Matthew 13:53-14:12 – Astonishment, John, and the Sower’s Life

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

Matthew 13:53

When I read these first words of this week’s passage, my mind immediately goes to C. S. Lewis’s book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and the moment when the Pevensie children first met Mr. Beaver. They were in the forest after they discovered Mr. Tumnus missing, and following a brief conversation, Mr. Beaver leaned into them closely and whispered,

“They say Aslan is on the move- perhaps has already landed.”

C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Even though Lewis could have easily moved quickly to the next line of dialogue, he stopped the time so his readers could contemplate the reactions each of the four Pevensie children had upon first hearing the name of Aslan. Lewis writes,

And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the dream it feels as if it has some enormous meaning- either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.”

C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Lewis didn’t include this carefully crafted and profound paragraph merely to enlighten readers about the effect of Aslan’s name on four fictional characters. Lewis included this paragraph so we could contemplate our response to another name.

I don’t remember the first time I heard the name of Jesus — I suppose it was sometime before my memory began taking shape — but I do know that ever since then the name of Jesus has become commonplace. Just as in the pages of The Chronicles of Narnia where Aslan’s name appears on nearly every page, the name of Jesus exists on nearly every page of our lives and we often forget its power. When we read a verse like this week’s introductory verse which says, “And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there,” our minds have probably already moved on to whatever we think is the next important event. But we must not allow ourselves such a passive response to the name of Jesus. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that Matthew knows that his readers have this tendency because the very next verse takes us to a place where the name of Jesus was all too familiar. Matthew writes,

54 and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue,

Matthew 13:54a

Jesus returned home to a population that had observed him nearly every day of his thirty years since he returned with Joseph and Mary from their exile in Egypt. The name of Jesus was not unfamiliar to these people. They probably knew every story about him from his youth; they knew he had been lost in Jerusalem when he was twelve, they knew what he liked to do when he woke up in the morning, and they knew where he would go to relax in the evening. They knew Jesus. But his return wasn’t the news. The news was that he, a carpenter like Joseph with no formal religious training, began teaching in the synagogue. Then Matthew writes these words,

so that they were astonished,

Matthew 13:54b

Matthew describes this event very much like other events: Jesus arrives in a town, he preaches, and people are astonished. But this event, and Matthew’s use of the word “astonished”, is slightly different than the others. When Jesus showed up elsewhere, people crowded around him and were astonished because “he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Matt. 7:29). But when Jesus came to his hometown and began preaching, the townspeople’s astonishment was of a different sort. Matthew writes,

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.

Matthew 13:54c-57a

Instead of accepting the message of the kingdom, they rejected it because of the one who brought the message to them. I find it nearly impossible to read these words and not think about what Jesus told his disciples about the family and the kingdom. The message of the kingdom splits family, and in this instance acquaintances, into two camps: those who accept the kingdom and those who don’t. Jesus preached the same message he had elsewhere, but the ones living in his hometown were unable to accept either Jesus or the message of the kingdom. They were the ones swinging the sword that severed the bonds, not Jesus. “They took offense at him” because they could not fathom how this man they had known since childhood would have such wisdom and be able to perform the works about which they had heard. Their hearts had been hardened and their eyes blinded so that when these people heard the name of Jesus they were only able to cast judgment. In response to their senseless reaction, Matthew writes,

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.

Matthew 13:57b-58

In earlier passages, Jesus made a point of emphasizing that those who had been healed were healed because of their faith and belief in him (Matt. 8:13 and 9:29). The people in Jesus’s hometown, however, had become so set in their understanding of who Jesus was that they were unable to place any faith in him. His name had become commonplace and nothing anyone could say would awaken their mute senses. They were astonished because they thought him to be impudent. To them, Jesus was nothing more than the son of a carpenter and a sibling to Mary and Joseph’s children.

We must be careful when reading this that we don’t infer that their unbelief was stronger than God’s strength. Jesus was unable to do the miraculous because they rejected him. It certainly might seem odd that God’s power could be rendered ineffectual by man’s unbelieving heart, but it is true. Regardless of how we perceive the debate between the Calvinists, the Armenians, and whoever else is out there throwing their hat in the ring, God is unable to force us to take our medicine. This was true for the people in Jesus’s hometown and it is true for us: because of unbelief, the son of God will not do many mighty works.

But Matthew doesn’t use this episode just as a way to have us meditate on our familiarity with the name of Jesus; he also uses it as a conclusion to this section that includes Jesus’s teaching (Matt. 5-7), Jesus’s works (Matt 8-9), and Jesus’s example for his disciples (Matt. 10-13). This episode emphasizes the fact that the job of a disciple is to sow the seed of the kingdom and that the sower, and in this case, even Jesus, cannot affect the soil upon which the seed is sown. But this is only the first half of Matthew’s conclusion. Ever since Matthew wrote about John’s preaching that the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt. 3), he has been tutoring us in what it means to pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” And now, with the following story about John the Baptist, Matthew presents the second half of his conclusion for this section of the Lord’s Prayer. Matthew writes,

Matthew 14:1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus, 2 and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” 3 For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, 4 because John had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 5 And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet. 6 But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, 7 so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. 8 Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” 9 And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given. 10 He sent and had John beheaded in the prison, 11 and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. 12 And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus.

Matthew 14:1-12

Matthew uses the three stories about John the Baptist to frame his explanation of the second, third, and fourth petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. The first episode is found in Matthew 3:1-12 when John preaches “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This tells Matthew’s audience that the next portion of his Gospel will be dedicated to teaching about the coming kingdom of the Father and what it means to do the will of the Father. It is in this portion of Matthew’s Gospel where we find Jesus’s temptation, the Sermon on the Mount, numerous healings, and the sending out of the disciples; all illustrating features of the coming kingdom of the Father. After the disciples have been sent out, Matthew records the second episode in John’s life where we find him in prison and asking whether Jesus is the one God was sending to redeem his people (Matt. 11:1-19). John wants evidence that the kingdom of the Father has come or is coming to earth. Jesus’s answer to that question in the verses to follow is Matthew’s way of illustrating what it looks like to do the Father’s will on earth (Matt. 11:20-13:52). To conclude his discussion about the petitions, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” Matthew records the third and last episode of John’s life in Matthew 14:1-12.

I realize that may seem like a lot of information, but it is important to see that Matthew has deliberately placed these episodes of John’s life in specific locations in his Gospel, and I believe he has done this for two reasons. The first, as just suggested, is merely formal: they mark transitions between his expounding on “your kingdom come,” “your will be done,” and “on earth as it is in heaven.” But the second reason for Matthew’s inclusion of these specific episodes is much more personal: they provide a case study of a life fully dedicated to the Father’s kingdom and the Father’s will.

John began his life as a bold preacher of the kingdom (Matt. 3), but the kingdom doesn’t seem to play out the way he expected. Sure, Jesus preached about a world beyond imagination when he gave the Sermon on the Mount, and he did the unthinkable when he healed the sick, cast out the demons, and raised the dead, but Israel was still enslaved to another nation and this was not the sort of kingdom that most Israelites, and seemingly John as well, had in mind. John knew Jesus since they were kids, but he still had doubts (Matt. 11). Yet, in the face of these doubts, John, as far as we can tell from scripture, continued to hold onto the message of the kingdom. Interestingly, Matthew foreshadows the final episode in John’s life when Jesus told his disciples that they were being sent out to a world filled with wolves. Those wolves kill John (Matt. 14).

Matthew uses the arc of John’s life to show his readers both what it means to give everything up for the kingdom and what such a decision might cost. Other than John’s birth, we hear nothing of his family. He lived in the desert, ate locusts and honey, and wore camel skin and leather as he sowed the seed of the kingdom. He spoke out against sin and baptized those who sought to repent, and when Jesus arrived on the scene, two of his disciples left him to follow Jesus (John 1:35-42). John knowingly pointed others to Jesus, an act that made his ministry less important (John 3:30). As a result of John’s preaching of the kingdom, others sought to harm him and they eventually put him to death.

Jesus never promised sowers that they would sit in fine houses regaled with wealth and living their best life now. Rather, for those willing to give up everything in this life for the kingdom, Jesus promised that they would be brought into the Father’s house where they would shine like the sun. John’s story, while not great advertising for the sower’s retirement plan, is in keeping with the values of the kingdom. Sowers sow, not so they may reap a harvest here on earth, but in order that God can reap a harvest at the end of time. John’s life may seem tragic when we think only of his imprisonment and his early death by decapitation, but we must trust the words of Jesus, who said, “among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.” John’s life was not wasted. Paul would later write, “So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable” (I Cor. 15:42). John’s life, given over to preaching the coming kingdom, was sown perishable — he died not seeing the harvest of his work — but the kingdom he preached promised far greater rewards than a house, a car, and a picket fence; the faithful sower of the kingdom is promised a life raised imperishably.

John’s story frames the teachings, miracles, and parables of Jesus so that when we pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” we know that for which we are praying. We are praying that God would help us become like John, a disciple devoted to sowing the invaluable seed of the Kingdom, even in the presence of doubts, wolves, persecution, and rejection. It seems like a down note to end on, but we must remember that this is not the end of the Lord’s Prayer nor is it the end of Matthew’s Gospel. When we return to this study we will look at how Matthew explains the meaning of the next petition in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.” But such a prayer makes no sense if we have not already fully begun to pray that the Father’s kingdom would come and the Father’s will would be done here on earth as they are in heaven.

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