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THE PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
The central discourse in the Gospel according to Matthew is the parables in chapter 13. It is the central discourse because there are five discourses, and this is the third.
The first programmatic discourse of the mountain corresponds to the fifth eschatological discourse, which concerns the fulfillment of the story. The second discourse in chapter 10 is missionary; Jesus gives directions to his disciples sent abroad from their usual setting. This discourse corresponds to the ecclesial discourse of chapter 18, in which the evangelist gathered the indications for the life of the Church within herself.
At the center of these five discourses is the revelation of the mystery of the kingdom: seven parables. The number is significant to the evangelist Matthew, who is attentive to suchdetails. Therefore, he completed the collection of parables he found in the traditional material, bringing the total to seven.
These parables are discourses of revelation. “You have been granted to know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven.” The term ‘mystery’ was common in Greek and denoted a secret reality, a revelation to be kept secret by those initiated into it.
The original Greek word ‘μυστήρια’ (Mysteria) derives from the onomatopoeic sound ‘mmmm,’ which we make with a finger in our mouth to signal silence. The ‘mmm tery’ is the place of silence. The ending ‘terion’ appears in many other words, such as presbyterion, the place of the presbyters (elders). The mystery is the environment where silence is kept. The mystery is something unspeakable that cannot be said and should not be said. It is not incomprehensible. It is wrong to use the term ‘mystery’ to avoid answering. Sometimes, inquisitive children ask complicated questions, and they are silenced. ‘It’s a mystery.’ That is not correct. The mystery is God’s project, a secret that no one can know. It is not known. It is a secret because it is reserved and protected, yet God revealed it. The Christian announcement implies the revelation of the mystery.
Precisely, by the power of Jesus Christ, we say that the mystery hidden for centuries and generations is now revealed in Jesus. In his preaching, he tells the disciples: “You have been granted to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven,” that is, God’s project, King and Lord of the universe. “Blessed are your eyes because you see, and your ears because you hear.” Happy for you, because you have been given this revelation. Parables are the ways Jesus presents revelation.
Since God’s project is difficult to explain, the indescribable requires images. And Jesus is a master at telling parables. These are not merely metaphorical figures but actual events. A parable is a story that touches on reality at one point and offers a clearer understanding of it. It presents an ordinary, everyday reality that is easily experienced, well-known, and readily evaluated by the listener. The parable leads to a formulation of judgment. Whoever listens to a story has their say.
Many parables begin or end with the question, “What do you think?” or “What will you do?” “What to do?” “And so how is this story going to end?” It is a way to invite dialogue. Jesus tells parables to help people understand the mystery. They start with a created, simple, everyday reality and point to a principle that illuminates beyond that.
The first parable is that of the sower. The seed is sown and produces in diverse ways, depending on the soil. Some seeds fall on the pathway, and the birds take them away; others grow among stones; they have little root and do not last; the seed that falls amid thorns suffocates, but in good soil the seed finds good soil and produces a lot of fruit. What does the parable mean? In all activities, one has to expect some failures. Not all the sown seeds produce fruit because they can encounter obstacles: the path, the stones, the thorns. But if they find suitable soil, the seed produces; it produces a lot. It is a parable of comfort, with which Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a seed that needs good soil to bear fruit.
The previous chapter shows an uncomfortable tension stemming from the listeners’ rejection. The disciples may have been discouraged and demoralized: ‘What we are announcing is leading nowhere; it does not produce results.’ Instead, Jesus’ parable notes that there will be a result despite the losses.
Christian tradition has modified this parable and added an explanation. The allegorical explanation probably does not go back to Jesus himself; it is an interpretation of the apostolic preaching, though it is ascribed to Jesus. Therefore, at the level of the finished text, it has the same importance and dignity as the parable that scholars say is original to Jesus.
The school of Christian scribes has allegorized it, that is, converted the parable into a parallel story. All the elements of the parabolic narrative correspond to aspects of reality. Here is the explanation, part by part: The seed is the word. When it is sown in someone who does not understand, the evil one takes the seed away; the stony ground represents the one who listens to the word and welcomes it with joy but has no roots in themselves; it is fickle, and as soon as a tribulation comes, persecution due to the Word, the seed does not bear fruit; the seed sown amid the thorns refers to the condition of problems, the worries of the world, and the seduction of wealth that suffocates the seed of the word. Still, some listen to the word. They understand it, bear fruit, and produce 100, 60, and 30 per seed. A huge amount! The average grain production was 5, 6, or 7 for one, even today, with all the most sophisticated means we have. Jesus proposes an immense harvest. It is an element that the peasant of Galilee understood immediately. ‘You are exaggerating… a grain does not yield 100 for 1… it is impossible.’ Through this provocation, Jesus communicates the message of the kingdom. It’s a small reality, like a seed, but it will grow.
The next parable is that of the mustard seed, followed by another twin parable of the little leaven put into the flour. They are parables of growth. If one had wanted to underscore smallness, one could have also used a grain of dust as a reference. Still, the difference between a mustard seed, which is small, and a white dot on the hand is barely noticeable, let alone a speck of dust that could be even smaller. The difference is that the seed develops, transforms, and becomes a plant, while the grain of dust always remains the same; it was small, and it remains small, but the seed grows. Jesus deliberately uses these growth images to emphasize that the kingdom of God is a dynamic reality that grows and transforms; it starts small but grows into something big, like a plant.
Mustard is a garden plant that can grow to three meters; it is not a majestic tree but a seasonal plant. Therefore, through the parable, Jesus conveys the idea of transformation from a tiny seed into a large plant. There is a path of maturation; the kingdom of God is like that.
Another unique parable of Matthew is the one about the weeds. Here, too, we are faced with the issue of growth, but the primary problem is confusion. In a field sown with seeds, weeds also appear. They are a kind of seed, but they are useless. They are ears that do not produce edible seeds; they look like seeds but are not.
How do we separate the wheat from the weeds? The illustrative image evokes an ecclesial condition marked by a mix of good and evil. It was a dramatic experience for the early Christian community to discover that there were also bad people within it. It was not only the saints who entered the church. At first, there may have been a movement of enthusiastic, determined, courageous, and consistent people who followed the gospel. Still, over time, some enthusiasm waned, coherence ended, and the Christian community that started well had come down and lived in the world like the others.
Matthew refers to a Christian community in crisis; it is not a community at the beginning, with the enthusiasm of beginners, but a community of tired people who have long been on that path and are perhaps a little disappointed. They have settled into a way of life like that of the world, lacking the initial push. It is even possible that people within the church misbehave and are grave sinners; sinners are among them.
What to do? The solution is not to remove sinners for a clean sweep but to remove weeds. Making this distinction is difficult because the division occurs not outside us but within us. It is not so simple to say that there are good and bad people, eliminate the bad, and keep the good, because we are all a little good and a little wrong; it is the mixture of wheat and weeds within everyone. The field is my life; there are good and bad things; it’s not my job to separate the good from the bad, but this does not mean everything is fine, even if that is the reality.
Matthew’s discourse is earnest and speaks of a necessary separation that will take place; it will be the Lord’s work and eschatological, that is, at the end of time. It is the final fulfillment; in the harvest, separation will occur. Also, this parable has an allegorical explanation; in this case, we have a list in which all narrative elements are explained in terms of some theological reality. “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed are the kingdom’s children; the weeds, the children of the evil one.” These are typically Semitic expressions: children of the kingdom, children of the evil one; that is, people who welcome the announcement of the kingdom and the people who instead allow themselves to be deformed by the evil one.
“The enemy who sowed the weeds is the devil; the harvest is the world’s end, and the reapers are angels. As the weeds are harvested and burned in the fire, it will be at the end of the world.” Here is the eschatological announcement of fulfillment. “When the son of man comes in his glory, he will send the angels who will pick up the scandals and all those who commit iniquity and will be eliminated, then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” It is a typical apocalyptic formula: the announcement that there will be a separation, but it will be at the end, and God himself will do it.
The same image of separation appears in the seventh parable, that of the net. The kingdom of God is like a net cast into the sea that gathers everything, but in the end there will be separation; the fishermen take the fish out of the net and separate them, collecting the good fish in the baskets and throwing the bad. This is how it will happen at the end of the world.
Between the allegorical explanation of the weeds and this seventh parable, Matthew presents two more that are his own: the twin parables of the Treasure and the Pearl. The kingdom of God is like a man who finds a treasure in a field; he sells everything and buys that field to have the treasure. Or a merchant who searches for precious pearls, and when he finds the most beautiful one, he sells everything to buy that pearl. The kingdom of God is a treasure; it is a pearl; it is an immense wealth. He who finds the kingdom of God is willing to lose everything else because he loses nothing by gaining much more. It is not a question of sacrifice but of accepting a treasure. This makes it easy and logical to accept any other sacrifice because there is something much more significant and beautiful.
It is the experience of the disciples who found the treasure in Jesus; it is a Church experience that struggles within, an experience of growth. The mystery of the kingdom of God is growth, treasure, and suffering, requiring discernment, separation, and tension towardfuture fulfillment.
As always, the discourses in the Gospel according to Matthew end with very similar formulas: “When Jesus finished these parables, he left there….” But before this conclusion,there is an exciting editorial note: “‘Have you understood all these things?’ Jesus asks his disciples. ‘Yes,’ they answer him. ‘Well, this is why,’ the teacher adds, ‘every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who extracts new things and old things from his treasure.’” It looks like a self-portrait of the evangelist, a writer who has become a disciple of the kingdom, has welcomed the kingdom’s mystery, andpossesses an immense treasure. He is the householder and the presbyter responsible for the Christian community, which has an inheritance of old and new things. He extracts the secular tradition and the novelty of Jesus from his treasure.
Now, another narrative section begins, spanning chapters 14-17, and in chapter 18 we will find the fourth ecclesial discourse. In this narrative section, we see a break with Israel.There is an intense confrontation with the Jewish authorities, and Jesus decides to go abroad;he retires to the northern regions. It is an important choice; it is a geographical departure that preludes the mission to all people, and it is precisely abroad, in Caesarea Philippi, that Jesus announces the foundation of his Church. The first element of the foundation will be the believing disciple, Simon, who becomes Peter, on whom Jesus begins to build his Church. The mystery of the kingdom is a growing reality.