So far we have dealt with the parabolic method of teaching, and in
doing so have glanced at only one of the seven parables the chapter
contains, every one of which invites special study; but inasmuch as
our plan will not admit of this, we shall attempt nothing more than a
general view of the entire group; and to this we restrict ourselves
the more willingly that there is a unity in the cluster which is apt
to escape notice when they are considered apart, and because by
letting go the details we get the prominent features more vividly
before our minds.
The arrangement seems to be in three pairs, with a single concluding
parable. The first pair--"The Sower" and "The Tares"--set forth the
manner of the establishment of the kingdom of heaven, and the
obstacles it must encounter. The sphere from which both parables are
taken is admirably suited to bring out the radical distinction in
regard to the manner of its establishment between the new kingdom and
those with which the people were already familiar. They were founded
by the sword; this kingdom by the Word. Not force, but persuasion, is
to be the weapon; and accordingly there is placed before the mind, not
a warrior hasting to battle, but a sower sowing seed. "The field is
the world," we are told--the world of men, of human hearts; and the
seed is "the word of the kingdom." It is "good seed," and therefore it
ought to be welcome; but there are serious obstacles in the way.
The first parable sets forth the obstacles encountered in the soil
itself. Sometimes the seed falls on _hard soil_, where it cannot
penetrate the surface, and presently birds come and carry it
away--representing those hearers of the word, who, though they
remember it for a short time, have their hearts hardened against it,
so that it does not enter, but is presently snatched away by trifling
worldly thoughts which come fluttering into the mind. Then there is
the _shallow soil_, a little loose earth on the surface, and
close under it the hard rock, harder even than the trodden wayside--a
kind of soil in which the seed will rapidly take root and spring up,
and as rapidly wither away in the noonday heat, and which therefore
fitly represents those who are easily impressed, but whose impressions
do not last; who make many resolutions indeed, but in so half-hearted
and impulsive a way that they are destined to be blighted by the first
blast of temptation. Finally, there is the _preoccupied soil_,
where thorns and thistles hold the ground and choke the springing
plants of grace, representing those who "are choked with cares, and
riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity."
The _good soil_ is marked by characteristics which are simply the
negatives of these: it is not hard, so the seed enters; not shallow,
so it takes root; not preoccupied, so it holds the ground, and springs
up and brings forth fruit, "in some thirty, in some sixty, in some a
hundredfold."
There are, however, other obstacles than those found in the nature of
the soil. There is the diligence of the enemy, and the impossibility
of getting rid of those who have come under his influence, as set
forth in the second parable, that of "The Tares of the Field." In this
parable the good seed is no longer the word, but "the children of the
kingdom"; as if to suggest that Christians themselves are to be to the
world what the word has been to them; while the bad seed--sown when
men sleep, sown when Christians are asleep--does not remain as mere
seed, but embodies itself in "children of the wicked one," who take
their places side by side with the true children of the kingdom, and
whom it is so difficult to distinguish from them, that the separation
may not be attempted till the time of the harvest, when it shall be
complete and final, and "the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in
the kingdom of their Father."
The second pair--"The Mustard Seed" and "The Leaven"--set forth the
growth of the kingdom notwithstanding the many obstacles it must
encounter, the one indicating its growth as recognisable to the
observant eye, the other its pervasive power as permeating society.
This twofold view of the development of the kingdom is in the same
line of thought as the illustrations of the light and the salt in the
Sermon on the Mount. The prophecy these parables infold is most
marvellous, spoken as it was in a time of so deep discouragement.
There is true pathos in the thought of the grain of mustard seed,
"_the least of all seeds_," and in the little word "hid," which comes
in so significantly in the parable of the Leaven; and there is great
strength of faith in the readiness of mind to recognise the hopeful
thought of the inherent life and energy hidden in the tiny germ, and
working all unseen in the little leaven which literally disappeared in
the at first unaltered mass.
The parables of "The Hid Treasure" and "The Pearl" form a third pair,
shadowing forth the unsearchable riches of Christ. The reduplication
of the thought adds greatly to its impressiveness, and moreover
affords the opportunity of suggested variation in the experience of
those who find the treasure. The merchantman we naturally think of as
representing the rich, and the man finding the treasure in the field
as one of the poor in this world's goods. Both alike, however, "buy"
their prize at the price of all that they possess, on the principle
which underlies all our Lord's teaching as to the way of life:
"Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be
My disciple." The one comes upon his treasure unexpectedly; the other
finds it in the course of diligent search. Both alike, however,
recognise its exceeding value as soon as it is seen; and it is under
no constraint, but willingly and gladly--"for joy thereof," as it is
put in the case of the man who from his not seeking it might have been
thought indifferent to it--that each one sells all that he has and
buys it.
The last parable, according to the arrangement we have suggested,
stands alone. It is the parable of "The Net," and its subject is the
consummation of the Kingdom. Its teaching is indeed to a great extent
anticipated in the parable of the tares of the field; but in that
parable, though "the end of the world" is pictured in the most
impressive imagery, it is not the main thought, as it is here, where
the one lesson is, that the present mixed state of things cannot
continue for ever, that there must come a time of separation, when
those in whose hearts God reigns shall be gathered to a place by
themselves, where they shall be satisfied for ever, with their
treasure no longer hid, but open in all its immeasurable fulness;
while those who refused to allow God to reign in their hearts, and
preferred their own selfishness and sin, shall be cast away and
consumed, with "wailing and gnashing of teeth."