As I was teaching my little Sunday School class about the Psalms last year, I talked about how, in Hebrew poetry, people "rhyme" ideas rather than words. In other words, people would say something once, and then say it again a little differently. As I was reading Matthew 13 in Greek this week (I am reading Matthew in Greek straight through instead of following the Come Follow Me), I realized that Matthew does the same thing here. He groups verses with repeating themes and images.
In Matthew 13, Jesus starts out with the parable of the sower. After he is done the apostles ask him why he speaks in parables. He goes through a fairly long discussion of about how they have eyes and can't see, and ears that can't hear. Finally, in Matthew 18 he gets to the interpretation of the parable of the sower.
In the interim of the telling of the parable and its interpretation, Matthew repeats ideas just like in the Old Testament poetry:
vs. 11 and 12 go together, key word "given"
vs. 13 and 14 go together, key words "hearing, seeing, perceiving"
vs 15 and 17 go together, key words "heart/desire, seeing, hearing"
I always thought this little interlude passage was a digression from the parables meant to explain why Jesus taught in parables. As I read it this time through, I came to realize that this digression is actually an interpretation of the meaning and importance of the parable. How can the "evil one" snatch the seed/word away? Why does the seed in the stony place wither in the sun? Why does the seed in the thorns get choked? It is because the people choose not to hear and obey. "because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand."
The rest of the parables in this chapter build on this theme. They all explain why people either open or close their hearts to the doctrines of Christ. The parable of the wheat and tares explains why the Lord allows both truth and error to exist in the world. The parable of the mustard seed shows how opening one's heart to a small piece of truth can lead to that truth growing up and filling one's heart. That is the same message in the story of the hidden leaven. The need to search for truth, and its value when found is portrayed in the parables of the lost coin and the merchant seeking pearls. The need to sort through the good and bad doctrines, and accept the good is shown in the parable of the fish in the net.
It is interesting that the very long chapter ends with the story of Jesus being rejected in his own home town. It illustrates all that Matthew has been talking about why people reject Christ's doctrines. You can almost hear Matthew say, "well, yeah, case in point."
No comments:
Post a Comment