Matthew 13:44-58--Other Parables About the Kingdom of Heaven

​Matthew 13:44-58 English Standard Version (ESV)
Listen:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Matt.13.44-Matt.13.58

The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
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.

The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

The Parable of the Net
47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. 48 When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

New and Old Treasures
51 “Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” 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.”

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
53 And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, 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? 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? 56 And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” 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.” 58 And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.

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Jesus continues to teach the people in parables as He said He would just a few passages ago.  None of the things said today are really new, but Jesus is trying to represent the same truths in different ways to possibly remind and reinforce, or to make headway where there wasn't understanding the first time, because not everyone can connect with every analogy you make.

Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a buried treasure in a field...something that was hidden because of its great value.  This man probably didn't just find hidden treasure without someone pointing him in the right direction and giving him a map, but he still had to look for it and want to find it.  It is much the same with the kingdom of heaven that God often uses other people who are already saved to say "Have you looked in that field over there? And I hear the land is for sale (and the treasure with it) for a price you can't beat.".

This man recognized the great value of the treasure that he found and sold all that he had to buy the filed (and the treasure that was inside of it) and buried the treasure again to protect it from thieves and robbers--we've already seen in the parable of the sower how the enemy is at work to try to steal away the seed that is sown by the Sower, but we've also seen in the epistles that Satan is at work in the "Church" to try to corrupt the true gospel and that he would deceive even the elect (the true believers whom God has chosen and revealed Himself to) if possible.

Similarly, there are some people who are actively searching for God and what is true and they might actually know where to look and "stumble" upon the truth like a man who is searching for the perfect pearl.  This might be a man studying the religions and philosophies of the world looking for truth that just so happens to come upon the Bible and recognizes it as God's perfect truth and His perfect plan for man.  Again, he sells everything that he has to buy this perfect, priceless treasure, but this time this man doesn't seem to keep it a secret.  This would probably be something that someone would put on display because what's the use of owning the perfect pearl if you don't put it on display for all to see?

​The next parable takes a twist, but it's not anything new...we've already seen this a couple different times with Jesus talking about the harvests that would happen at the end times.  This time it's a harvest of fish (which probably would make a lot of sense to the fishermen in the crowd where as they might not of connected to the teachings about the sheep and the goats or the wheat and the weeds).  Everyone is going to be caught up and separated and the the good fish will be kept (for heaven) and the bad fish will be thrown away (into hell).  We again see hell described with the idea of fire and where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus had told many parables all about the kingdom of heaven at this point (not just these few, but all of the parables in the last few blogs).  Like any good teacher just stops ans says, "So have you understood what I've been trying to tell you?"  The disciples say "Yes" and Jesus gives a summation to them.  Jesus is telling them that they will need to be like the master of the house and know what things are of value--be they old things or new things.  There will be things of the old covenant still of value that they need to keep and there will be things of a new covenant also of value that they need treasure as well, and Jesus will give them the wisdom and knowledge as if they were scribes and teachers of the Law even though most were fairly uneducated, but their ability to discern would hang on their understanding of these parables that Jesus had been teaching them.  This is why Jesus first asked them, "Do you understand?"

After all these things Jesus returned to his home town of Nazareth.  This will be the last time that we see Jesus go to that town and He started teaching in the synagogue as was his custom, but the people of his hometown would not accept Him because they remembered him growing up there and were unwilling ot see Him as the Son of God and one who had been given wisdom and authority.  Jesus did not do many signs there because of their lack of faith--this might have been both because they didn't believe they should come to Him for the miracles and because their hearts were hard and Jesus knew sowing seed on hard soil was fruitless.  Jesus' response to them of “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” show us that even his family didn't understand who He was and what He was doing, but thankfully we see some of them understood after the resurrection and become great leaders and we've already studied some of their epistles (James and Jude).