Seven parables in one sitting, each one answering the same unspoken question the crowd would never have thought to ask out loud: if this really is the kingdom of God arriving, why does it look so small, so easily missed, so much like ordinary seed and yeast and a fisherman’s own net?
A study in Matthew 13 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 33 min read
A Sower Went Forth To Sow
“The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side. And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
Matthew 13:1-9
This chapter departs from everything before it — no more direct teaching, no more open confrontation with the Pharisees. From here forward Jesus speaks almost exclusively in parables, a shift deliberate enough that Matthew stops to explain why later in the chapter. Every image in this first parable was visible from the boat as He spoke: sowers and reapers working the same hillside at once, a well-worn footpath cutting across the field, thin soil over limestone, thorns already crowding the margins.
“By the parable of the sower, Christ illustrates the things of the kingdom of heaven, and the work of the great Husbandman for His people. Like a sower in the field, He came to scatter the heavenly grain of truth.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 33
White devotes an entire book to these seven parables — Christ’s Object Lessons — and opens it on exactly the expectation this parable was quietly correcting: a Messiah expected to arrive by conquest instead came scattering seed, an image of patient, ordinary, almost invisible labor rather than the sudden overthrow of Rome the crowd had been hoping for.
Hear Ye Therefore The Parable Of The Sower
“And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.”
Matthew 13:10-13
Parables are not, on this reading, a simpler way of teaching — they are a discerning one. The same story that hands the humble a doorway into deeper truth leaves the self-satisfied with nothing but a pleasant agricultural anecdote, exactly matched to whether the hearer actually wants what the story is offering.
“That with which the parable of the sower chiefly deals is the effect produced on the growth of the seed by the soil into which it is cast. By this parable Christ was virtually saying to His hearers, It is not safe for you to stand as critics of My work, or to indulge disappointment because it does not meet your ideas. The question of greatest importance to you is, How do you treat My message? Upon your reception or rejection of it your eternal destiny depends.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 43
“Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
Matthew 13:18-23
Four soils, one seed, one sower — the entire difference in outcome lies in the ground itself: an inattentive heart already hardened into a footpath, a shallow heart with no depth for roots, a divided heart already crowded with other growth, and a heart genuinely open to what is planted in it.
“Thus He teaches that if the word of God fails of accomplishing its work in our hearts and lives, the reason is to be found in ourselves. True, we cannot change ourselves; but the power of choice is ours, and it rests with us to determine what we will become. The wayside, the stony-ground, the thorny-ground hearers need not remain such.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 56
White refuses to let any of the first three soils be read as a fixed identity — the parable diagnoses a present condition, not a permanent verdict. A footpath can be broken up; shallow soil can be deepened; thorns can be uprooted, given the same “deep repentance for sin” that changes any of it.
The Tares Among The Wheat
“Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.”
Matthew 13:24-30
The weed in question closely resembles young wheat until the heads actually form — a real agricultural hazard in the ancient world, and vengeful farmers were known to deliberately sow it into a rival’s field precisely because the two plants could not be told apart early on.
“Christ has plainly taught that those who persist in open sin must be separated from the church, but He has not committed to us the work of judging character and motive. He knows our nature too well to entrust this work to us. Should we try to uproot from the church those whom we suppose to be spurious Christians, we should be sure to make mistakes.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 71
This parable has been used across church history to justify exactly the opposite of what it teaches — White names the Inquisition directly as an example of “Satan’s own method,” the church resorting to civil power to forcibly uproot supposed tares, precisely the impulse this parable exists to restrain.
“Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.”
Matthew 13:36-40
“The field is the world” is explicit, but White reads it as meaning the church specifically, since the growing, ripening, and harvesting she describes all happen within the community of believers rather than the world at large.
“Christ Himself will decide who are worthy to dwell with the family of heaven. He will judge every man according to his words and his works. Profession is as nothing in the scale. It is character that decides destiny.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 74
As A Grain Of Mustard Seed
“Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.”
Matthew 13:31-32
A mustard plant in Galilee could reach ten feet or more — a genuinely startling contrast for a seed proverbially tiny, and Jesus’s own hearers could see the plant growing wild along the same hillside where He was teaching.
“So the kingdom of Christ in its beginning seemed humble and insignificant. Compared with earthly kingdoms it appeared to be the least of all.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 77
A handful of Galilean fishermen, a carpenter’s family, a former tax collector — White lists exactly the kind of company the kingdom’s own critics pointed to as proof it could never amount to anything, the same argument every unlikely revival from John the Baptist to Martin Luther has had to answer.
“Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.”
Matthew 13:33
Leaven usually names corruption in Scripture — the very substance Passover households were required to remove entirely (Exodus 12:15) — which makes this parable’s positive use of the image unusual and deliberate, a complete reversal of the symbol’s ordinary meaning.
“The leaven—something wholly from without—must be put into the meal before the desired change can be wrought in it. So the grace of God must be received by the sinner before he can be fitted for the kingdom of glory.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 96
The mustard seed pictures the kingdom’s outward, visible growth across history; the leaven pictures its inward, invisible work inside a single heart — the same transformation, worked from two different directions, neither one achievable by human effort alone.
“All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.”
Matthew 13:34-35
The quotation is Psalm 78:2 — Matthew reads an ancient psalm about rehearsing Israel’s own history in memorable form as a prophecy of exactly this afternoon’s teaching method, secrets of the kingdom made visible in ordinary seed and bread and nets.
Treasure Hid In A Field
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.”
Matthew 13:44
Without banks, burying valuables was ordinary practice in the ancient world — and with death, exile, or captivity a constant risk, a buried fortune could easily outlive the only person who knew exactly where it was, left for whoever happened to find it later.
“This parable illustrates the value of the heavenly treasure, and the effort that should be made to secure it. The finder of the treasure in the field was ready to part with all that he had, ready to put forth untiring labor, in order to secure the hidden riches. So the finder of heavenly treasure will count no labor too great and no sacrifice too dear, in order to gain the treasures of truth.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 104
White reads the field itself as the Scriptures — a book many people already own, walk past daily, and never think to dig into, exactly like a field whose own buried fortune goes unnoticed by everyone who merely crosses it.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”
Matthew 13:45-46
The difference between the two parables is worth noticing: the treasure is found by accident, the pearl only after deliberate, professional searching — two different ways truth actually reaches people, one stumbled upon, one pursued.
“Christ Himself is the pearl of great price. In Him is gathered all the glory of the Father, the fullness of the Godhead.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 115
White identifies the pearl not as truth in general but as Christ Himself specifically — a single, perfect, flawless object rather than a scattered collection of true statements, the same distinction this whole chapter’s parables have already drawn between the kingdom’s small outward beginnings and the one Person its whole value actually rests in.
A Net Cast Into The Sea
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 13:47-50
A dragnet catches everything in its path indiscriminately — the sorting happens only once the net reaches shore, not while it is still out gathering. This is the same warning against premature separation the wheat and tares already made, now told from the sea instead of the field.
“The casting of the net is the preaching of the gospel. This gathers both good and evil into the church. When the mission of the gospel is completed, the judgment will accomplish the work of separation.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 122
“Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord. Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.”
Matthew 13:51-52
This final, brief parable is really about the disciples themselves — not another picture of the kingdom, but an instruction about what to do with everything just taught.
“The treasure gained by the householder he does not hoard. He brings it forth to communicate to others. And by use the treasure increases.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 124
“Things new and old” names the disciples’ own particular assignment — not discarding the Old Testament for something newer, but holding both together, exactly as this chapter’s own parables have just done, dressing ancient truth about God’s kingdom in the oldest and most ordinary pictures available: seed, yeast, buried gold, a fisherman’s net.
Is Not This The Carpenter’s Son?
“And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence. And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?”
Matthew 13:53-56
Nazareth had already rejected Jesus once before, early in His ministry, when He first returned to His hometown synagogue and read from Isaiah 61 — the identical objection, “is not this the carpenter’s son,” and the identical refusal to believe someone they had watched grow up could be who He claimed.
“Our standing before God depends, not upon the amount of light we have received, but upon the use we make of what we have. Thus even the heathen who choose the right as far as they can distinguish it are in a more favorable condition than are those who have had great light, and profess to serve God, but who disregard the light, and by their daily life contradict their profession.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 239
White’s comment belongs to that first Nazareth visit specifically, but Nazareth’s own second failure proves the point rather than complicating it — the same familiarity that should have given this town the clearest possible view of Jesus’s character had instead calcified into the one objection it could never get past.
“And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house. And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”
Matthew 13:57-58
“Because of their unbelief” closes the chapter on a sobering note, and it closes the whole discourse’s own logic too — the same principle the parable of the sower opened with. The seed was the same seed everywhere it fell; what differed, every single time, was only the ground it landed on.
