PARABLE GENERAL SCHEME - MATTHEW 13

The General Scheme

Matthew 13

This chapter contains at some length our Lord's explanation of His reason for using the parabolic method, and it is of vital importance and interest. Chronologically in the ministry of Jesus the record in this chapter marks a stage in that ministry when our Lord turned largely to the parabolic method when dealing with the multitudes, employing it also with His own disciples. This chapter contains eight parables, all delivered on the same occasion, though not as one set discourse. That fact is proven by the fifty-third verse. This study then is of the nature of a general survey, important to a more detailed consideration.

At the seaside Jesus gave the first complete parable, that of the sower and He gave an explanation of that parable in answer to the request of His disciples, doubtless also given in the hearing of the multitudes. Following that explanation, He uttered three other parables, still by the seaside, sitting in the boat, while the multitudes thronged the shore. At the 36th verse we see that He left the multitudes, and went into the house. The first thing that happened in the house was that again, in answer to the request of His disciples, He explained one of the parables, the second that He had uttered in public. Then He gave to them, in the house, four other parables.

To take a general survey. We find in these parables the King's own view of His Kingdom as to its history in the age which He had then initiated. These parables, pictures, accounts reveal His view of the Kingdom, not in its eternal and abiding sense, but in its history in the age which He had initiated by His coming into the world.

The first of these parables simply reveals the nature of His mission. It is the parable of the sower. The second parable begins with the words, "The Kingdom of heaven is likened unto." The first parable has no such reference, and He never again used this particular phrase in this chapter, but said, "The Kingdom of heaven is like." Here in the second parable the phrase might be rendered, The Kingdom of heaven has become like. In that introduction the phrase shows our Lord was thinking of the Kingdom of heaven as an abiding fact, but one that changed in its conditions and in its expression. The Kingdom of heaven has become like; there was a change through His own com­ing, and He shows the nature of the change.

Then the next five parables, two uttered in public, and three in private all begin, "The Kingdom of heaven is like." Here is the general character of the change, and the result thereof. These are the pictures of a definite period. The limit is found in two verses 39 and 49, when our Lord spoke of the end of the age, not of the world, an unhappy translation. When some people talk of the end of the world they mean a cataclysm, an annihilation, and a ceasing to be. That is not what our Lord meant. He spoke of "the consummation of the age." A period of time was in His view.

Our Lord spoke here to illumine, not to becloud, to illustrate, and to lure men toward the mystery through the symbol. Therefore these parables should be considered on the simplest level. Taking the sym­bols, and mastering them, we touch the inspiring.

The second canon is that the application should be restricted to the period of time which was in view. To fail to do that is to fail to understand what our Lord was intending to teach. They are pictures of one age, beginning with His first advent, and ending with His second advent, of the period in which we are living today. This restriction of application will save us from stupid blunders being made today about the work of the Church, and of the condition of the world.

Again in studying the figurative teaching of Jesus, we find His consistent use of such figurative terms. They are never mixed. I would go further and say that applies to the whole Bible. The figurative language of the Bible is always consistent with basic principles.

In our general survey of these parables in this article, the King­dom is viewed in its progress in this age among men. Those spoken to the multitude present the Kingdom process from the human viewpoint. In the second group of parables spoken to the disciples, the same age is in view, but the Kingdom is seen from the Divine aspect.

In the first four parables, those presenting the human viewpoint, our Lord described two antagonistic forces at work in human history. He not only referred to these forces, but He made it perfectly clear that there would be long and continuous conflict between them. Taking those four parables, the apparent issue is the victory of evil, on the earth level, and the human standpoint. Remember, He was looking at the processes of the Kingdom as He saw them, and portraying God's vision of that period.

In the parable of the sower and the seed, the work of the King is seen, scattering men of the Word in order to produce Kingdom results. Sons of the Kingdom are scattered, in whom the Word is incarnate, so as to produce Kingdom results; and the results of victory seem to be very small; for there is the work of the enemy, the injury of the seed through the soil, to prevent the fruit of the Kingdom.

In the next parable there are two sowings. Again the King is the Sower, sowing His field with the sons of the Kingdom. At the same time the work of the enemy is that of sowing the field with sons of the evil one. Wheat and darnel that weed of the East so alike in its growth to wheat that experts can hardly detect the difference in its early stage.

In the third parable the Kingdom is presented as a mustard tree, an unnatural growth, a manifestation of earthly greatness which is not in harmony with the intention of the King, in the false values that will be manifested.

Once more, the leaven in the meal, the introduction of a principle of decomposition and disintegration with the result of external cor­ruption and paralysis. Those are our Lord's four pictures of Kingdom processes, spoken to the crowds; and that view harmonizes with the history of two thousand years, and all the newspapers of tomorrow morning.

When we turn to the second group of parables, after He had gone into the house, we find Him talking to the men immediately round Him, who was to be responsible for His enterprise in the world, and He was showing them the Kingdom as viewed from the Divine stand­point. Here the one activity running through them all, and in every case the complete success of that activity, both in the ending of the age which He was initiating, and in the processes of the Kingdom which He was describing. Then that which in evil had seemed to be vic­torious is destroyed; and that which has been the purpose of the King is brought to a glorious finality and realization.

The parable of the treasure in the field, the latent possibilities of the field. The field is the world. There is the purchase of the whole field at cost. That is the Divine attitude. The pearl in the field, with its latent possibilities, and amid the treasure, one supreme treasure; and there is a personal sacrifice in order to secure possession of that treasure. Again that is the Divine outlook. Some of us have sung in old days, with much enjoyment,

"I've found the Pearl of greatest price!
My heart doth sing for joy;

And sing I must, for Christ is mine!
Christ shall my song employ."

That is beautiful and very true, but that is not what this means. Christ here is not the pearl. His Church is the pearl. Remember, this man, this merchant sold everything in order to possess the treasure. What have we to sell that is worth anything? Nothing! Again, the parable of the dragnet. No hand is spoken of as flinging out that dragnet. It swings in the tide. That is the Divine action, and He is flinging out that drag­net. That is the method of the age, and all conditions of people are included therein, all sorts of fishes; but there is a final discrimination. In each case when referring to the consummation, or final discrimina­tion, our Lord shows the finality will be supernatural. It will not be in men's hands at all, but in the hands of angels. Angels are the reapers. Angels pull in the net and sort the fishes. At Caesarea Philippi when Jesus first told His disciples about His Cross and His Church and His coming, He said that the Son of man should come in the clouds with all the holy angels. There is a supernatural ending for the age, in which angels actually take part under His direction, in the affairs of men.

When He had finished His seven parables, He looked at that little group of men and said, Have you understood these things? They said, Yes. They evidently understood in such a measure as to make it pos­sible for Christ to utter one more parable, showing their responsibilities about all these things, as scribes, instructed to the Kingdom of heaven.

It was a great day when He began uttering parables: four to the crowds, and four to His own. The first four revealed the processes of the Kingdom through an age, on the human level. Three revealed the processes of the Kingdom from the Divine viewpoint, of the Divine purpose and standard; and the final one showed the responsibility of His own in view of that view of the Kingdom.

If any should believe that the whole world is to be converted and changed, and presently be transformed as the result of their work, they are blind. Christ is against such a belief, History is against it. The activities in the world today are against it. When we see this movement through this age from the Divine standpoint, then the heart is at rest as to the issue. The final parable here reveals the importance of the fact that we are scribes, instructed in the Kingdom of heaven. We must have the Master's conception if we are to serve the Kingdom without fret, without fever, without failing in quiet calm strength.

PARABLES IN MATTHEW 11 & 12

Parabolic Illustrations
Matthew 11 and 12

In these two chapters we have the account of events in the ministry of Jesus during the period when the twelve were away from Him on their first mission. The eleventh chapter opens, "And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding His disciples, He departed thence to teach and preach in their cities"; that is, in the cities of the twelve apostles. While they were sent on a wider mission and over a wider area, He went to the cities from which these twelve had come.

Taking the section from chapter twelve to the middle of chapter sixteen, we are in that period of His ministry when He was enforcing His claims against the opposition of the rulers, which by this time was growing. In these two chapters, eleven and twelve, we have six para­bolic illustrations: of the reed and the man in soft raiment; children playing in the market-places; a sheep in a pit on a Sabbath day; a tree and the fruit it grows; Jonah, a historic illustration; and, finally, that weird and wonderful illustration of an empty house, and the dispos­sessed spirit.

Beginning first with the subject illustrated, and our Lord’s use of it, take those of the reed and a man in soft raiment. Simply and natu­rally He was illustrating the greatness of His forerunner, John, and that by contrast. John was now imprisoned, and he had sent to Jesus that question through his disciples. This showed how alert and keen he was, and yet also how strangely perplexed. (Matt. 11:3)

"Art Thou He that cometh, or look we for another?"

Jesus answered, and answered wonderfully, and when the messengers had been sent back, He used these illustrations in the presence of the crowds, two illustrations, and a direct word about the prophet.

Look at the illustrations. In that listening crowd there were un­doubtedly those who would be impressed when they heard John's question, and might be inclined to think of John as wavering. Some today say this was so, and that it was produced by his depression in the prison. I do not think so. John's question meant rather that he did not understand the method of Jesus. However the crowd might be inclined to think that John, the great forerunner, whose message and mission had led up to the work of Jesus, was hesitating, was halting, was weakening, Christ, with that strange and yet wonderful nobility that characterized all His dealings, saved John from misapprehension. Said He, What did you go out to the wilderness to see? Did you think you would find in the wilderness a reed, shaken by the wind? Perhaps they were thinking at that moment that John was vacillating, was being blown about by the winds sweeping over his life. A reed is always the emblem of weakness. There in the Jordan valley it was a beautiful thing to look at, often growing twenty feet in height, but it was always slender and weak, and as the winds swept across the valley the reeds were agitated, because they were unstable. Jesus said, Is that what you went out to see? He did not answer His own question, nor add any­thing to it.

Again He said, did you go out to see a man in soft raiment? Soft raiment was the emblem of weakness. Writing to the Corinthians Paul used that word which here is rendered "soft raiment," "effemi­nate," and that undoubtedly was its meaning. Did you go out to see a man in soft raiment? Here Jesus used two Greek words, in which the letters are exactly the same, differently arranged. A reed, kalamos; a man in soft raiment, malakos. Had they gone out to see a kalamos, or a malakos; a reed blown about with every breeze, or an enervated man, a man in soft raiment? To that second suggestion He did add a most illuminative word.

"Behold, they that wear soft raiment are in kings' houses," kings' palaces. John was in a king's prison. If he had been a man in soft raiment he would not have been in prison, he would have been in a palace. Mark the satire of it. Did you go out to see a man capable of being shaken with the wind? Did you go out to see a man in whose life there was a prostitution of virility for personal pleasure? Those familiar with John would know no reed was he, no effeminate dilet­tante, hanging on at the courts of kings for the gratification of their lusts. The very suggestion was enough. They went out to see a prophet but he was far more than a prophet. So with great dignity our Lord defended John from the possibility of misunderstanding.

We gather therefore that there are two characteristics that dis­qualify any man for prophetic work. What are they? Weakness that yields to every passing wind that blows, or such self-indulgence as can be expressed only when they wear soft raiment.

When Jesus had defended John, He talked about the generation in the midst of which He was doing His work. In this figure of the chil­dren playing in the market-place, the subject He was illustrating was that of the unreasonableness of that age. It was a homely and beauti­ful figure. There He was in the cities of the twelve, while they were on their mission, preaching; and He suddenly illustrated the fact that His preaching, and the preaching of John, whom He had just defended, was preaching to an age that was characterized by its un­reasonableness. I think this might also be applied to this age in which we are living.

What is the figure? Children playing at marriages and funerals. Children were playing in the streets, in the market-place, probably at setting sun, when market was over, and the day was waning, and the kids were getting tired. Some of them wanted to play at a wedding, and the others would not. Then they changed, and they said, Let us play then at a funeral. No, they would not do that. You will not mourn to John's wailing, and you will not dance to My piping. John came with the stern, hard, ascetic and profoundly necessary message, calling men to repentance, and you say he has a demon, and you will not listen. I have come with such humanness that men say of Me, I am a gluttonous Man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. It was the age that would not mourn to John's wailing, and would not dance to Jesus' piping. Or we could turn that round, and say this, John would not dance to their piping, and Jesus would not mourn to their wailing. It was an unreasonable age. The harder, sterner, severer note was denounced as being the utterance of a man who was demon-possessed. The tender, human, and happy note of Jesus was refused because it lacked the ascetic note. John lacked the human touch, and they said he had a demon. Jesus seemed to lack the harder and the ascetic outlook on life, and they said, Do not listen to Him, He is a gluttonous Man and a winebibber. Christ ended all by saying, "Wisdom is justified by her works," as in the Revised; and some MSS render it, "justified by her children." The principle is the same. Wisdom knows the necessity for the real reason of mourning, and the true inspiration of dancing, and she is justified in her methods as they are presented to men.

Again in this twelfth chapter, verses eleven and twelve, we have that simple figure of speech of a sheep fallen into a pit on the Sabbath day. What was the subject our Lord was illustrating? Many applications can be made of it, but here He was showing the dishonesty of traditionalism, the dishonesty of these men of His own time who were traditionalists. In that same chapter when passing through the corn­fields, the question was raised, and now again when He healed a man on the Sabbath, Luke shows that it was on another Sabbath, but Matthew puts the two incidents close together. It was the Sabbath, and the traditionalists' attitude toward the Sabbath was marked by their question about the disciples, and the question of what Jesus would do on the Sabbath. What He did to that cripple gave rise to the figure of speech.

We know how constantly our Lord flung Himself against the bondage of traditionalism because it overlay the law of God. What a distinction He drew. They taught for commandments of God the traditions of men, and neglected the greater matters of the law. Go back to that age. They had the law of God as it had come to them through Moses, the written law in their Scriptures. To that they had added the oral law. Now the oral law consisted of interpretations of the written law by the Great Synagogue that was called Abhoth, which means Fathers. The opinions of the Fathers constituted tradi­tion laid upon them, and were attempts to interpret the actual law. Again, from these traditions which they called Abhoth, they had another section called Toldoth, and Toldoth meant descendants. These were rules deduced from the interpretations of the Fathers, supposedly resulting from the law itself. The result was tradition heaped upon tradition, which had bound upon the people intolerable burdens.

Take this matter of the Sabbath, in illustration. The law said that on the Sabbath there should be no manner of work. The Abhoth, or the Fathers, in this application said, Reaping and threshing are both work; therefore reaping and threshing must not take place on the Sabbath. Then going down to Toldoth, they said, plucking the ears of corn with the hand is reaping, and rubbing them is threshing. That is why the Pharisees objected to what the disciples were doing. Their secondary interpretation of the law was that if the disciples plucked ears of corn and rubbed them, they were breaking the law, they were reaping and threshing. It is very natural, and quite possible. People even today are mastered by tradition in stupid matters, and in religion; something the fathers said, which was said sincerely, and the sons have come along and taken what the fathers said, and they have added something to it, and the result has been all manner of futile, stupid, ridiculous laws governing men.

These Pharisees were criticizing Jesus, and wondering what He would do on the Sabbath with the crippled man; and He said, which of you, having a sheep fallen into a pit on the Sabbath day, would not draw it out. Many of them, if they had seen a sheep that had fallen into a pit, would not have drawn it out on the Sabbath; but if the sheep had been their own, they would! That is the whole point. Which of you, having one of your own sheep fallen into a pit, would you not pull it out on the Sabbath? How much more is a man better than a. sheep! This man is God's property. The sheep is yours. You have one law which you observe for your own personal property, and another that you observe for God's property. A sheep, if it is yours, you would deliver. A man, if he is God's man afflicted, you say the Sabbath is broken if he is delivered. The final application was that He took the man and He healed him. The man because the property of God was sacred, and was restored to sanctity as Jesus healed him. Traditional­ism is dishonesty.

Then in verses 33-35 we have the illustration He had already used in the ethical Sermon, of the tree and fruit. The subject illustrated was the dishonesty of His enemies. Here we are in the realm of controversy. He was enforcing His claims against opposition. These men were dishonest. They were attributing good fruit to an evil source. They were going so far as to suggest He was casting out the demons by the prince of the demons. His victory over Satan was declared to be complicity with Satan. In effect Christ said to them, be honest. Judge Me honestly, as though He had said, by the fruits.

Then He immediately applied His illustration to them, and de­clared that they were incapable of honesty, for that is the meaning of the explanation, "How can ye, being evil . . . ?" He called them to consider this illustration of the tree and its fruit in application to Himself and His work. He appealed to these men to test Him, and to find out the secret of His ability, by the things at which they were looking, the things done, by the fruit produced.

At the 40th and 41st verses, again, these men were asking for a sign from heaven. It is an amazing thing to read, considering all He had done in healing the man. Yet they said they would like a sign from heaven. He used the historic sign of Jonah. What was the subject He was illustrating there? He was showing the valuelessness of a sign as a credential; but there was the ultimate value of one inevitable and overwhelming sign. Notice in this connection He declined to give them any sign except one that they had in their own literature that they could read, and interpret only as He used it in application to Himself. There shall no sign be given but the sign of the prophet Jonah. As He addressed them He revealed the secret of their seeking a sign. "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign." Evil, poneros, harmful; and adulterous, faithless; marking their relationship to God, appearing in the figures of the Old Testament of the betrothal of God's people to Himself. Jesus told these rulers, asking Him for a sign, call­ing Him Teacher, while not obeying what He had to say, and asking in mockery for some spectacular sign from heaven, I know the meaning of your question. You are evil, and you are adulterous. The effect of your life upon others is harmful, because you are out of harmony with God, and are infidel. There is no sign that shall be given to you except the sign of the prophet Jonah, for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so shall the Son of man be three days and nights in the heart of the earth. The Scriptures never say whale, but a "great fish." Some men are so busy with the tape measure trying to find out whether a man could get inside a fish, they never plumb the depths of Deity. The book of Jonah says that "God prepared a great fish." Jonah was a sign to Nineveh. There is no meaning in that sign if the account was not true. It demands the historicity of the account of Jonah. How was Jonah a sign to Nineveh? The crew of the vessel had flung him overboard reluctantly. Undoubtedly they were a fine body of men. They did not want to do so, but he was insistent. To them he was dead, and gone. Then they reached the land, and the man they had flung to death appeared in Nineveh, preaching. That strange and mystic sign of a man coming back from the dead to preach to Nineveh produced a repentance in Nineveh, that spared it for a hundred years. Jesus took these men back in their history, and predicted the future concerning Himself.

Once before in the earlier days of ministry, as John records, they asked Him for a sign. The answer He gave those rulers was, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." That is exactly the same thing. The only sign of the divinity of His mission, and of the interpretation of His personality will be found through His death and His resurrection. This was a great word He uttered. Whether anyone caught the significance of it at the time we do not know; but there remains the record for us, and for all time, to show that the spectacular thing these men wanted He never granted; and indeed, so evident is it, that during His ministry, repeatedly when some miracle had been wrought, out of His compassion of heart, He charged people not talk about it.

The last illustration is in verses 43-45. It is important to notice that whatever the illustration was, the application was to that genera­tion. That does not exclude an application of it to personal and indi­vidual lives. He was however speaking to that generation, in the midst of which He had been conducting His ministry, following upon that of John. The whole of John's ministry, and that of Jesus, had had the effect of casting out of evil spirits. It was a cleansing, purifying, exorcising ministry. That was what our Lord was illustrating. He took this account of a house which had become tenantless. The whole emphasis in His description of that house was His account of how the returning demon found it. "He findeth it empty, swept and garnished." Yes, but empty. He was speaking of His generation, an evil generation, swept and garnished by the teaching of His predecessor and His own teach­ing, but not possessed, empty. He was emphasizing the fact that if that or any other generation is left like that, it may become the home of demons sevenfold. The illustration is that of the danger of a tenantless house.

The application was to that generation. The house was freed from evil mastery for a while, but it was empty. It lacked a new possessor. It lacked a master in place of the one exorcised and the empty house was the opportunity for the re-entry of the demon, reinforced seven­fold. We must take it, and make application of it to ourselves, or to an age. Reformation without regeneration is no use. Oh, we may sweep the house, and garnish it, and improve certain conditions by creating a new environment but unless there is a new possessor, a new Lord, a new Master, instead of the old demon, the demons will return with sevenfold force. Reformation is ultimately of no value alone. It is only preparation for worse desolation. The only possible cure for a man or an age is reformation, followed by regeneration and the incoming of the new Lord and Master. That is so with the individual,

PARABLES IN MATTHEW 9 & 10

Parabolic Illustrations

Matthew 9 and 10

The illustrations in these chapters are found in a section of the Gospel dealing with the servants of our Lord, and of His sending them forth. In the charge which He laid upon them, we find these parabolic illustrations: a marriage, the mending of a garment, and wine skins; the harvest; sheep and wolves, serpents and doves; spar­rows; and the sword. The background here is not of ethical teaching, but of His working of wonders in the midst of human dereliction, and of His commanding and calling and commissioning some to go out upon His great business.

The first illustration was of a marriage feast (Matt. 9:15). What was the subject He was illustrating? The joy of His disciples and the reason for the joy. He used this illustration to account for the absence of an ascetic attitude towards life on the part of those around Him. Here the disciples of John had come to Him and asked why His disciples did not fast as those of John and the Pharisees. I believe it was a sincere question. They had watched the disciples of Jesus, and had noticed an entire absence of ascetic practices, which they thought were of the essence of religion. Our Lord in reply, used this figure of the marriage, an Oriental figure. The ceremonies lasted for seven days of merriment and festivity.

His application was simple. The sons of the bride chamber never fast, or lack joy during these festivities. While the bridegroom is there, they do not fast. Applying the illustration directly to Himself, He said that was the reason why His disciples were a happy crowd. These men could not understand why, and Jesus gave them the reason, the Bridegroom was still with them. He then told them that soon He would be taken away, and then they would mourn. He there used a remarkable verb. The Bridegroom will be taken and caught up, a word that marks exaltation. He was looking on to the end when He would be lifted up.

The first part of His illustration has its application to us, but not the second. How can the children of the bride chamber mourn while the Bridegroom is with them? It cancels forever anything in the nature of ascetic practices, in order to demonstrate loyalty. The absence of the Bridegroom is the reason for mourning, but He is not absent, and never has been since His victory, His resurrection, and ascension, and return in power by the Spirit to take up His abode with His own people. He was talking to His group of disciples later on in those intimate discourses, and said to them, "And ye therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh away from you." The application here is that the true evidence of our relationship to Christ is our constant joy and rejoicing.

"O happy day that fixed my choice,
On Thee, my Savior, and my God."

That is the keynote of Christian experience. As we are in fellowship with Christ, we know what it is to rejoice always and again to rejoice.

In the same connection, and to the same men, He used the figure of the mended garment and wine skins, in order to make His meaning even more clear. He was illustrating the nature of His Kingdom. Briefly this is what He meant: He could not crowd into an outworn formula the new things He was teaching men. He had come, not to mend an old garment, but to make a new one. Therefore new methods were neces­sary; and among them were these that they could not understand, the very happiness, which was the demonstration of the new method.

If we put a piece of a new garment on an old, the tear is made greater. The garment cannot be mended in that way. The illustration of the wine skins illuminates and enforces the same truth. The new demands the new. "Wine skins" is a correct translation, skins used as bottles. Wine, when fermentation is complete, can be put into any bottles, whether new or old, without harming bottles or wine skins, and without harm to it. Wine, intended to ferment, would burst any bottles, whether new or old. Those two statements being understood, then unfermented wine must be put into new bottles. To put it into old bottles would produce fermentation, which is always a sign of break­down.

Thus our Lord was teaching that to put His enterprise into the old formula would bring about decomposition and ruin. When we have taken the claim and teaching and power and work of Jesus, and have tried to press them into some other form than His, it has de­teriorated, as fermented wine. To those who objected to the merriment of His disciples He replied that the very merriment was inevitable while He was with them; and the whole system He was creating, was not something crowded into the old, but was something new.

We come next to that marvelous figure of the harvest (Matt. 9:37-38). Notice the subject illustrated. He used the figure to His disciples when He was preparing them, appointing them, and charging them. It reveals His own outlook on His work. The figure in itself is sugges­tive, and needs no elaboration. Harvest is always the result of previous activity, is the victory of that activity, and is also a call to activity. Can there be anything more disastrous than an ungathered harvest? Wherever He clothes the smiling fields with corn, they are asking men to harvest them, to bring in the corn.

We have here a remarkable background. Matthew says that He went about all the cities and villages, teaching, preaching, and healing; and when He saw the multitudes He was moved with compassion for them, for they were distressed and scattered, as sheep having no shep­herd. Why had He compassion on these multitudes? Because He saw them as others did not see them. His vision of the crowd was of a multitude distressed and scattered, without a shepherd, a flock of sheep harried by the wolves, and fleeced; fainting, wounded, bleeding, dying. It was our Lord's picture of the condition of the multitudes, in spite of their professions, and supposed orthodoxies to religion.

With that background in mind, He used the word harvest. Could two more apparently contradictory figures be put together? A flock of sheep, fainting, wounded, dying, and harvest. Here is the deep truth concern­ing His mission. Human need, distress, and dereliction constitute harvest for Him and for His workers. Wherever the day is darkest, wherever the need is sorest, wherever human government is at its worst, there the fields are white to harvest for the Christ of God. So He said to His disciples before He called and commissioned them. He knew the distressed and awful condition of humanity, but He did not say it was a hopeless case; but that it was harvest, and was abundant.

In the next illustration He spoke of sheep and wolves (Matt. 10:16). Again to His disciples He said, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves." Take another figure with that, "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." He was illustrating now the work that lay immediately ahead of His disciples. This 10th chapter needs careful reading. In His commission to the twelve He saw three periods of service ahead, the immediate, then that which should follow His departure; and then beyond. In this first period we see what was before them. "I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves." The wolves were those preying upon the people, and were producing that state of weariness and weakness, wounding and fleecing. Mark the "therefore." "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, harmless as doves." Wise as serpents. Note, it is the wisdom of the serpent, not its poison­ous capacity. It is the harmlessness of the dove, not its helplessness. Our Lord chose His words carefully to show what He meant. His disciples were going out to serve the needs of the sheep, into the midst of wolves. His workers are harmless only as they are wise and wise when they are harmless. Any man going out upon the Master's business who lacks wisdom, is not harmless. Any man going out is not wise unless he is harmless. These are the two great qualifications for going out into a hostile world, facing the wolves that have destroyed the sheep. There are times too when His business demands our fighting with the wolves, as well as shepherding the sheep.

He then used that exquisite figure of the sparrows (Matt. 10:29-31). Talk­ing to the same men, He was illustrating God's tender care of His messengers. "Not a sparrow falleth on the ground without your Father." Do not spoil that in quoting it, without your Father's knowl­edge! If the sparrow sickens and dies in winter frost, or summer heat, and it falls to the ground, and with a tremor in its feathers we say it is dead, yes, but God was there. It died upon the bosom of God. "Ye are of more value than many sparrows." As His messengers go out to fight the wolves they may be killed; they go out as sheep in the midst of wolves. They need the wisdom of the serpent, combined with the harmlessness of the dove. As they go, however, the Father Who cares, is with them. He Who is with the dying sparrow will be with them, even if their service leads them to the place of death.

"Think not that I came to send peace on the earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword" (Matt. 10:34). At that point our Lord was illus­trating the effect produced by His enterprise and work. His work, and theirs through Him, would be divisive. It would mean the break-up of households. The sword here means that His work would be divisive; but loyalty to Him and to His enterprises must be the utmost thing, calling for complete devotion.

Our Lord's references to a sword are very interesting. Of course the ultimate meaning of His mission is peace. But here He was speaking of the importance of the effect of the process of His work. "I came not to send peace, but a sword." He used the figure again when predicting the coming judgment of Jerusalem (Luke 21:24). Again at the end He used it a remarkable war (Luke 22:36). When His disciples said, "Lord, behold, here are two swords," He said, "It is enough," so dis­missing the subject. They had failed to understand that He was emphasizing that which He had already said, that they would go out on their mission, a divisive mission. When they now said, "Here are two swords," He was not telling them that two were enough, but He was dismissing the subject. Again in the Garden Peter was sternly rebuked, put up thy sword into its sheath, that material sword of thine, for they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. He came to send a sword in that sense, of the breaking up of households; yet He came also to make households, and to gather them together. But because His teaching would be contrary to all the impulses of the human soul, inevitably there would be division. That has gone on ever since. All His workers have found the sword, dividing and setting into different camps.

All these illustrations have moved in the realm of humanity's need, and of His conception of what that work really means; and of His call to those who follow Him, to follow according to His own purpose.

PARABLES IN SERMON on the MOUNT #3 of 3

Parabolic Illustrations in the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 6 and 7  (3 of 3)

Again we take illustrations used by our Lord on three subjects; first, that of two gates and two ways; second, that of wolves in sheep's clothing, and fruits; and third, that of rock and sand.

In these final words of application, it would seem as though our Lord employed a crescendo, and reached a climax of illustration. Taking the first, the figure of two gates and two ways, He was speaking generally of life, and life as a pilgrimage. The distinct ethical teaching now being finished, He had reached the realm of application. There are two gates through which we may enter upon an experience of life. He was bringing His hearers back to the starting point, to the begin­ning of life. In order to travel upon these ways, men must pass through these gates, the narrow or the wide. The narrow gate "leadeth unto life." The wide gate "leadeth to destruction." We have a plan of pil­grimage in these figures of speech.

There is a way of life into which man can pass through a wide gate. It is easy of entrance, and there is a broad way stretching out before us. But there is another gateway, leading to another way; a narrow gateway, and a straitened way.

The wide gate "leadeth to destruction," and the word literally and simply means narrowing limitation, confinement, imprisonment; until everything is brought to an end under crushing pressure and as Judas found out solitary confinement and not a party.

On the other hand is the narrow gate. As we pass through it we begin to walk a straitened way, but it "leadeth unto life," in all its fullness. There are many things which have to be left outside if we pass through this gate. It is a narrow gate and a straitened way; none of the breadth of license, but the straightness of law. But go on, and walk along it, and we find all the way it is widening, broadening, expanding with new breadth and glory and view, until at last it reaches unto life. When Jesus said "life" He did not mean mere existence. He meant eternal life, deep life, high life, broad life, full life.

Two ways of life are thus presented. Any man reading that Sermon on the Mount has to hide himself as he stands in the light of His appalling measurements. A man can live by high devotion of his own life to the awful law of purity, and reach the glorious clear shining of health and holiness; but he must begin at the narrow gate. Thus the two ways of life's pilgrimage are illustrated by the use of the gates and ways, to be interpreted in that way, and none other.

Our Lord did not say that the way of evil is broad and easy and natural, and that it would work out rightly. "Destruction" is the last word. He did not say, the narrow way would mean narrowness con­stantly, the cutting out of everything worthwhile. No, it is the finding of everything worthwhile; and at last it is life in all its breadth and length and beauty. The narrow and straitened way leads to breadth, to life. The wide and broad way leads to narrowness, and issues in destruction, He created Hades and Hell so He knows all about what happens at that point for He was the Designer.

In close connection He used the next figure of speech. If in the first He took His hearers to the point of beginning, the narrow and wide gates, and foretold the issue, He now brought them face to face with one of the gravest perils that would threaten them. "Beware of false prophets." Satan was the first. In order to beware of them they must be tested. The subject illustrated was the testing of the prophets. This particular subject has its highest application to those who are called of God to prophetic work, though our Lord's first application was not for them, but for those who wait upon their ministry and teaching.

What a description of the false prophets. They come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. Our Lord was dealing here with life, not with what we call orthodoxy or heterodoxy. These men are not those teaching a false doctrine. They may be teaching a per­fectly correct doctrine, but if in their own lives they are wrong, beware of them. This is orthodoxy, dressed in sheep's clothing, proceeding' from one who in life is a ravening wolf. It is a perilous thing to follow such. He is now following those who have passed through the narrow gate along the road of progress, when they will need teachers, and guidance. He warns such to be careful to whom they give attention and alle­giance. The prophets who destroy men's lives are those who may be dressed in sheep's clothing, but if they are evil, their influence is destructive.

In the next saying of Jesus the figures seem to mix, but they do not; they merge. "By their fruits ye shall know them." That is twice repeated, and in between He emphasized the statement with a question, "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." Mark the drastic note of His declaration, "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." The prophet may be in sheep's clothing. There may be the outward appearance, but He warned those who have entered upon the highway, through the gateway that is narrow, to take heed how they hear. They are to be careful lest they be beguiled, all unknowingly, by those who are false prophets.

Our Lord then antedated the ultimate. He looked on to the day when all life should come to consummation and manifestation and judgment. He put Himself as Judge at the close. "In that day many will say to Me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Thy Name?" They had done many wonderful works in the Name, but He will have to say, "I never knew you." The peril of this halts us, and drives us not to discussion, but to heart-searching. I may prophesy in the Name. I may cast out demons in His Name. I may do many things in His Name; but if I do not know Him, and He does not know me personally, the last word is, "I never knew you."

The final word is, "He that doeth the will of My Father." That is the final test of everything. He antedates in this figure of speech the hour when He shall appraise the life of those who are presented to Him. There will be those who have done everything except the one thing, the will of God. As He said on another occasion, Who is My mother, who are My brethren and sisters? They that do the will of My Father Who are in heaven. So He warns us to beware of false leaders, false prophets; who are to be tested by the fruit they bear.

The last of these illustrations in the Manifesto is characterized by the same attitude of majesty. He took two figures, rock and sand and the subject He was illustrating was the importance of foundation in building life. It has reference to the whole Manifesto and to all the teaching that had preceded it. "Everyone therefore which heareth these words of Mine." He had uttered the whole scheme of law in the Kingdom of God to those disciples. Others had heard Him. Now He declared that men who built on His words were building on rock foundation.

Look at this carefully. Every man is building something. He is building something into which he can go and live, that will create for him a refuge, a place of rest, a home for his soul. The materials of the building may be correct, and as two houses go up, one cannot see any difference between them. Everything seems correct in both cases. Summer suns are shining, and they look beautiful, and no difference can be detected. But summer suns do not shine forever. There come days of storm and stress, of sweeping winds, and whistling howling rains, days of tempest. Look at those two houses, what is happening? One of them, under the pressure of the storm, is crumbling, falling, and the man is rendered homeless. The other is standing erect, firm, and strong. What makes the difference? Foundations. One man built on the sand; the other upon rock.

The figure of speech is so simple that a child can understand it. Christ says there are two foundations upon which we can build. If we want to build more stately mansions for the soul, watch the founda­tions. Notice carefully the words of august majesty He that hears and does, builds on rock. He that hears and does not, builds on sand. It is not a comparison between a man who hears, and another who has never heard. Those who have heard and have not obeyed, have gone on with their building, neglecting the teaching; when the storms strike, the building is destroyed. Those who have heard, and have obeyed, and kept it, no storm that blows can destroy the house of such as have built on the teachings of Jesus. August in majesty and final to His Sermon is that figure of building on sand or on rock.

All these illustrations were employed to emphasize ethical teaching, and illustrate moral standards in the Kingdom of God. According to these illustrations, it is immoral to live in this world, and not exert the influence of salt and light. We are not moral Christians if we are living without influencing others. It is immoral to live an earth-centered life, with utmost care for things that moth and rust destroy and thieves steal. We are searched by this teaching of Jesus. It is immoral to attempt to live a double-governed life. The eye which is the lamp of the body must be single. It is immoral to worry over necessary things. What an immoral crowd we are! So wrote Fay Inchfawn in a little poem, which has a touch of humor, but it has searching power:

"Well, I am done, my nerves were on the rack;

I've laid them down today.

It was the last straw broke the camel's back;

I've laid that down today.

And I'll not fume, nor fret, nor fuss, nor fight;

I'll walk by faith a bit, and not by sight;

I think the Universe will work all right;

I've laid it down today:

"So, here and now, the overweight—the worry!

I'll lay it down today.

The all-too-anxious heart, the tearing hurry;

I'll lay these down today.

O eager hands! O feet, so prone to run!

I think that He, Who made the stars and sun,

Can mind the things you've had to leave undone;

Do lay them down today!"

In the illustration Jesus gave of the birds and lilies, we see that worrying is a form of immorality. It is immoral to exercise judgment wrongly, to cast out the mote in my brother's eye, when the beam is in my own eye; or to take the precious things and cast them to dogs and swine. It is immoral to neglect prayer. Our Father gives the best. If we do not ask, seek, knock, our life is immoral. Of course it is immoral to travel on the wrong road, to take the wide gate and the broad way. It is immoral to listen to false prophets. It is immoral to build a dwelling for the soul on sand, when the rock of His teaching is at our disposal. These things all wonderfully illustrate the great ethical standards of Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount.