Catchwords for The Parable of the Wheat and Tares

In my last post I promised to color code the catchwords.  So then, here they are!

Master story (Matthew 13:24-30):

24         He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.

25         “But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away.

26         “But when the wheat sprang up and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.

27         “And the slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’

28         “And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ And the slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’

29         “But he said, ‘No; lest while you are gathering up the tares, you may root up the wheat with them.

30         ‘Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”‘”

Next will be a sampling from within the original memory grouping:

Matthew 13:36-43

 36           Then He left the multitudes, and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”

37           And He answered and said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,

38           and the field is the world; and {as for} the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil {one;}

39           and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.

40                “Therefore just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.

41           “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness,

42           and will cast them into the furnace of fire; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

43           “Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

And:

Matthew 3:5-12

 5              Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea, and all the district around the Jordan;

6              and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins.

7              But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

8                “Therefore bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance;

9              and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you, that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.

10           “And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

11           “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

12           “And His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

 Matthew 5:43-47

 43           “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’

44           “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you

45           in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on {the} evil and {the} good, and sends rain on {the} righteous and {the} unrighteous.

46           “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers do the same?

47           “And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more {than others}  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

 Matthew 9:36-38

 36           And seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.

37           Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

38                “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

And:

Matthew 24:40-41

 40           “Then there shall be two men in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left.

41           “Two women {will be} grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left.

In the original groupings, catchwords played an integral part.  As these groupings of teachings were meant to be memorized and kept on the heart, they were crafted so that they would be easy to remember.  Catchwords, or using words that related to the original mashal, or head story, was a brilliant way to help the one memorizing to organize the pieces more easily in their minds.

Back to Work

For those of you who are my regular readers… I apologize for my absence here over the last few weeks, er months.  So very sorry.

I’ve been working on a new book titled, The Genius of Jesus – He planted disciples not churches.  This book will be the first in a new series of four which are tentatively:

1.  The Genius of Jesus

2.  The Lost Apostolic Tradition

3.  The Original Curriculum of Rabbi Jesus

4.  Jesus-Centric Christianity – Returning to The Way

And for those of you who know me, and some of you have kept asking, I’ve been working on that last one for about three years now.  Someday soon I’ll get that one finished, Lord willing.

Now then, I’ve teased you with lots of background work.  This background information is no doubt necessary in trying to communicate such a foreign idea to a group of folk.  It’s not your fault I assure you.  We’re talking about two different cultures two thousand years apart. 

I wrote in the last post that the Jesus Tradition was originally organized in just this fashion, that is in the way Gerhardsson demonstrated in Memory and Manuscript.  And I’ll elaborate right here and now:

The master story in the grouping for the second kingdom principle or second discipleship lesson of Jesus was the Parable of the Wheat and Tares.  Now I’m not going to offer commentary at this juncture, but will only provide a list.  See if you can see the similarities between the stories.

Master story (Matthew 13:24-30):

24         He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.

25         “But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away.

26         “But when the wheat sprang up and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.

27         “And the slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’

28         “And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ And the slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’

29         “But he said, ‘No; lest while you are gathering up the tares, you may root up the wheat with them.

30         ‘Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”‘”

Next will be a sampling from within the original memory grouping:

Matthew 13:36-43

 36           Then He left the multitudes, and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”

37           And He answered and said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,

38           and the field is the world; and {as for} the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil {one;}

39           and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.

40                “Therefore just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.

41           “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness,

42           and will cast them into the furnace of fire; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

43           “Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

And:

Matthew 3:5-12

 5              Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea, and all the district around the Jordan;

6              and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins.

7              But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

8                “Therefore bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance;

9              and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you, that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.

10           “And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

11           “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

12           “And His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

 Matthew 5:43-47

 43           “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’

44           “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you

45           in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on {the} evil and {the} good, and sends rain on {the} righteous and {the} unrighteous.

46           “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers do the same?

47           “And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more {than others}  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

 Matthew 9:36-38

 36           And seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.

37           Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

38                “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

And:

Matthew 24:40-41

 40           “Then there shall be two men in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left.

41           “Two women {will be} grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left.

Certain themes and catchwords are present within the texts to aid the memorizer with this group.  See if you can find them.  

In a few days I’ll repost the list and use color coding to help in the exercise.  But I want you to attempt it now though if possible.

A Hebrew Example of How They Organized Their Material

From Birger Gerhardsson’s extraordinary work, Memory and Manuscript:

Page XXXV: What, exactly, I mean by ‘models’ requires explanation.  In the present context, by ‘model’ I mean that which is exemplary and enduring, thus taking place time and again, hither and yon: not a singular, one-time event but a model by which diverse happenings may be understood; not a one-time, particular person but an example, for instance, of virtue.  Such a ‘model’ is comprised by Eden and the Fall, the passage through the Sea and Sinai, the figure of Abraham or of Jacob.  The patriarchs then serve as models for the people Israel, and the tribal progenitors (as at Genesis 49 and Deut. 33) constitute the patterns for those that followed.  To give a single concrete case, the destruction of the first Temple and the return to Zion some generations later forms not a one-time event but a model of what happens when Israel sins, suffers, atones, and is forgiven; that model then is invoked to organize the data of the destruction of the Second Temple and will further define the interpretive framework for thinking about later catastrophes as well.

     Now what is interesting is that the models of explanation, defining an enduring, ahistorical mode of thinking, may identify persons or happenings or locations as paradigmatic.  Formed into a list, a sequence of such models or paradigms may mix types of things that we should keep separate, which for us would not fit on the same list; such a list may cover persons, historical events, religious obligations, holy days, and a variety of practices and beliefs.  Here is such a list of models or paradigms:

 

V:i.1.  A.  “I am very dark, but comely, [O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon]” (Song 1:5):

B.     “I am dark” in my deeds.

C.    “But comely” in the deeds of my forebears.

1. A.  “I am very dark, but comely”:

B.     Said the Community of Israel, “I am dark in my view, but comely before my Creator.”

C.    For it is written, “Are you not as the children of Ethiopians to Me, O children of Israel? Says the Lord” (Amos 9:7):

D.    “as the children of Ethiopians” – in your sight.

E.     But “to Me, O children of Israel, says the Lord.”

1. A.  Another interpretation of the verse, “I am very dark”: in Egypt.

B.     “but comely”: in Egypt.

C.    “I am very dark” in Egypt: “But they rebelled against me and would not hearken to me” (Ezek. 20:8).

D.    “but comely” in Egypt: with the blood of the Passover offering and circumcision, “And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you, In your blood live” (Ezek. 16:6) – I the blood of the Passover.

E.     “I said to you, In you blood live” (Ezek. 16:6) – in the blood of the circumcision.

1. A.  Another interpretation of the verse, “I am very dark”: at the Sea, “They were rebellious at the sea, even     the Red Sea” (Ps. 106:7).

B.     “but comely”: at the Sea, “This is my God, and I will be comely for him” (Exodus 15:2).

1. A.  “I am very dark”: at Marah, “And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink” (Exodus 15:24).

B.     “but comely”: at Marah, “And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, and he cast it into the waters and the waters were made sweet” (Exodus 15:25).

1. A.  “I am very dark”: at Rephidim, “And the name of the place was called Massah and Meribah” (Exodus 17:7).

B.     “but comely”: at Rephidim, “And Moses built an altar and called it by the name ‘the Lord is my banner’” (Exodus 17:15).

1. A.  “I am very dark”: at Horeb, “And they make a calf at Horeb” (Ps. 106:19).

B.     “but comely”: at Horeb, “And they said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do and obey” (Exodus 24:7).

1. A.  “I am very dark”: in the wilderness, “How often did they rebel against him in the wilderness? (Ps. 78:40).

B.     “but comely”: in the wilderness at the setting up of the tabernacle, “And on the day that the tabernacle was set up” (Numbers 9:15).

1. A.  “I am very dark”: in the deed of the spies, “And they spread an evil report of the land” (Numbers 13:32).

B.     “but comely”: in the deed of Joshua and Caleb, “Save for Caleb, son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite” (Numbers 32:12).

1. A.  “I am very dark”: at Shittim, “And Israel abode at Shittim, and the people began to commit harlotry   with the daughters of Moab” (Numbers 25:1).

B.     “but comely”: at Shittim, “Then arose Phinehas and wrought judgment” (Ps. 106:30).

1. A.  “I am very dark”: through Achan, “But the children of Israel committed a trespass concerning the devoted thing” (Joshua 7:1).

B.     “but comely”: through Joshua, “And Joshua said to Achan, My son, give I pray you glory” (Joshua 7:19).

1. A.  “I am very dark”: through the kings of Israel.

B.     “but comely”: through the kings of Judah.

C.    If with my dark ones that I had, it was such that “I am comely,” all the more so with my prophets. 

V:ii.5.  A.  As to the verse, “I am very dark, but comely,” Rabbi Levi bar R. Haita gave three interpretations:

B.     “I am very dark”: all the days of the week.

C.    “but comely”: on the Sabbath.

D.    “ I am very dark”: all the days of the year.

E.     “but comely”: on the Day of Atonement.

F.     “I am very dark”: among the Ten Tribes.

G.    “but comely”: in the tribe of Judah and Benjamin.

H.     “I am very dark”: in this world.

I.         “but comely”: in the world to come

 

                                                       Songs of Songs Rabbah to Song 1:5

 

What I want you to see and understand most of all is that the one verse or story sits at the top and other pieces are drawn from other places to help interpret the master verse.  These are the sorts of lists that were created in and before the time of Jesus and were used by the great Hebrew teachers to impart lessons.  We’ll see how this worked in early Christianity, if you haven’t already surmised this from previous posts, in the next week or two. 

 

The Original Structure of the Curriculum

Modern Christians know the Gospels only in the format they currently exist.  They do appear as a group of biographies told from different perspectives. 

But there was a time when this sort of structure was not the case.

Most scholars believe the Gospels in their current form did not appear for many decades after the resurrection.  There appears to be no extant copies until maybe 40 years after the event. 

Now this is a curious fact, indeed.

But if you’ve been reading my blog, you already know why this is the case.  The Jesus Tradition, by which, I mean the stories and/or vignettes regarding the words and deeds of Jesus and His disciples which now make up the substance of the Gospels, was completely in oral form; alive and vibrant in the Christian community.  It was, during the earliest years, forbidden to be written down.  This was known in the Hebrew rabbinic world as Holy Oral Tradition.  Their great teachers’ words were not to be put down in any form; but they were to be memorized and kept on their minds and hearts in this way.  This is pure genius; a genius that modern Christianity knows very little about.  And why do I say genius?  Wouldn’t it have been better to have written these things down immediately so that they might not be lost forever? 

Which is better?  To have the words of the Sacred Sage in a book? or in your heart and mind?

The Swedish scholar Birger Gerhardsson studied the rabbinic methods of the times surrounding the turn of the eras, or at least as close to the turn as he could.  He surmised, much to the chagrin of great thinkers like the Hebrew Jacob Neusner (for whom I have a great respect), that what was going on about a hundred to two hundred years after Christ, that is in the rabbinic world, was much like what was going on at the turn.  Gerhardsson then made the educated assumption (which was more than an assumption) that Christianity in its infancy was much like the rabbinic practice of Judaism employed in the concurrent time.  Dr. Gerhardsson was lambasted mercilessly by Neusner in 1961 for his work.  Others joined in to villify the man.  But funny thing, Dr. Gerhardsson’s book was re-released in 1998 and Dr. Neusner wrote the foreward, apologizing for his assumptive harshness.  The work of Dr. Gerhardsson was indeed extraordinarily valuable, if not completely correct, at least from the perspective of Jacob Neusner.  What a turnaround.  (it is my opinion that Dr. Gerhardsson’s work will be further lifted through the next few decades as we begin to understand just how much nascent Christianity was like the rabbinic models extant concurrent)

Now one of the points Gerhardsson made is that the Hebrews believed memorization was one of the keys to learning.  One of their important sayings was ‘Memorize first, understand later.’ Rabbis and teachers would craft stories of their own and pair them with stories from the rich past of Israel and group them into larger memory texts.  Memory texts are groupings of vignettes that were meant to be memorized and categorized together.  In other words, a series of stories would be intentionally grouped because they were stories that taught a certain lesson.  Almost always, these stories on the surface would look to be disconnected at least didactically.  They would in many ways seem unrelated.  This was genius, too.  The difficulty of the lessons developed discipline and understanding in their students.

According to Gerhardsson, the grouping would have a master story, one that would sit at the head of the group, to be memorized and recited first.  This vignette would act as the head of the group and all of the other stories that followed within the larger memory text grouping would serve to help explain the master story and the meaning of the group as a whole.  These other vignettes would be drawn from Israel’s history or created and/or modified to work together within the group to illustrate and exemplify the hidden meaning of the head story and the whole.  The rabbis, when constructing the list, would also use what is called mnemonic devices to aid in memory.  In other words, the stories for a certain lesson all might be about farming, or marital relations, or foxes or cows.  They might also use many of the same keywords or what I call catchwords.  A group of stories would teach a particular lesson.

Now when you think about it, if one is to be memorizing a certain group of memory texts, these devices would be of great help.  It might be easy to remember the story about a cow, but if one has too many stories in ones head then it might be easy to forget which heading the particular story goes with… except that all the cow stories go together.  Now this is an oversimplified way of explaining these matters, but I must tackle it in this way, for it is almost assuredly a foreign concept to the vast majority of my readers.   

This is exactly how the original curriculum of Jesus was first organized.  I’ll get into that in more depth in the next few weeks.

Happy Resurrection Day

So What’s The Point?

I mean can’t we just read the Gospel and “live” by it?

Sure we can.  People have been doing it for almost two thousand years.

But it wasn’t that way in the beginning. 

The earliest Christians didn’t have the written Gospel.  No.  They had a memorized, verbal Gospel.  The Hebrews had this thing they called Holy Oral Tradition.  It later became what’s now known as Mishnah.  This Mishnah is now comprised of the words and deeds of Israel’s greatest teachers and rabbis.  And before it was written it was verbal only, meaning memorized.   

The curriculum of Jesus was the same.  The disciples – who were Hebrew – did as their forefathers and contemporaries, for that matter, did.  They memorized the teachings/words/deeds of Jesus.  These things remained on their hearts and minds… and not in some scroll laying around somewhere.

Today, the modern Christian has many Bibles.  I don’t know the figure, but I’ll bet the average is over two per church going soul.  But how many of these bible owners have the words/deeds/teachings of Jesus in their hearts and minds?  How many of them know the teachings of Jesus by heart?  You know the answer.  Maybe you are part of that answer.

The specific teachings of Jesus are the key to a complete revival of the Church.  Without returning to these SPECIFIC teachings the Church will continue to be satisfied with an arrogant stagnation brought about by simply possessing the teachings of the founder of our faith in a book somewhere in our house.   If we continue down the same path of just reading the Gospel (which precious few do anyway) as a biography, we’ll continue to falter.  How in the world can I say this?   

It is only in recapturing and embracing the SPECIFIC teachings of Jesus that we can return to the former glory of the first century Church. 

His teachings are the difference between them and us; between their success and our obvious failure.  You can mark this down as the truth.

The Parable of the Leaven – Lesson 2

I’ve had people ask me on numerous occasions before, “How do you know certain vignettes go with certain parables (meshalim)?

I’ve answered this question on this blog in the best way I can (without going through the complete literary structure of Matthew, which would take at least a year to do) by saying that the organizational pattern when known in its completeness, reveals exactly which vignette goes with which parable.  Once one knows the literary structure, then one wouldn’t even have to look at the vignette to know if it belonged with a certain parable or not.  The order in which the vignettes are placed reveals which parable it belongs to.  In other words, a classic example of this would be that one would find that the order of the nimshalim come in the exact order of the meshalim.  The seven kingdom meshalim have a specific order to them:

1. Sower

2. Wheat and Tares

3. Mustard Seed

4. Leaven

5. Hidden Treasure

6. Pearl of Great Price

7. Good Fish/Bad Fish

This particular order is a very important governing factor in the organization of the literary structure of the First Gospel.  So that when one delves into how the Gospel of Matthew was organized, this same order will show exactly where the nimshalim for each of the kingdom parables should occur.  And if the reader of the Gospel knows this, then locating the proper vignettes becomes much easier.  To generalize, the nimshalim – or explanations – come in the same order in the text of Matthew as do the meshalim.  Now this explanation is not in any way complete.  Other factors are at work in the construction of the Gospel of Matthew.  But these other factors are common to Hebraic literary structure.  Whereas if my readers were more familiar regarding these ancient methods, then I could speak on a different level regarding such.  But because we as a modern society are so unfamiliar with these conventions, I must remain as elemental in my explanations as possible. 

But there is other evidence that suggests this is correct.  It comes from the Gospel of Matthew itself.  We’ll look at that in just a minute.

The teaching method that I’ve discussed on this blog and in my books is the two part parable that was commonly used by the Hebrew rabbis.  And it’s power comes from having a vignette that is tied to it as an explanation.  In other words, the vignette and the mashal or what a modern would call a parable are tied together in a teaching situation.  When the mashal and nimshal are brought together there is a certain lesson to be learned.

Remember, our first lesson for the Parable of the Leaven was about the two miraculous feedings.  We didn’t try to decipher what the lesson was.  We only looked at how the two incidents were crafted by Matthew to appear similar in language and format.  The organization pattern of Matthew shows that these two vignettes come in the place – in order – where a nimshal for the Parable of the Leaven should occur.  Matthew intentionally connected the feedings to the Parable of the Leaven via the literary structure.  Let’s examine now the other evidence (16:5-12):

On more than one occasion, Matthew recorded that Jesus used cryptic language in a teaching setting.  Here, He told the disciples to watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.  Leaven, as used here by Jesus, had a cryptic meaning. 

5          And the disciples came to the other side and had forgotten to take bread.

6          And Jesus said to them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

7          And they began to discuss among themselves, saying, “{It is} because we took no bread.”

8          But Jesus, aware of this, said, “You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread?

9          “Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up?

10        “Or the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets you took up?

11        “How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

12        Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

The disciples remembered what the word meant, but only by reconsidering the two miraculous feedings.  Jesus – their rabbi – took them back mentally to those two occurrences.  There must have been a teaching that the disciples had already received concerning the combination of the cryptic word leaven and these two miracles.  Otherwise they would not have been able to come to the proper remembered meaning.  We see that the cryptic word gets a definition.  Leaven simply meant teaching. 

Though I’m purposefully choosing not to go any further with the lesson of the two miraculous feedings when combined with the Parable of the Leaven, I do want you to notice that Matthew wants us to see that IN FACT, the two miraculous feedings were tied to the meaning of the word leaven by Jesus Himself and that He expected His disciples to remember what the word leaven actually meant when He called to their rememberence these two miracles. 

For those of you who are thinking out there, you might be able to surmise as to what the Parable of the Leaven and the two miraculous feedings are really about.  At least I’m hoping so.

The Parable of the Leaven – Lesson 1

In our lessons for the Parable of the Mustard Seed, we saw an interesting phenomenon.  It was only a phenomenon to us as Westerners.  The ancient Hebrews knew what that supposed anomaly was about.

Jesus apparently used formulaic speech when He spoke of His then upcoming death, burial and resurrection.  The two passages that we covered in Matthew were very similar in form and content.  And too, when we saw the words of Jesus placed side-by-side with the Parable of the Mustard Seed, we saw the reason why Jesus used formulaic language (Matthew also recorded it in a formulaic way). 

Now in the nimshalim for the Parable of the Leaven we find a similar instance.  For those who are familiar with the ancient Hebraic method of teaching this will come as no surprise.  But for those not familiar this will hopefully be a great discovery. 

In the literary structure of Matthew both the miraculous feedings in Matthew are nimshalim for the Parable of the Leaven.  Notice if you will how similar these accounts of different events – both at a different time and place – are:

 

Matthew 14:16-21

Matthew 15:32-38

But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them {something} to eat!”                       And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.”        And He said, “Bring them here to Me.”  And ordering the multitudes to recline on the grass,     He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed {the food,}       and breaking the loaves     He gave them to the disciples,     and the disciples {gave} to the multitudes,     and they all ate, and were satisfied.     And they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets.      And there were about five thousand men who ate, aside from women and children.

And Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, “I feel compassion for the multitude, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not wish to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”  And the disciples said to Him, “Where would we get so many loaves in a desolate place to satisfy such a great multitude?”  And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?”     And they said, “Seven, and a few small fish.”        And He directed the multitude to sit down on the ground; and       He took the seven loaves and the fish; and giving thanks,         He broke them     and started giving them to the disciples,     and the disciples {in turn,} to the multitudes.    And they all ate, and were satisfied,     and they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, seven large baskets full.   And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.

The similarities are striking.  But there is a question that must be answered.

Why would Matthew have chosen to record these two separate instances in an almost verbatim way?  What was the point? 

In both notice:

that the multitudes were seated.

that there were seven pieces of food.

that Jesus took the food and gave thanks.

that He broke the loaves.

that He then handed the broken pieces to the disciples and not to the multitudes.

that the disciples then gave the pieces to the multitudes.

that everyone ate and was satisfied.

that they picked up baskets of the pieces that remained, seven for the Gentile feeding and 12 for the Jewish.

Lesson 2 for the Parable of the Leaven should prove quite interesting.

The Parable of the Mustard Seed – Lesson 3

• Note – Please be sure to read the lessons for the Parable of the Mustard Seed in the order which I’ve given them.

 The similarities between the two nimshalim are no accident.  Each and every vignette in Matthew was carefully crafted.  Why?  Because a lesson sits behind each individual episode, or that each and every story has another piece that it is tied to via the organizational pattern.  When the intended pieces are combined (the mashal and nimshal, e.g. 13:31-32 & 20:17-19) then the lesson is made known.  Now, I don’t mean that because the vignettes were carefully crafted that the Gospel was ‘made up’.  But each one who tells or remembers a story has the ability to tell it how they will.  And in this particular case, Jesus had a reason to tell it a certain way.  The reason was all didactic in nature.  He – as their rabbi – was telling (20:17-19) His disciples that He was about to teach them a lesson, showing them by His own actions how to follow the principle in the third teaching of the kingdom, the principle found in the Parable of the Mustard Seed.

Matthew 13:31-32

Matthew 20:17-19

31         He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; 32         and this is smaller than all {other} seeds; but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

17           And as Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve {disciples} aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them, 18           “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, 19           and will deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify {Him,} and on the third day He will be raised up.”

 Again, especially since you’ve already seen how the first nimshal that I gave you worked, I do hope you’ll take a few minutes – or longer if you wish – to work out this comparison.  Afterward, please continue on to the next graph which is separated and color-coded for accentuation.

 

Matthew 13:31-32

Matthew 20:17-19

He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like            a mustard seed,         which a man took           and sowed in his field;       and this is smaller than all {other} seeds;           but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

And as Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve {disciples} aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and      the Son of Man         will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and scourge     and crucify {Him,}       (See 20:25-28)             and on the third day He will be raised up.”

Again, we don’t really have to go into any great detail to see how the mashal and nimshal work together.  When broken down, it’s easy to see. 

Some things I’m hoping for here:

• That you are starting to see how the vignettes were not just the telling of the history of Jesus and His deeds. 
• That you are starting to understand each piece is more than it appears on the surface 
• That there were particular lessons that were available if one knew the proper pairings
• That Jesus was a normal rabbi who taught His disciples in the same way that the Hebrews were accustomed to – by word, deed and action
• That there is more to Matthew than meets the eye
• That the Parable of the Mustard Seed – just like the other kingdom parables – has a meaning that is available from Matthew, if we know how and where to find it

I do hope for more, but I’ll finish with this question:

As a disciples, seeing how Jesus mimicked the Parable of the Mustard Seed, what did that mean to the disciples and how would one follow in their rabbi’s footsteps according to this lesson?

The Parable of the Mustard Seed – Lesson 2

*Note – If you have not read the first lesson for the Parable of the Mustard Seed, then do so now.  The lessons for this parable need to be read and learned in the order that I’ve given them.

We saw in the first lesson how Jesus’ own words regarding His death, burial and resurrection were similar in wording, form and order.  He referred to Himself in both as Son of Man.  In both He was to be delivered.  And He was to be delivered into certain mens hands.  In both He would die/be crucified and in both on the third day He would be raised.  Let’s look at the first nimshal for this mashal:

Matthew 13:31-32	Matthew 17:22-23
31         He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; 32         and this is smaller than all {other} seeds; but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”	22         And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; 23         and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day. “And they were deeply grieved.

 Before you move on to the next graph, please take a moment to see if you can decipher how the mashal and nimshal are alike; how they work together.  Don’t be afraid to take at least 30 minutes to ruminate on this mashal and nimshal pair.  Maybe even write them both down and take them with you for a day or two.  I’ll bet you’ll be able to see the similarities if you try.

After you’ve worked on this for a while, you can take a look at the graph below where I’ve separated the pieces and color-coded them for accentuation. 

 

Matthew 13:31-32	Matthew 17:22-23a
He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like       a mustard seed,       which a man took       and sowed in his field;       and this is smaller than all {other} seeds;   but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”	And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them,       “The Son of Man       is going to be delivered into the hands of men;      and they will kill Him,       (see 20:25-28)     and He will be raised on the third day.

Once you see how the nimshal fits with the mashal, then it is quite easy to understand the reasons for the formulaic speech of Jesus the Rabbi. 

Jesus, when speaking about His death, burial and resurrection, was in fact telling His disciples that He was about to model the Parable of the Mustard Seed for them.  And this is completely in line – even expected – between a rabbi and his disciples.  For the disciples must learn to do what the rabbi does;  He must show them how to follow His teachings. 

We are seeing the lessons from the manual come to life, for no longer is Matthew just an account of what Jesus did, but in Matthew’s truest and most original form, these vignettes become our Rabbi showing us how to live out the principles of the kingdom.  These are the Mysteries.