Matthew 13: 24-30: The Parable Of The Weed

As some background information, the chapter starts with the Pharisees and scribes condemning Jesus for hanging around sinners. Jesus responds to their scorn with three parables, all of which deal with the themes of being lost and found. Jesus begins this parable with how there was once a father who had two sons. The father is clearly a representation of God while the elder son is meant to represent the Pharisees or hypocritical Christians and the younger son signifies sinners.

The religious leaders heard Jesus’ message but they rejected it. Jesus used agricultural images to portray the unfruitfulness of these religous leaders and their rejection of Jesus. They were unfruitful as outlined in the three situations. They should respond to the message and persevere the word and to bear fruit.

Chapter four examines the methods Jesus used to teach and spread his messages about the Kingdom of God. Jesus’s primary audience was the common people of first-century Galilee, so he had to adopt creative techniques to teach uneducated people about an unknown “fantastic” topic, the Kingdom of God. His strategy was successful; amassing a great amount of followers and started the foundation of modern Christianity. The methods he utilized, includes teaching through parables, debates and including examples with miracles and enacted parables.

In the sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" Jonathon Edwards utilizes rhetorical devices such as, personification, similes, and metaphors to persuade his audience into obeying God.

This parable is very applicable to my daily life, as well as society. I can apply this parable to my life by knowing that I was a seed planted in the good soil. I need to remember to continue my course of action and beliefs, no matter how difficult it is. That way, I can live a life lead by the Lord, spread his message, and “bear fruit”.

fruit of the Spirit instead of the works the flesh. There is no inheritance in the kingdom of God for

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.

While Jesus was not the first to use parables to teach a message or communicate understanding, Snodgrass (2008) provided insight as to how Jesus parables are unique among the parabolic literature in the ancient world among different cultures. The parables told by the rhetoricians in the Greco-Roman show that Jesus’ parables would not have seemed strange to hear and do not come close to that of Jesus but regularly have explanations and show that parables are effective because of their contexts. According to Snodgrass, (2008) “While there are some similarities such as the Greco-Roman parables in which they are, like Jesus parables, confronting people for their failures” (p. 46). His comparison between the parables of Jesus and those told in the ancient world tells us that Jesus’ use of the parables is the prophetic tradition of the Old Testament. He also mentions some comparisons among Jewish writings.

In the days of Jesus a weed called tares grew alongside the wheat, and in their early growth stages, it was difficult to differentiate between the two. If you plucked the tares you would also destroy some wheat. It was only at harvest time that you could clearly differentiate between the two (Matthew 13:24-30).

We are born sinners, unrighteous and undeserving. Born to die; for wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). People often know God is real however they choose to be filled with darkness and rather than giving honor to God they choose youthful passions; becoming fools as Romans 1:21-23 states. However, a new identity can be found in Jesus Christ; a redeemed child of God. This can be done by our faith in Jesus Christ. We can be seen as righteous through our faith and not by our works. Being dead to sin and alive in Christ (Romans 6:11).

The meaning of the parable is that like the seed if the Kingdom of God

Vivid images, from visions, to detailed explanation and accounts of places and events, to symbolic imagery used to explain parables, or teach and encourage the first century churches are driving forces within the Biblical text. Metaphorical language, by virtue of the fact that it preserves the literal meaning of the symbol, while intending an analogical secondary meaning, is able to communicate profound truths about reality, mainly by creating an alternative, symbolic way of seeing and understanding the world. (Liubinskas, Susann. 404) Throughout the New Testament of the Bible the most commonly used images are the: body of Christ, and vine imagery. These images work together to create a powerful example of the necessity for unity among individual believers, and that unity tying them Christ.

As a tree planted on watercourses = waterways are a sign of the Holy Spirit (John 37: 7-39). The fruit tree is a joyous cause for every human being and animal, whose fruit is saturated and benefits from its shadow. We observe that Christ is the Tree of Life (Revelation 7: 2), which gives fruit in its time. Compare with the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 22: 5). Christ cursed the fruitless fig. Note

God’s Gardener lives with the rebellion against the commodity and the greedy pleasure. In “We’re Using Up the Earth. It’s Almost Gone”: A Return to the Post-Apocalyptic Future in Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood, J.Brooks Bouson points out that the God’s Gardener “ also see the need for the cleansing renewal of humanity and the creation of new social and moral order”(2011,17). God’s Gardeners reconstruct the Biblical stories from the boks of Genesis, Jeremiah and Apocalypse in which God angry with sinful people, warns humankind:

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.