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Matthew 13:24-43
(Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)

• Reading the Text:
  • NRSV (with link to Anglicized NRSV) at Oremus Bible Browser.
  • Greek Interlinear Bible, ScrTR, ScrTR t, Strong, Parsing, CGTS, CGES id, AV.
  • The Bible Gateway: NRSV, RSV, NIV, NASB, CEV, The Message, KJV, etc.
  • The Blue Letter Bible. KJV, alternate versions, Greek text with concordance, commentaries.
  • The World Wide Study Bible includes commentary, exposition & sermons.
• Historical References, Commentary and Comparative Texts:
  • The Five Gospels Parallels, John W. Marshall, University of Toronto.
  • Comparative primary texts about Sin and Justice from Mishnah and Babylonian Talmud. At Mahlon H. Smith's Into His Own: Perspective on the World of Jesus, Rutgers University.
  • Similitude VIII.3, Shepherd of Hermas. (c.145)
  • Chapter, XVI, The First Apology of Justin Martyr. (c 150)
  • IV.XXVI.1, IV.XL.2, 3, IV.XLI.1, 3, V.X.1, V.XXVII.1, V.XXXIII.3, Adversus Haereses, Irenaeus of Lyons. (c. 180)
  • Chapter II, Adversus Judaeos, Tertullian (c. 198)
  • I.11, Paedagogus, Clement of Alexandria (c 200)
  • V.12, VI.15, VII.15, Stromata, Clement of Alexandria (c 200)
  • Chapter XVI, On the Soul, Tertullian (c. 210)
  • Chapter XXXII, Chapter XXXV, On the Resurrection of the Flesh,  Tertullian (c. 211)
  • Chapter I, Against Praxeas,  Tertullian (c. 213)
  • V.III, V.IV, IX.VII, The Refutation of all Heresies (Philosophumena), Hippolytus of Rome. (c. 225)
  • Epistle V -- Cyprian of Carthage (c. 250)
  • Latin text of Augustine's Sermon 73 (Mt 13:4-30).
  • Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew, St. Chrysostom (c. 380):
    • Homily XLVI - Matthew 13:24-30
    • Homily XLVII - Matthew 13:34, 35
  • From the Catena Aurea, Patristic Commentary by St Thomas Aquinas.
  • "The Wheat & The Tares," Matthew 13:24-30, Martin Luther, c. 1525.
    • "People securely think here God is enthroned without a rival and Satan is a thousand miles away, and no one sees anything except how they parade the Word, name and work of God. That course proves beautifully effective."
  • From the Geneva Notes.
    • "God begins his kingdom with very small beginnings so that by its growing (even though men neither hope nor expect it to) his mighty power and working may be displayed all the more."
  • From Matthew Henry's Commentary.
    • "So prone is fallen man to sin, that if the enemy sow the tares, he may go his way, they will spring up, and do hurt; whereas, when good seed is sown, it must be tended, watered, and fenced."
  • From Wesley's Notes.
    • "Cares are thorns to the poor: wealth to the rich; the desire of other things to all."
  • From the Commentary on the Whole Bible (Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, 1871).
    • "...is it straining the parable... to suppose that, besides the wonderful growth of His kingdom, our Lord selected this seed to illustrate further the shelter, repose and blessedness it is destined to afford to the nations of the world?"
  • "Wheat in the Barn: Matthew 13:30," Charles H. Spurgeon. From Farm Sermons (c 1875).
    • "Heaven is the palace of the King, but, so far, to us a barn, because it is the place of security, the place of rest for ever. It is the homestead of Christ to which we shall be carried, and for this we are ripening."
  • From The People's New Testament, B.W. Johnson, 1891.
    • "The tares are not bad church members, but bad men; those who have been under the influence of the wicked one."
• Contemporary Commentary, Studies, and Exegesis:
  • Radical Gratitude, lectionary-based stewardship, Northwest United Methodist Foundation. (.pdf)
  • Commentary, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43, Elisabeth Johnson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 201l.
    • "Perhaps there were some overzealous 'weeders' in Matthew's congregation who wanted to purify the community by rooting out the bad seed. This seems to be a temptation for followers of Jesus in every age."
  • The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat, audio telling, story in episodes, graphic, audio and written commentaries. Go Tell Communications, Biblical Storytelling for the Global Village, 2011.
  • "Jesus Condones Weed," Peter Woods, I am Listening, 2011.
    • "Before holiness and perfection however, Jesus expected transformation in his hearers."
  • Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Matthew 13;24-30, 36-43, David Ewart, 2011.
    • "This is a parable about the FIELD - about the collective experience. At the end, the weeds ARE separated and burned. At the end, what is pleasing to God is taken in to God's care and keeping. But remember, think of yourself as the FIELD. At the harvest, the weeds in you are removed, and the wheat in you is gathered in."
  • "First Thoughts on Year A Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost 5, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.
    • "Never uproot people in your mind or attitude by treating them as no longer of any worth!"
  • Lectionary Blogging, July 17, 2011, John Petty, Progressive Involvement, 2011.
    • "Could he be any more obvious? He is generating disciples who live out the ways of the kingdom--open table fellowship, gender equality, non-heirarchical living, inherent worth of every human being, and opposition to oppression. Those who don't follow this way of the kingdom are instead pressed by hardship and difficulty. They suffer the "weight" of heirarchy, scarcity, tribalism."
  • "The Best Approach Is...To Do Nothing?" Danielle Shroyer, The Hardest Question, 2011.
    • "So we’re just supposed to leave the weeds?"
  • "Wheat and Tares," Rev. Todd Weir, bloomingcactus.
    • "The psychologist Carl Jung would have approved of the parable of the wheat and tares.  Jung explored the nature of the unconscious ?shadow? that lives in each soul."
  • Exegetical Notes by Brian Stoffregen at CrossMarks Christian Resources.
    • "For a slightly different illustration of making things worse by trying to fix them, I'm using From Stuck to Unstuck: Overcoming Congregational Impasse, by Kenneth a. Halstead..."
  • "The Weeds among the Wheat," Alyce McKenzie, Edgy Exegesis, Patheos, 2011.
    • "This makes me wonder if this parable is an answer to the question: How do two conflicting groups in the same setting manage to get along?"
  • Preaching Matthew 13:24-35, 36-43, Anna Carter Florence, Lectionary Homiletics sample.
    • "You cannot pull up weeds without harming the wheat. You cannot purify the field yourself. Your only option is to wait."
  • Commentary, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43, Dale Allison, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.
  • "Weeds and Wheat," Gospel Analysis, Sermons from Seattle, Pastor Edward F. Markquart, Grace Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington. Detailed background and exegesis.
    • "The Greek word for weeds is 'zizania' which is a very particular type of weed that looks just like wheat as it is growing up.  You can hardly tell the difference.  Today it is called  'darnel' wheat. It looks like wheat, it appears like wheat but it is not wheat.  It fools you."
  • Synopsis (English) and discussion by Dr. Mahlon H. Smith, Rutgers University. Focus is on literary relationships of texts. Includes non-canonical parallels and discussion of textual origins.
    • "The Harvest" (synopsis only)
    • "Mustard Seed and Leaven " (synopsis only)
    • "The Harvest as Allegory"
      • "Then Jesus is reported to supply his disciples with an interpretation, in spite of his insistence a few lines earlier that they already knew 'the secrets of the kingdom' and, therefore, needed no explanation."
  • Comments (commentary) and Clippings (technical notes for in-depth study), Chris Haslam, Anglican Diocese of Montreal.
  • "Violent Parables and the Nonviolent Jesus," study guide, Robert B. Kruschwitz, (other resources at) "Parables," Christian Reflection, The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 2006.
  • Matthew in the Margins, by Brian McGowan, Anglican priest in Western Australia.
  • Sermon Preparation Thoughts and Questions by Wesley White, 2005.
    • "We have certainly spent a lot of energy battling one another. We have pulled up our own values, morals, and intentions as we try to eradicate another point of view. This is part of the warning of the parable. The destruction you intend for another will come back to bite you at the same place your focused your attention."
  • Wellspring of the Gospel, Ordinary 16A, Catherine McElhinney and Kathryn Turner, Weekly Wellsprings.
  • "Wheat and Weeds, Good and Evil," Larry Broding's Word-Sunday.Com: A Catholic Resource for This Sunday's Gospel. Adult Study, Children's Story, Family Activity, Support Materials.
    • "Has the problem of evil in the world ever challenged your faith?"
  • "Jesus Says, 'Love One Another'," Keith E. Gatling, The Lutheran, 2005.
    • "Does that mean we must all agree?"
  • "The Parable of the Weeds," Rev. Bryan Findlayson, Lectionary Bible Studies and Sermons, Pumpkin Cottage Ministry Resources. Includes detailed textual notes.
  • 'Habitual Vigilance," Jerry Goebel, One Family Outreach. "Focus on scripture from a justice perspective." Exegesis, study, and teen study and activities.
    • "The Enemy is the one who wishes to destroy the work of God in our lives. Satan?s work is so subtle."
  • Reflection on Matthew 13:24-30, Rev. Wanda Copeland. At Environmental Reflections, Lectionary Year A, Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota, Environmental Stewardship Commission.
    • "Can we even comprehend a God that loves the world so much that every grain of wheat is significant.  What if we started living our lives as if that were true?"
• Articles & Background:
  • "Parables of Jesus," "Weeds among the Wheat," "Mustard Seed," "Yeast," wikipedia.
  • "Matthew's Nonviolent Jesus and Violent Parables," Barbara E. Reid, O.P., (other resources at) "Parables," Christian Reflection, The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 2006.
    • "Jesus' Sermon on the Mount instructs us to not return violence for violence; instead we should be like God, who offers boundless, gratuitous love to all. But in the same Gospel Jesus tells eight parables in which God deals violently with evildoers. Which of the divine ways are we to imitate?"
  • "Parables and their Social Contexts," Chapter 6 in What Are They Saying about the Parables? by David Gowler (Paulist Press, 2000).
    • "In the face of the exploitative urban elite (e.g., redistributive institutions like the Roman state and Jewish Temple), the concentration of land holdings in the hands of a few, rising debt, and other destabilizing forces, Jesus responded by calling for a reversal of the centralization of political power and economic goods."
  • "The Doctrine of the Kingdom in Matthew 13," Mark L. Bailey, Bibliotheca Sacra, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1999.
  • "Jesus, Apocalyptic, and World Transformation," David B. Batstone. Theology Today, 1993.
    • "It is often overlooked how ideologically explosive the notion of the kingdom of God was within Jesus' own social milieu. In first-century Palestine, it did not have the same metaphorical and strictly religious connotation that makes the term so safe within our own theological world. In fact, it evoked the memory and visionary impulse of Yahweh who acts to deliver Yahweh's 'chosen ones' from occupation and oppression at the hands of alien nations. Intrinsic to that symbolic universe is the conviction that the chosen suffer and the unjust prosper in the present day only because history stands at the brink of a great reversal."
• Recommended articles from ATLAS, an online collection of religion and theology journals, are linked below. ATLAS Access options are available for academic institutions, alumni of selected theological schools, and clergy/church offices. Annotated list of "starting place" articles at ATLAS for this week's texts (includes direct links).
  • Bailey, Mark L., "The Kingdom in the Parables of Matthew 13," Bibliotheca Sacra, 1998-1999:
    • "Guidelines for Interpreting Jesus' Parables"
        EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
        EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
    • "The Parable of the Tares"
        EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
        EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Batstone, David B., "Jesus, Apocalyptic, and World Transformation," David B. Batstone, Theology Today, 1993.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Bridges, Linda McKinnish, "Preaching the Parables in Matthew's Gospel in Ordinary Time: The Extraordinary Tales of God's World," Review & Expositor, 2007. (Section on this text begins on p.342, but is best read in context of entire article.)
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Burghardt, William, S.J., "Gospel Joy, Christian Joy," The Living Pulpit, 1996. (see Joy issue focus of The Living Pulpit 5.4, 1996.)
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Collins, John J., "The Zeal of Phinehas: The Bible and the Legitimation of Violence," Journal of Biblical Literature, 2003.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Doty, William G., "An Interpretation: Parable of the Weeds and Wheat," Interpretation, 1971.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Glancy, Jennifer A., "Slaves and Slavery in the Matthean Parables," Journal of Biblical Literature, 2000.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • "Homiletical Helps," Concordia Journal, 2011. (Section on this text begins on page 154)
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerial
  • McIver, Robert K., "The Parable of the Weeds among the Wheat (Matt 13:24-30, 36-34) and the Relationship between the Kingdom and the Church as Portrayed in the Gospel of Matthew," Journal of Biblical Literature, 1995.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Schellenberg, Ryan S., "Kingdom as Contaminant? The Role of Repertoire in the Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Leaven," The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2009.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Toussaint, Stanley D. and Jay A Quine, "No, Not Yet: The Contingency of God's Promised Kingdom," Bibliotheca Sacra, 2007.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
• Reviews:
• Sermons:
  • The Eternal Divorce, Wayne Keller, SermonStudio.
  • "Why Can't We Pull Up the Weeds?" the Rev. Dr. Joanna Adams, Day 1, 2006.
  • "A World Full of Weeds," the Rev. Jim Somerville, Day 1, 2005.
  • "Weeds and Wheat - A Strange Mix!" 9 Pentecost - 17 July 2005, Hubert Beck, Göttinger Predigten im Internet: Every Sunday Sermons based on the RCL by a team of Lutheran theologians/ pastors.
  • "Weeds and Wheat," Pastor Edward F. Markquart, Sermons from Seattle.
  • "Problems Beyond Our Power to Fix," the Rev. Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Day 1, 1997.
  • "The Mustard Seed," Pastor Edward F. Markquart, Grace Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington.
  • "Hungry for Justice - or - 'Let It Be'," John Jewell, 1999.
  • Father Andrew M. Greeley, "Priest, Author, Sociologist," Commentary and Homily
    • Ordinary 16, 2011
    • Ordinary 16, 2008
    • Ordinary 16, 2005
    • Ordinary 16, 2002
    • Ordinary 16, 1999
    • Ordinary 16, 1996
• With Children:
  • "Children's Literature: A Resource for Ministry," July 17, 2011, Union Presbyterian Seminary. Connections: Romans 8:18-25 and The Dancing Cat by Justine Rendal, Matthew 13:24-30,36-43 and "The Hare and the Hedgehog" from Kevin Crossley-Holland's Fox and Cat: Animal Tales from Grimm collected by Kevin Crossley-Holland..
  • Worshiping with Children, Proper 11, Including children in the congregation's worship, using the Revised Common Lectionary, Carolyn C. Brown, 2011.
  • Parable Of The Crabby Grass, Brett Blair, SermonStudio.
  • "Feeding the 5,000," "Parable of the Weeds," Fr. Max Bowers, Kid's Church.
  • "Weeds Grow Among the Wheat," Sunday School Lessons: Family Bible Study, art projects, music, stories, etc.
  • "Weed Killer," Children's Time, in Sermons and Liturgies. Richard J. Fairchild. (Scroll down in liturgies to find Children's Time.)
  • "Wheat and Weeds," Jim Kerlin, childrensermons.com.
  • "Parable of Wheat and Tares," children's study, puzzles, coloring sheet, etc. Higher Praise Christian Center.
• Drama:
  • "The Treasure," Kevin Penner, dramatix.
• Graphics & Bulletin Materials:
  • Clip Art Images: Matthew 13:24-43, Misioneros Del Sagrado Corazón en el Perú.
  • Matthew 13:24-43, Liturgical Drawing, Maria d.c. Zamora, Claretian Resources, Philippines. ("Download and use these for free.")
  • Matthew 13:24-43, at Cerezo Barredo's weekly gospel illustration. Liberation emphasis.
  • Commercial Site: The Parable of the Seed / The Kingdom of God Is Like a Mustard Seed, (Film/Visual Liturgy), The Work of the People.
• Hymns and Music:
  • "The Gospel Garden," TEXT: Mark Ryman (2005) based on Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43. TUNE: "Bethlehem." New Hymns for the Lectionary.
  • "Siblings of the Risen Prince," Brenton Prigge, NewHymn, weekly new, relevant hymn set to traditional tunes.
  • Hymnary.org, hymns, scores, media, information.
  • Hymns with Scripture Allusions: Matthew 13:31, 38, 39, 40. The Cyber Hymnal.
  • At Digital Hymnal (midi files, guitar chords, karaoke files, projection text):
    • It May Be at Morn
• Fine Arts Images Linked at The Text This Week's Art Index:
• Movies scenes with the following themes, listed at The Text This Week's Movie Concordance:
• Study Links and Resources for the Book of Matthew

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