Exegesis Of Matthew 13 : 44-50

The parables were short simple stories/analogies that illustrated spiritual and moral lessons. They connected to the listeners’ lives, showed Jesus’ “voice” incorporated glimpses of the Kingdom of God, since it was easier for people to understand concepts that they can relate to. For example, he used topics of everyday life like the mustard seed appealing to farmers; yeast

After reading the assigned chapters in our text, I have an appreciation for parables; parables function as narrative frameworks that Jesus used to present spiritual principles. According to the text, “Story is a way of structuring information, a system of informational elements …” (Haven 15) stories are effectively, “…enhance memory and the creation of meaning” (16). Because the human brain readily embraces and interprets past experiences and present circumstances in story form (33) the parable of The Sower helps believers of Jesus Christ understand different responses to the call of salvation.

     Who is this man Jesus? Where was he from? What did he do for others and us? A great source of reference to answer this question would be someone who had direct contact with him in everyday life. Someone who saw the daily wonders he created would be the best source for information. Matthew, the apostle, is believed to have written the gospel of Matthew. He was able to experience firsthand all of the amazing miracles that Jesus performed. God inspired his words, and his gospel relates to the other three gospels in overall context. They were written in different formats and styles, but the overall message and story remains constant throughout all four gospels. This creates a strong

The Gospel according to Matthew is the first book in the New Testament, and also serves as a bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The gospel tells us of Jesus and his teachings. It is believed that the Gospel originated with Matthew, one of Jesus' disciples, and it circulated anonymously (Harris 149). The message in this gospel was compiled to minister to a Jewish and Jewish-Christian community when tensions between early Christians and postwar Jewish leaders aggravated bitter controversy. The Gospel of Matthew was written as an encouragement to the Greek-speaking Jewish Christians and Gentiles who were, at least partly, Torah observant during the 80s C.E. probably at Antioch in Syria

Parables are stories written in the Bible for truth and life guidance. We have to understand that parables are implied by God to encourage his written word and carry his truths. God’s words can touch a heart of faith despite their external circumstance. The history of parables started with Jesus writing “the sower and the seed” in the book of Matthew. The sower and the seed was the seed is “the word.” The hard ground represents the person who is hardened by sin. Parables date back as far as

Many people do not know that loving your enemy is the heart of the gospel. Although loving and praying for your enemy may seem impossible at times, it is written in the gospel of Matthew that loving your enemy is loving God. In Matthew 5:43, Jesus teaches about loving your enemy, praying for your enemy, and shows examples of loving your enemy.

Matthew, who is known as one of Jesus’ twelve disciples and one of the four gospel writers, wrote the book of Matthew. Before Matthew became an evangelist, he worked as a tax collector. Due to his profession as a tax collector many people disliked him. Prior to being saved Mathew went by the name of Levi, but after submitting his life to Christ he changed his name to Mathew, which is how Christians refer to him today. Matthew’s character exemplified loyalty as he dedicated his time to God by participating in missionary work and taking accounts for the bible. The book is comprised of different teachings given by Jesus that Matthew took account of. For example, Matthew 7:1-6 is taken from the Sermon on the Mount. The book of Matthew was written

Jesus’ use of parables was to fulfill Old Testament prophecy; Psalm 78:2, “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old-” (NIV). Additionally, Jesus used parables to teach the truth, basic moral, and spiritual principles using simple down to earth stories to reveal the message of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven was the heartbeat of Jesus teachings; often his parables began with: the kingdom of God is like…. Jesus used parables to teach not of an earthly kingdom of God but of a spiritual kingdom, and those who chose to accept God’s kingdom would inherit eternal life. It is important to remember, that Jesus used parables not to replace to doctrine but to illustrate and confirm doctrine teachings.

Notable in Matthew is its emphasis on Jesus as the promised Messiah and on matters pertaining to the church. Evidence that it probably was written for Jewish Christians may be found which is concerned with representing Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament. The deep interest in the disciples is emphasized in Matthew. Matthew gives the fullest account of how Jesus called them, how he instructed them, how they failed him, and

Isaianic prophecy aside it is also clear that Matthew above the other three evangelists presents Jesus as the fulfilment of the law, a new Moses. The structure of the book into five sections is intended to help the Jewish readers identify Jesus as an antecedent of Moses. Jesus is according to some scholars a type of Moses bringing about a new exodus and a new Israel. More explicitly however, Matthew portrays Jesus as the only man to have fulfilled the law in its entirety as well as the messianic fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy through the many formula quotations (3:15; 5:17-48;12:17-21; 13:35; 21:5, 16, 42; 22:44; 23:39; 26:31; 27:9, 35, 46).

A parable is a “simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels.” Parables are a form of teaching in Judaism, this is where Jesus made it a point in his ministry to gather common things that could be familiar to everyone and anyone who was wiling to hear him speak, for example bread and sheep. He made sure that the meaning of what was said was very clear in the context of His teachings. Parables in other words are an “earthly form of stories with heavenly meaning”. In Matthew (13: 13) Jesus says “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” This quote can be seen as Jesus’ way of communicating with his disciples, because many of them could not fully comprehend his teachings and what was being spoken. Another reason why He spoke in parables was so that “…unbelievers would be without comprehension”. Only those who were willing to follow Him and allow Him into their hearts, trusting in Him would understand His ways. His main deal was to be able to teach people, and hopefully in teaching them they would learn an d pass down what was taught to others. Just like in our society now and when it comes to books, magazines, etc Jesus used such things as words, pictures, and stories to help everyone learn and understand things in a certain way, because everyone learns differently he took that into consideration.

In this paper, there will be research on the Gospel of Matthew from Daniel Harrington’s commentary “The Gospel of Matthew”, This paper will explain the teachings of the “6 Antithesis” in chapter 5 verses 21-48, and the main point on “Jesus came not to abolish but to “fulfill” the Law and Prophets (Harrington 90).” This paper will also have Daniel Harrington interpretations of the writing of the gospel of Matthew. I believe that Jesus had a reason for his teachings and how he went forward to preach them to the congregation.

The Gospels of the New Testament contain 39 different parables told by Jesus (Phillips 2004, 18-19) and no doubt he spoke many more during his ministry. Jesus’ choice to use parables to teach his people is one that has intrigued many people throughout history. The aim of this essay is to get to discover why he chose to use those parables, and also what we can learn from this teaching method when evangelising today.

The direct teachings of Jesus give instructions of how to live as Christians and the Parables were used in the Gospel to immediately confront us with a truth and evoke a change. (Fee & Stuart,2003, p. 152). The five major discourses of Matthew’s Gospel are centred around five lengthy Sermons using parables to make a point and call the people to make a change.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the infancy narrative contributes a large sum of background information of Jesus that contributes to the development of Matthew’s Christology. In order to analyze how Matthew develops the Christology, we have to cut the infancy narrative into sections. This paper will discuss background information of the writing of this Gospel, literary elements of Jesus’ miraculous conception that reinforce his Jewishness, how Magi and literary devices help to understand Matthew’s Christology, what important biblical hero the infancy narrative parallels, and what foreshadowing is caused from this infancy narrative. Comparatively, the use of divine intervention in dreams to fulfill prophecy has been a key focus of the infancy narrative in order to create an unusual birth narrative and develop the unique Christology that Matthew envisioned specifically for the Jewish Messiah.