마태복음 Chapter 13

Translation: ESV

1

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.

Key Message

The setting shift from house to open sea marks a new phase of public teaching; the parable discourse will reveal the kingdom's mysteries to those with ears to hear.

▸Chapter 13 contains the third and central of Matthew's five great discourses — the Kingdom Parables Discourse.

Chapter 13 contains the third and central of Matthew's five great discourses — the Kingdom Parables Discourse. 'That same day' connects directly to the family episode of 12:46-50, creating continuity. Jesus leaves the house (where the family was outside) and goes to the sea — from the enclosed teaching space to the open shore, signaling a broader audience.

Related Verses

Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him.
2

And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach.

Key Message

The boat-platform teaching creates a natural amphitheater between teacher and crowd; the arrangement enables both the physical logistics of teaching and the symbolic staging of the kingdom parables.

▸The boat becomes Jesus' teaching platform — floating offshore while the crowd stands on the beach.

3

And he told them many things in parables, saying: "A sower went out to sow.

Key Message

The parable form both reveals and conceals; it opens the kingdom's meaning to those with receptive hearts while leaving those whose hearts are closed unchanged.

▸The Parable of the Sower opens the discourse.

4

And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.

Key Message

The hardened path represents the heart that the word of the kingdom cannot penetrate; what lies on the surface without roots is immediately stolen away.

▸The first category of soil: the hardened path through the field.

5

Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil,

Key Message

Rapid, enthusiastic response without depth produces quick apparent growth that cannot survive testing; the absence of roots in the rocky heart is not visible until pressure reveals it.

▸The second category: rocky ground.

6

but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.

Key Message

The same sun that nurtures deep-rooted faith scorches rootless faith; ordinary trials reveal the depth of what has taken hold.

▸The summer sun — the normal, expected trial — destroys what the thin soil had apparently produced.

7

Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.

Key Message

The thorny heart's problem is not initial hostility but divided loyalty; worldly cares and wealth gradually strangle what begins as genuine growth.

▸The third category: thorn-infested ground.

8

Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

Key Message

The kingdom's harvest is eschatologically abundant; despite the proportion of failed sowings, the good-soil yield more than compensates — the kingdom will prevail.

▸The fourth category: good soil, producing a miraculous yield.

9

He who has ears, let him hear."

Key Message

The call to attentive hearing is itself a filter: those who seek interpretation demonstrate the receptive heart the parable describes; those who do not confirm their own category.

▸The call to attentive hearing follows the parable, as it followed the John the Baptist discussion (11:15).

10

Then the disciples came and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?"

Key Message

The disciples' seeking question demonstrates the good-soil receptivity; their coming to ask rather than walking away with the crowd marks them as recipients of further revelation.

▸The disciples' question is itself the demonstration of their good-soil hearts: they come seeking, asking, wanting to understand.

11

And he answered them, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

Key Message

Knowledge of the kingdom's secrets is a divine gift to those who receive Jesus; the parabolic method reveals to the receptive while leaving the closed unchanged.

▸Jesus' answer introduces the principle of selective revelation.

12

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

Key Message

Spiritual receptivity creates capacity for more; spiritual closure atrophies even what was available. The trajectory of the heart determines whether it accumulates or loses kingdom understanding.

▸The economic law of spiritual receptivity: those who have (open, receptive hearts; genuine faith) receive more; those who have not (closed, hardened hearts) lose even what they appear to have.

13

This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

Key Message

Parables are calibrated to the actual condition of their hearers; they neither force revelation on unwilling hearts nor permanently close it off from seeking ones.

▸Jesus explains the parable method: it corresponds to the crowd's actual condition.

14

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 never perceive.'

Key Message

The crowds' blindness fulfills Isaiah's prophecy — not as an isolated failure but as the recurrent pattern of resistance to divine revelation that Isaiah was commissioned to address.

▸Matthew introduces the Isaiah 6:9-10 citation with the fulfillment formula, presenting the crowds' incomprehension not as a new failure but as the fulfillment of prophetic anticipation.

15

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 their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.'

Key Message

The people's closure is self-inflicted; the tragedy is that the healing they refuse is exactly what Jesus offers — their eyes are closed against the Healer himself.

▸The full Isaiah citation includes the divine offer of healing: 'I would heal them.

16

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

Key Message

The disciples' sight and hearing are beatitudes — divine gifts of reception that place them in a position of extraordinary privilege, enabling them to receive what prophets longed to see.

▸Turning to the disciples, Jesus pronounces a beatitude on their seeing and hearing — in contrast to the crowds' blindness.

17

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 not hear it.

Key Message

The disciples witness what the greatest figures of the OT could only hope for from afar; their privilege is immeasurable, making their receptive hearing the most fitting possible response.

▸The disciples' privilege is placed in salvation-historical perspective: what they witness daily — Jesus present among them — was the passionate longing of every OT prophet and righteous person.

18

"Hear then the parable of the sower:

Key Message

The interpretation is given to the seeking disciples; those who ask receive the explanation — the parable's interpretation models the principle it describes.

▸Jesus now provides the interpretation of the Parable of the Sower — an unusual move, since he does not typically explain parables to the crowds.

19

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.

Key Message

The path-heart's failure is not merely intellectual (misunderstanding) but spiritual (Satanic theft); the adversary actively works to prevent the kingdom word from taking root.

▸The path represents those who hear 'the word of the kingdom' (τὸν λόγον τῆς βασιλείας, ton logon tēs basileias) but without understanding (μὴ συνιέντος, mē synientos).

20

As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy,

Key Message

Joyful initial reception without deep rootedness is not sustainable; emotional enthusiasm is not the measure of genuine transformation — depth of commitment is.

▸The rocky-ground hearer's initial response is impressive: immediate reception with joy.

21

yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

Key Message

The test of tribulation distinguishes rootless joy from genuine faith; the speed of falling away matches the speed of initial enthusiasm — both reflect shallowness.

▸'No root in himself' — the shallowness is internal, not external.

22

As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

Key Message

The word's most insidious enemy is not persecution but comfortable distraction; the cares and pleasures of worldly life gradually choke what begins as genuine growth.

▸The third type: the word is heard and received but gradually choked by 'the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches' (ἡ μέριμνα τοῦ αἰῶνος καὶ ἡ ἀπάτη τοῦ πλούτου, hē merimna tou aiōnos kai hē apatē tou ploutou).

23

As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."

Key Message

Understanding — genuine comprehension of the word — is the hallmark of good-soil reception; from this understanding flows the varying but always genuine fruit of kingdom life.

▸The good-soil hearer's distinguishing characteristic: 'understands it' (συνιείς, synieis — the same word whose absence characterized the path-hearer in v.

24

He put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field,

Key Message

The kingdom community in the present age contains a mixture of genuine and counterfeit; God's appointed time of separation is the harvest, not the present age.

▸The Parable of the Weeds (or Tares) is unique to Matthew.

25

but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.

Key Message

The enemy's strategy is infiltration through imitation, not frontal attack; the presence of the counterfeit within the genuine community is an enemy action, not a divine design.

▸The enemy's work is done covertly, at night, while the servants sleep.

26

So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.

Key Message

Fruit-bearing reveals what early growth concealed; the distinction between genuine and counterfeit disciples becomes clear over time through the evidence of their fruit.

▸Only when the grain heads appear does the difference between wheat and darnel become clear — at the point of fruit-bearing.

27

And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?'

Key Message

The weeds' presence is the enemy's work, not the master's; the community's impurity does not reflect God's failure but enemy infiltration that God will address in his own time.

▸The servants' question reflects genuine confusion: the master's good seed should have produced only good plants.

28

He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?'

Key Message

The impulse to immediate community purification is natural; the master's wisdom is not to abandon the goal of purity but to defer the separation to the appointed time and agent.

▸The master's identification of the enemy as the source of the weeds is theologically significant: the church's impurity is attributed to Satanic infiltration, not divine intention.

29

But he said, 'No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.

Key Message

Premature separation of genuine from false is dangerous; human inability to distinguish reliably between the two makes patient waiting the wiser course until the harvest.

▸The master's prohibition addresses a real agricultural danger: pulling out darnel whose roots have intertwined with wheat roots will uproot the wheat as well.

30

Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

Key Message

God's patience with the community's mixture is a feature of his wisdom, not his indifference; the harvest's separation will be complete, accurate, and final — beyond anything premature human judgment can achieve.

▸The resolution: patient coexistence until the harvest (the eschatological judgment), at which point the reapers (angels, v.

31

He put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.

Key Message

The kingdom's small, obscure beginning does not predict its ultimate scope; the mustard seed's contrast between seed and plant is the logic of the kingdom's eschatological expansion.

▸The Parable of the Mustard Seed addresses the kingdom's small beginnings versus its great ending.

32

It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."

Key Message

The kingdom's ultimate greatness will provide shelter for all nations; what begins as the smallest seed becomes the largest shelter — a universal home for all who seek refuge.

▸The smallest seed becomes 'larger than all garden plants' — an unexpected reversal.

33

He told them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened."

Key Message

The kingdom's advance is not only outward and visible (mustard seed) but inward and invisible (leaven); its transforming power permeates all that it touches from within.

▸The Parable of the Leaven addresses the kingdom's invisible, transforming power.

34

All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable.

Key Message

The exclusive use of parables for the crowds is the consistent outworking of the revelatory principle of vv. 11-13; the parabolic method is not random but reflects the structure of revelation and response.

▸Matthew summarizes the discourse's public phase: Jesus taught the crowds exclusively in parables, without direct explanation.

35

This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: "I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world."

Key Message

Jesus' parabolic teaching fulfills Psalm 78 by disclosing what was hidden since creation — the mysteries of the kingdom that the OT anticipated but could not fully reveal.

▸Matthew cites Psalm 78:2 as the OT anticipation of Jesus' parabolic method.

36

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field."

Key Message

The disciples' persistent seeking of explanation demonstrates the receptivity that distinguishes them from the crowd; their asking receives the secrets of the kingdom.

▸The transition from public to private teaching: Jesus leaves the crowds and enters the house with his disciples.

37

He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.

Key Message

The Son of Man is the active agent of kingdom planting in the world; the parable's drama unfolds within his intentional mission rather than as an accident.

▸The interpretation begins with the sower: the Son of Man — Jesus himself.

38

The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,

Key Message

The cosmic scope of the parable encompasses the entire world; the mixture of the kingdom's children and the evil one's children is a feature of all human history until the harvest.

▸The field is 'the world' (κόσμος, kosmos) — not merely the church or Israel but the whole creation.

39

and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

Key Message

The judgment is divine in agency (angels), cosmic in scope (world), and final in character (end of the age); it exceeds all human capacity for precise and just separation.

▸The identification of all four remaining elements: the enemy is the devil (διάβολος, diabolos — the adversary); the harvest is 'the end of the age' (συντέλεια τοῦ αἰῶνος, synteleia tou aiōnos — the consummation of the present age); the reapers are angels.

40

Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.

Key Message

The eschatological separation is real and final; those whose lives bear the stamp of the evil one will face the fire of divine judgment at the age's end.

▸The application of the harvest image to eschatological judgment.

41

The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,

Key Message

The Son of Man's angels execute a comprehensive judgment that gathers every source of sin out of his kingdom; the eschatological purification is total and universal.

▸The Son of Man — who sowed in vv.

42

and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Key Message

The eschatological fiery furnace and the anguish of exclusion are the destination of those whose lives evidence Satanic rather than divine parentage; the judgment is real and complete.

▸The eschatological consequence: the fiery furnace (τὴν κάμινον τοῦ πυρός, tēn kaminon tou pyros) is an image drawn from Daniel 3 (the Babylonian furnace) and developed as a symbol of divine judgment.

43

Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

Key Message

The righteous will shine with eschatological glory in the Father's kingdom; the destiny of genuine disciples is incomparable brightness — the fulfillment of Daniel's vision.

▸The positive eschatological image: the righteous 'will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father' — an image drawn from Daniel 12:3 ('those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above').

44

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Key Message

The kingdom's value, once genuinely discovered, makes every other possession seem negligible; joyful total self-investment in the kingdom is the appropriate response to recognizing what has been found.

▸The Parable of the Hidden Treasure is unique to Matthew.

45

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls,

Key Message

Whether the kingdom is found accidentally or through intentional seeking, its value transcends all other investments; the professional seeker and the accidental finder reach the same response: total investment.

▸The Parable of the Pearl of Great Price is paired with the Hidden Treasure.

46

who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Key Message

Recognition of the kingdom's supreme value leads to clear-sighted, total, irreversible investment; wisdom is knowing what is worth everything and acting on that recognition.

▸The merchant's response — 'sold all that he had and bought it' — is identical in structure to the hidden-treasure finder's response.

47

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.

Key Message

The present phase of the kingdom gathers all kinds; sorting and separation are reserved for the end, not performed during the gathering — just as the dragnet gathers before sorting.

▸The Parable of the Net (dragnet) parallels the Parable of the Weeds in its structure: a present mixed state (good and bad together) followed by an eschatological separation.

48

When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad.

Key Message

The separation after the catch is definitive; the sorting on shore is the eschatological judgment — authoritative, complete, and final.

▸The sorting occurs on shore, after the catch is complete.

49

So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous

Key Message

The eschatological separation of evil from righteous, executed by angels at the age's end, is the consistent pattern of both the Weeds and Net parables; the present mixture ends definitively.

▸The application mirrors that of the Weeds parable (v.

50

and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Key Message

The repeated judgment formula establishes the certainty and gravity of eschatological consequence; the trajectory of the wicked ends in the furnace of divine judgment.

▸The eschatological consequence is identical to v.

51

"Have you understood all these things?" They said to him, "Yes."

Key Message

The disciples' affirmative claim to understanding closes the discourse's explanatory section; their receptive engagement is the appropriate response to private instruction, even if full comprehension awaits further experience.

▸Jesus' question probes the disciples' comprehension: 'Have you understood all these things?' Their 'Yes' is a confident affirmation — perhaps somewhat overconfident, as subsequent episodes will show.

52

And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."

Key Message

The kingdom-trained scribe integrates old and new — the OT heritage and the kingdom's fulfillment — bringing both from the treasury of understanding that proper discipleship provides.

▸The final parable is transitional and self-referential: Jesus describes the ideal kingdom teacher as a 'scribe trained for the kingdom' who brings out 'what is new and what is old.

53

And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there,

Key Message

The third great discourse concludes; the movement to Nazareth that follows will illustrate the rejection that the parable discourse analyzed — hometown Israel refusing to receive its own Messiah.

▸Matthew's discourse-conclusion formula — 'when Jesus had finished these parables' — marks the end of the third great discourse (matching 7:28; 11:1; 19:1; 26:1).

54

and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?

Key Message

Familiarity with Jesus' human origins prevents recognition of his divine identity; the hometown's 'where did this man get this?' is the question that demands a christological answer they refuse to give.

▸The contrast is immediate: the disciples who 'understood' (v.

55

Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

Key Message

Familiarity with Jesus' human background creates the ultimate stumbling block — his ordinariness, by worldly standards, makes the extraordinary unbelievable to those who knew him before.

▸The Nazarenes cite what they know of Jesus' family to argue against his claim to supernatural wisdom and power: he is 'the carpenter's son' (Joseph's son, a craftsman), his mother is the known Mary, his brothers are named (James, Joseph, Simon, Judas — all of whom appear in early Christianity).

56

And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?"

Key Message

Complete knowledge of Jesus' ordinary human family context prevents the Nazarenes from considering any explanation beyond the human; their familiarity excludes the possibility of divine origin.

▸The sisters are unnamed (unlike the brothers); the entire family is known and ordinary.

57

And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household."

Key Message

Familiarity with the ordinary produces the stumbling block that prevents recognition of the extraordinary; the prophet's reception elsewhere validates what the hometown refuses.

▸They 'took offense' (ἐσκανδαλίζοντο, eskandalizonto — stumbled, were scandalized) at Jesus — the same verb used in 11:6's beatitude ('blessed is the one who is not offended by me') and in the rocky-ground parable (v.

58

And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.

Key Message

Unbelief is not overcome by miracles; miracles occur within the relational context of faith — not as coercive proof but as responsive signs. The Nazarenes' unbelief is both the diagnosis and its own consequence.

▸The connection between unbelief and few miracles is significant: Jesus 'did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.