The circumstances were different, but the result was exactly the same. These parables are to assure the disciples of the rightness of their choice, but also to teach them to expect this sort of reaction to the gospel.

These two parables are meant to teach us that men really convinced of the importance of salvation will give up everything to win Christ and eternal life.”

J. C. Ryle

We must wonder whether we have taken that seriously enough. Do we really value the kingdom that highly? A man becomes a true Christian only because he is thoroughly persuaded that he must. It is not because he says that he can believe what he discovers about Jesus on a course, or in a sermon, so he supposes he had better trust; it is because he knows this is the most important thing he has ever heard – and he can do no other, whatever the cost.

Some will find the kingdom almost by chance, as the woman of Samaria did, when she went that day to the well and found Jesus. Some may find him after a long search, as the Ethiopian eunuch did, in the chariot, when he had been trying for so long to find out what the Scriptures meant. There are even some like Nathaniel who was waiting so long for the Messiah to come. But whether it is immediately, or after a long search, we have to recognize in Jesus Christ the treasure, the priceless pearl, which is worth absolutely everything.

Essential Kingdom Teaching

In teaching chapter 13, the overwhelming message to get across is the understanding of the Kingdom of God and its nature as a present reality and yet awaiting future consummation.

We simply can’t overstate the importance of helping Christians to understand, and distinguish between, both the now and the not yet aspects of God’s kingdom. We could have avoided an enormous amount of confusion, not to say disaster and disillusion, if only we properly taught Christians the issues that Matthew chapter 13 expounds. For that reason, it is well worth devoting time and energy to expounding the message of these parables of the kingdom.

While it would certainly be possible to take the chapter as a whole and thereby give a broad sweep that defines the nature of the kingdom, it may be a very good idea to allow four messages. This will let you cover the individual parables in some detail, and come to the reality of the now and the not yet of the kingdom of God. A series of four might look like the following:

1. Present Realities/Future Certainty (The Parables of the Wheat and the Tares and the Dragnet)  
2. Inconspicuous yet Irrepressible Growth (The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast)
3. Solid Joy and Lasting Treasure (The Parables of the Pearl and the Treasure)
4. The Parable of the Sower

Although this is taking the first parable last (a good Matthean concept!), it teaches the great encouragement that in the light of these first three messages, the seed is doing its work, and shall produce a harvest, and therefore there is the great incentive to keep on sowing even when the outlook seems bleak – because of the certainties of the consummation of the kingdom that Jesus has revealed.

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