A Parable of Understanding – 5/11/25

We’ve come to another big transition in our journey through the Gospel of Matthew. As we Behold the King, we are experiencing a kind of show and tell that is an interplay between action and instruction, works and words, signs and sermons. The whole structure of Matthew is built around this.

You’ll notice in chapters 11 and 12, where we’ve been for the last few months, opposition to Jesus is rising. We have called this “no middle ground,” because as Jesus performs miracles and makes astonishing claims, he is being increasingly maligned by the religious leaders, more and more opposition. And we, through this interplay of works and words, are being called off the fence to choose.

And so in Matthew 13, Jesus preaches one of his most famous sermons, what we could call The Sermon of the Parables. This is the third major sermon in the Gospel of Matthew. There are lots of micro-sermons, but there are these big sermons — Sermon on the Mount, Sermon on the Mission, and now Sermon in the Parables.

And one of the benefits of having multiple gospel accounts, like Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, is even though they cover essentially the same teaching, each one looks at the story and teaching of Jesus from a slightly different angle. Like looking at a diamond, we see edges, sides, angles that we would not have noticed otherwise.

For example, in 2021, we journeyed through the Gospel of Mark. And in Mark 4, we encountered this same parable — the Parable of the Sower — that we’re about to look at this morning. Now, of course, the overall message is the same, but Mark puts the accent on what we called then “dynamic listening.”

He even uses, the participles he uses, communicates the difference between inactive and active listening. In that message we learned the difference, like the soils, between defensive listening, the hard soil; between that and discouraged listening, the soil that was thin, shallow, and then withered; distracted listening, the soil that was suffocated by the thorns; and then dynamic listening, listening that continues and bears fruit. You might want to go back and re-listen to that one.

But Matthew likewise emphasizes listening, but he also uses a word far more than any other gospel writer and it is the word “to understand.” In chapter 13 alone, you see it in verse 13, 14, 15, 19, 23, 51. It is the Greek word “suniemi,” and it means to comprehend or perceive. But literally it means to put together; to put together in the mind or the heart.

Imagine, when we’re listening, like right now, pieces of information are floating about in our heads, our minds, but that doesn’t mean we understand. Paul uses the same word in Romans 3:11 when he says,

“None is righteous, no not one; [no one “suniemi”] no one understands;”

Now, what does he mean, no one understands? He doesn’t mean that people don’t know a lot about God. What he means is, apart from a miraculous work by the grace of God through the Spirit of God, no one puts it together. It doesn’t make true saving sense to them, apart from the grace God.

And we become like holy hoarders who hoard truth based on sermons we’ve heard, experiences we’ve had, television shows we’ve watched, whatever, all these pieces of spiritual information. But we accumulate them, but they never come together to make any kind of transforming sense to us. We’re unable to put it together. And like a hoarder, we can’t throw it away, but we have no real use of it either.

And so in this parable, Jesus is teaching us another way, a way of understanding. Let’s pray for that.

Father, you have revealed so much to us. Your heavens declare your glory. Your sky proclaims your handiwork. Your cross displays your love for us. Your empty tomb announces your victory over sin and death. You have given us your Word. You have given us your Spirit.

But all of these truths will make no sense to us apart from your gift of understanding. So please, we don’t want to be holy hoarders. We don’t want to be people who collect truth, who accumulate experiences, but it never clicks, it never comes together. So please turn the light of our understanding on as we look at this parable. We ask in Jesus’s name, amen.

In her book, “The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t,” Julia Galef writes of the horrors of living in London in the 1850s during a cholera outbreak. People who seemed perfectly healthy one day could experience a minor stomach ache and then within days, or sometimes hours, would die.

Some of these outbreaks resulted in thousands and thousands of deaths. And the problem became so serious that the government initiated a team of scientists to track the treatments and try to identify hopeful remedies. But as Gallup observes,

“The results weren’t encouraging. The mortality rate among the hospitals’ cholera patients was 46%, no better than the mortality rate among untreated cholera sufferers. None of the standard ‘cures,’ which included opium, chalk, and castor oil seemed to make a difference.”

However, there was one hospital that reported a cholera mortality rate of only 18%, which is still high, but less than half the typical hospitals. It was the London Homeopathic Hospital. And here’s the shocking part. The scientists doing the research left out that data, the data from that hospital, because they figured it would complicate their research. That one decision may have helped delay identifying a cure for cholera by about 100 years and, perhaps, most likely cost millions of lives.

Why did the scientists leave out the data? Well, because they disagreed with the basic assumptions of homeopathic medicine, and by the way, for good reason. Most of the homeopathic medical positions of that day were entirely ineffective. However, the homeopathic hospital did two things, two things they did not totally understand, but most likely saved many lives.

1. They sterilized the blankets between uses.
2. They gave their patients with cholera whey to drink, which ends up becoming like an early form of oral rehydration therapy. And these two accidental practices helped save many lives.

But the scientists left out that data. What those scientists did, we do. We tend, we all tend to ignore information that doesn’t fit our assumptions. And this habit often keeps us from understanding, from putting things together. And in this first parable, Matthew 13, Jesus explains how this happens.

The section could be divided into four parts: the place, the parable, the purpose, and the point. Let’s look at those one at a time as we work through this passage.

#1. The place. Where is Jesus teaching?

In verses 1-2, notice Jesus left the house he was teaching in to go to the edge of the Sea of Galilee. The crowd increased until he had to get in a boat in order to be heard. There is a place near Capernaum today often called the Bay of Parables or the Cove of the Sower. I’ve heard rumors President Trump is thinking about changing that to the Bay of America, but it’s probably just a rumor.

And this Bay of Parables, which forms a kind of natural amphitheater, the acoustics of this bay have been tested to demonstrate thousands of people can hear without amplification due to the acoustical structure and the water. Jesus, definitely taught in this region, may have taught in this bay on the Sea of Galilee.

#2. The parable. What is Jesus saying?

In verses 3-9, Jesus tells of a sower who sowed seeds. Some fell along the path, verse 4, the birds quickly devoured. Others fell on rocky ground. And by rocky ground he’s referring to a layer, a bedrock layer, of limestone covered by a thin veneer of soil so the seed would germinate, spring up, and then the intense heat in the shallow dirt would create an oven, and the crop would wither. Third, seed fell among thorns. And the grain and the thorns grew up, and the thorns choked the grain. And then fourth, fell on good soil producing 100, 60, and 30 fold.

Verse 9, “He who has ears, let him hear.”

This is the parable. But then Jesus’s disciples ask him,

“Why do you speak, [verse 10] why do you speak to them in parables?”

Jesus next explains the purpose of the parables.

#3. The purpose. Why is Jesus using parables?

Now today when people talk about this, many, many teachers highlight the fact that Jesus likes to tell simple stories to make complicated truths clear. And it’s true. Jesus told parables to make the timeless timely, the heavenly earthly, the cosmic concrete. Jesus could say really big things in really small stories like in the Sermon on the Mount when he told the story of a house built on sand or stone. Yet, there’s more. And in verse 11, Jesus gives us two reasons why he uses parables.

Reason #1, to reveal.

“To you [verse 11] it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven”

Parables unlock secrets to some. Parables induce “aha” moments to some. But to others,

Purpose #2, they conceal.

Verse 11, “but to them it has not been given”

Parables reveal to those who are truly listening, conceal to those who are not. Verse 12, he continues,

“For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one that has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

Does that make sense to you? Look again at the end of verse 12.

“The one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

How do you lose what you don’t have? This is where Jesus, again, is opening our eyes to what it means to really understand. He is saying, you can attend church, you can have so much information, and not have it, so that all these pieces that you’ve accumulated, the spiritual information, this truth, beautiful truth about God, never comes together, and so therefore we can lose what we really didn’t have.

Jesus presses even further in verse 13, referring back to Isaiah 6,

“This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they [“suniemi” -there it is again] understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: ‘You will indeed hear, but never understand, and you will indeed see, but will never perceive.’ For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.”

Jesus is saying there is a posture of heart, ears, eyes, that is truth-resistant. He’s saying here something like John 8:45, where Jesus says,

“But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me.”

Carson points out, this is not concessive, it’s causal. What does that mean? Concessive, a concessive statement.

John 8:45, “But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me.”

And it’s easy for us to think, oh, that’s concessive. What is concessive? Meaning, although I tell you the truth, you do not believe. But that’s not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying that his statement is a causal statement. Because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me.

Jesus is saying your hearts are so predisposed toward falsehood that if I came to you and lied to you, you would more quickly believe than if I come to you and speak the truth. You have an allergic reaction to the truth! Kind of a spiritual autoimmune resistance to truth.

Jesus finishes his explanation as to the purpose of using parables by contrasting the disciples.

Verse 16, “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did hear it.”

These prophets and righteousness people saw prophetic pieces, beautiful glimpses, but they never saw it come together in Jesus. Like Moses on the peak of Pisgah, he could get a glimpse of the Promised Land, never saw it all come together. Jesus is saying to his disciples, you can see it come together in me. That is the purpose of parables.

Now, what’s the point? What is Jesus conveying? What are we to understand about understanding in this parable? Look at verse 19.

“When anyone hears the word of the kingdom…”

And notice he’s going to use the word “hears” four times (19, 20, 22, and 23), all four are hearers. But Jesus is identifying four different kinds of hearers, three of which never understand.

The first is like hard soil, does not understand.

Verse 19, and the evil one “snatches away what has been sown in his heart.”

The first one is like someone who hears the gospel and it just resonates as Christian cliche. Empty religious jargon, fragments, pieces, noise.

The second, like rocky soil, receives the word with joy, verses 20-21.

“Great message, pastor.” There’s an identification with what is being taught, but as soon as opposition rises… And he gives two different versions of this.

The first one, tribulation, could be described just simply, it’s the word literally, pressure. It’s when the pressures of life start to squeeze.

The second one is persecution, when opposition increases. This kind of hearer suddenly concludes, “Hey, I didn’t sign up for this. I signed up for warm and fuzzy with Jesus. And this is not warm and fuzzy. This is hard and costs me something.” And so this hearer falls away.

The third is like thorny soil, where the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, verse 22.

The phone is buzzing. The fingers are scrolling. The deals are coming. I don’t have time. I want to think about that maybe when I get older, if I get older. Maybe when I have more time, if I get more time. But not today.

And then finally, the good soil. Hears the Word, and there it is, understands. It comes together. Doesn’t have all questions answered, but things begin to make sense. And this hearer begins, verse 23, to bear fruit — 100 fold, 60, 30.

What is the point?

Let’s start with Jesus’s day.

The religious leaders of his day knew vast amount of biblical knowledge, probably more than all of us combined. And yet, they never could bring it together. Why? Perhaps they were like the scientists I referred to earlier, who just didn’t want to include certain data because it didn’t fit their assumptions.

That can’t be it. The Messiah is supposed to have a certain pedigree. He’s from Nazareth. Supposed to be a certain kind of priest and a certain kind of king. Supposed to bring a certain kind of military victory over Rome, like now. And what’s sad is, they had so much right. Is Jesus a priest? Yes. Is he a king? Yes. Did he defeat Rome? Yes. Not in the way or the time that they thought.

And so all that information, all that truth, all that biblical knowledge stayed fragmented. They never put it together. Their minds were like unfinished puzzles with pieces that had no places. There were actually rabbinical scholars who suggested two messiahs.

You could see they’re trying to make sense of this. Maybe there’s a royal messiah and then there’ll be a priestly messiah. But they would not or could not put it together. They were like hard ground, shallow, thorn infested.

What does this look like in our day? What keeps us from understanding?

Well, of course, we also have assumptions as to who Jesus is or should be. And there are two ways to think about these three kinds of unfruitful soil.

1. The main way. I think this is the way Jesus primarily intends us to understand this. If my life is characterized by one of those first three soils, I’m not a believer. Followers of Jesus understand, not perfectly, but it’s coming together. That’s the primary way.

2. Secondary way, though, all of us, even people who have been believers many years, will have times, maybe even seasons, where we will wrestle with our hearts becoming a little bit like those first three soils. So how do we identify that and how do we keep that from happening, specifically, over the next six weeks, today and five more weeks, as we listen to the parables. Here’s a couple ways for us to prepare.

First, what might keep us from understanding might be like that hardness described in the hard path soil, where truth is snatched away.And here are a couple questions that might help us see ourselves if we fit this category.

1. Am I antagonistic, indifferent toward Jesus? And this antagonism or indifference often flows from faulty assumptions about who Jesus is and why he came. Let me give you an example.

Years ago I had a friend, a Muslim friend from a Muslim country, and we were eating lunch here in Greenville, and he was trying to win me to Islam and I’m trying to win him to Jesus, so I’m sharing Jesus with him. And in the middle of that discussion, I don’t remember exactly what prompted it, but I said, you know, most Americans aren’t Christians. Most Americans aren’t followers of Jesus. And that just blew his mind.

Because for him, one of the reasons he can discard Jesus and not even think about him is because he views America as a Christian country and Americans are all Christians. And so when he sees the filth coming out of Hollywood, that’s the fruit of Jesus, that’s fruit of Christianity in his mind. When he sees families shattered, and immorality, and infidelity rampant, he’s like, that’s Christianity.

And when I said to him, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Most Americans are not followers of Jesus, it was like you could see this huge assumption that created a resistance removed.

Am I antagonistic or indifferent toward Jesus? And what might be the assumptions that keep me in that posture?

2. Do I permit questions and doubts to paralyze me? We’re all going to have questions. We’re all  going to have doubts. What do we do with them? Do we know how to doubt our doubts? Do we how to pause our doubts? You can’t function in life if you don’t know what to do with unanswered questions. You’re either not thinking or you’re frozen by them.

3. Do I hold onto hurts, resentments tighter than I hold on to the gospel?

A couple of weeks ago I was on a plane, sat next to a CEO who was unusually talkative. Most businessmen do not want to talk. He wanted to. And I asked him, I think what is a helpful question because it’s so vague, I said do you have any spiritual beliefs? And that allows him to take it wherever he wants to go.

And he said, “Well, I grew up in the church.” And I asked him more about that and he grew up in an Assembly of God church, saw some things that didn’t make sense to him, but he experienced some, what we would call today, church hurt. He wants nothing to do with Jesus.

And so part of my prayer and the end of our conversation was, could it be that some of those assumptions that you now have about therefore Jesus is this because I experienced this, might be off. And I believe as the conversation went on he began to see more and more that this was a providential encounter by God. But this hardness can happen to any of us.

Even though the parables primarily speak of people who have a life characterized by this, all of us according to Hebrews 3:13, need to

“exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

All of us, no matter how long you’ve been a believer, we can become brittle, crusty, hard.

Second category, kind of soil, shallowness, where truth is surfaced, kept on the surface.

A couple questions to see if I tend toward this.

Do I have a lot of Bible knowledge with little awareness of how it shapes my life?

Am I easily discouraged by difficulty? If God calls me to go through a season of suffering, I just assume he must not love me.

Can I see more clearly how others should change than how I should change?

This is a big one. Because if my life is characterized by a shallowness, I will be very skilled at identifying your problem, very unskilled at seeing the gospel penetrate into my own heart and transform me, because it’s surface.

The last of the three is busyness. Truth is suffocated. Suffocated.

Do I read the Bible or hear a sermon but quickly ignore or forget what I read?

Now, we all struggle to remember. Please, we’re in this together. But someone, a follower of Jesus with understanding, recognizes that, and intentionally does things to help stir up memory, whether that’s writing up verses on cards, talking about what the Spirit is doing in your life with your friend, with your life group. Things to stir up. I don’t want to be a forgetful hearer.

Do spiritual disciplines seem irrelevant in light of all I have to do?

This is related to the one previously. What are spiritual disciplines — like prayer, Bible reading, journaling, fasting, solitude, Sabbath, like things that, I don’t have time for that. I’m a busy person. I’ll get to that maybe, one day.

Are my life choices revolving around money, sports, academics, entertainment, etc., with little time for anything else?

If we could do a little time travel, and go back to the 1850s, could you imagine being in the room where the scientists are like, yeah, we need to skip that data? And if you knew what you know now, you would be tapping them on the shoulder saying, how about you get curious about that data. There’s something over there you need to look at.

That’s the purpose of a parable. Through an interesting story Jesus is stirring our curiosity to say, how about you listen to this? There’s something over there. There’s something going on there.

Now as we know, the disciples will continue to struggle to truly understand, so this isn’t automatic, but the seed of the kingdom is planted in their hearts, and it’s starting to come together. How about for you?

Let’s pray.

Father, we first are blown away at your generosity to us. We are a blessed people. Our eyes, they see, our ears, they hear so many astounding things. But we recognize the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. We recognize we are a busy people. And we can tend to be a shallow people and even a hard-hearted people.

We are asking for your Spirit to move mightily in our hearts this morning and over the next five weeks as we hear these parables. Jesus, please show us practical steps to take that will result in increased understanding.

That maybe even things that have felt so scattered about, disconnected, information that doesn’t make sense even though it’s true, or parts of our hearts that we haven’t allowed the Spirit to go there, please, go there today. Do your work in us.

We do not want to be a church that merely accumulates truth. We want to be transformed and then sent out to proclaim and live this to others. We pray that as we respond, we would follow the lead of the Spirit and bear fruit, Lord, in our hearts, for your glory. Amen.