After having helped those with withered hands and condemning the Pharisees among his activities back close to home in Galilee, Jesus takes some time out of the house and takes to a boat. Teaching on a boat seemed a little out of the ordinary at the time as followers would’ve expected to be taught in a synagogue, though with everything he’s been experiencing, I can imagine fresh air would’ve been welcome. With crowds looking on, he’d begin his lessons while putting things into parables, speaking of sowing seeds and speaking about the areas where some of the seeds ‘fell off the path’. Some would fall by the wayside, on rocky ground, others eaten by passing birds, some growing in thorny bushes, others falling in good, well-nourished soil and would produce grains.

I’d initially gotten a little lost in my interpretation, prone to the literal statement (autism is wonderful), though the messaging is meant to be a bit hard to initially understand at first. In a way, I felt a bit like his disciples with their question to Jesus.

Let’s take a sec to think about it. All throughout his travels so far, not everyone’s been on board. Some have been very aware of his role as the Son of Man, many of them beseeching him for help, having come to realize he’s the real deal. Others have been questioning or unsure, needing more convincing. Others still, especially the P&S’s openly despise Jesus and believe he’s a heretic.

Jesus reminds the disciples that they’ve been given the secrets to how to get in with Jesus and how to ascend to heaven by following him, even to his end and their own. The ordinary folk that’re listening to him? They don’t get what Jesus is genuinely trying to do for them. Speaking in parables is a way to directly speak to those who’re sensitive enough or willing enough to follow. Jesus outright cites Isaiah’s now fulfilled prophecy (Isaiah 6:9-10) to his disciples: “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.” Many righteous people and prophets foretold of a Messiah and now the very man who holds Heaven for the sinful now walks among them. Jesus is the key to allow humanity to find Heaven.

It’s now at this point Jesus begins with more parables, helping to ingrain this into the disciples’ minds, this time speaking on the kingdom of heaven being like that of a sown field filled with good seed. While sleeping, foes came through to fill the field with weeds in an attempt to destroy or harm the crops. Upon waking, servants alert the man to figure out what to do about the weeds now in the fields. Wisely, the man doesn’t attempt to remove the weeds from the healthy seeds, instead allowing them to grow together, side by side. The weeds will be separated from the wheat at the time of harvesting by the reapers, securing the precious wheat away in the barn from the weeds being burned away. This protects the wheat’s harvest while ridding the weeds placed by his enemy, casting it asunder in flame. Jesus will go more into detail to explain this, but this parable is a little more on the nose this time when compared to the first.

As I understand it, Jesus speaks directly about the nature of heaven, the people being saved and brought into heaven as the crops of wheat, the enemy (or foe) being an analogy to Satan, and the weeds as non-believers or those who’re hostile to Jesus, people like the P&S’s. Those which can be saved and properly harvested from Earth upon the end of their mortal lives are bound for heaven, living in accordance with God. Those of whom are the ‘weeds’ are cast into the pit of Hell to live out the rest of their existence in endless fire.

Continuing on, he goes into another parable about mustard seeds. They’re among the smallest of all seeds, but become quite tall (a tree) when grown in good soil, serving as a place for birds to rest. Another parable is about leaven a woman took under 3 measures of flour until all leavened. Looking into it, ‘leaven’ has had a strongly negative connotation up through this time, speaking in terms of sin or corruption as examples. There’s two ways to look into this that I can see. First of which is the leaven itself. Leavening like in bread or dough is to make it rise, which Jesus’s word is spreading through his teachings and healing those in need. The other side of that is the growing Jewish opposition to Jesus being the Messiah foretold. The corruption and sin side could be in reference to the P&S’s intensive rules and competition to be the most pious in a constant effort of one-upping each other.

Jesus again fulfills another prophecy with everything he does in parables here, linking to Psalm 78: “Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.”

It’s now at this point that he’s taking time inside the house when he’s asked by his disciples to explain the parable of the weeds more directly. This time, Jesus really is as outright as possible here, explaining the roles each entity or object is. He’s the one to sow the good seeds, the field being the world, the good seed as the sons of the kingdom (believers in God and Jesus), the weeds as the sons of evil (P&S’s could be used here), and the devil is the enemy who sowed them. Alluding to the end of the age here, this seems to me to allude to the end of times when all who remain will face judgment, in which the reapers (angels who will assist in judging souls with Jesus) separate the wheat (the believers and righteous under God), from the weeds (everyone else who did not resolve their sins under God/didn’t believe/law-breakers), casting the weeds into the fiery pits of Hell. He continues at this point to give three additional parables: The Hidden Treasure, Pearl of Great Value, and the Net. Let’s break these down.

First off, the Hidden Treasure. Jesus speaks of a man that found a treasure in a field, hid it, then sells all he has to buy the field. What is being said here is that the ‘hidden treasure’ are his believers’, the field is the ‘world’, and Jesus represents the ‘man’ in this parable. If Jesus is the man who wants to give everything up and sell everything, what he’s doing is showing an ultimate form of love for his believers. Jesus wants to redeem the world, even at the expense of himself to do it.

Second, The Pearl of Great Value. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant trying to find pearls when he has one of great value, he’d sell all he had to buy it. Once more, Jesus illustrates that he’s the buyer of this pearl and the pearl itself equals those who are faithful to him. Again, another way of showing how much he loves and how far he’s willing to go to protect them as a good shepherd would protect his flock.

Finally, The Net. Jesus speaks of a net cast into the sea to capture fish of all kinds. Once full, it’s divided and sorted out good from bad. He returns to a point of casting them into the ‘fiery furnace’ and ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’ at the end of the age. This parable is speaking about the divisions of the just and wicked, not all that unlike the parable of wheat and weeds. Given the divisions and judgments of all will happen all the way until the end of the age, Jesus and his assisting angels will preside over the judgment of who has access to the kingdom of heaven and who will not.

At this point, Jesus finally asks if they actually get everything he’s told them, to which they affirm their understanding. He impresses upon them through this understanding that they are now like a ‘master of a house who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old’. If they really do understand, they’re going to have to be able to teach people who won’t or don’t understand when they go out into the world. This is now their responsibility to bear. In a manner of speaking (potentially incorrect), their cross to bear with Jesus.

As Jesus comes to his homelands in Nazareth, it’s not nearly as welcome a homecoming as the people fail, if not outright reject, to believe that Jesus is able to teach and have all of this knowledge. Bearing in mind that Jesus comes from a pretty poor background and with his foster father’s role of a carpenter, it’s basically unheard of. It isn’t all that surprising he wouldn’t have done a lot back in his homelands at this point. Pretty upsetting to think about being the Son of God and being seen as offensive when I think about it.