CRITICAL NOTES
Matthew 13:47. Net.—The reference is to the large drag-net or seine, [σαγήνη—hence sagena (Vulgate) and English sean or seine]. One end of the seine is held on the shore, the other is hauled off by a boat and then returned to the land (Carr).
Matthew 13:52. Instructed unto the kingdom of heaven.—The new law requires a new order of scribes who shall be instructed unto the kingdom of heaven—instructed in its mysteries, its laws, its future—as the Jewish scribes are instructed in the observances of the Mosaic law (ibid.). Things new and old.—
1. Just as the householder brings from his stores or treasury precious things which have been heirlooms for generations, as well as newly acquired treasures; the disciples, following their Master’s example, will exhibit the true teaching of the old law, and add thereto the new lessons of Christianity.
2. Another interpretation finds a reference to Jewish sacrificial usage by which sometimes the newly-gathered fruit or corn, sometimes the produce of a former year furnished the offering (ibid.).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 13:44-52
The price of truth.—Two of these parables appear as like to each other as they seem different from the third. It is not difficult, however, to trace in all of them one general thought; a thought which comes in, also, in what the Saviour afterwards says to His disciples, in bringing this series of parables to a close (Matthew 13:51-52). Briefly expressed, this general thought is the exceeding value of truth. No possession is better. No beauty is greater. Nothing will show this like the end.
I. No possession is better.—“The kingdom of heaven is a treasure” (Matthew 13:44). So the first parable says. Even the man who is desirous of treasure may not see this at first. It is treasure “hid” in a field. He does not appreciate at first the full value of what is before him. But when he does see it—observe the fact—he “hides” it again. He covers it up as being that which he wants to keep for himself. He covers it up also, as being the only thing which he desires to possess. For joy thereof—for its sake—he parts with all else that is his. “He goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.” That is what truth is—the truth of the gospel—to him. It is the thing—the one thing—which he desires to possess (cf. Luke 10:39; Luke 10:41-42).
II. No beauty is greater.—This seems the further idea of the parable of the “pearl.” A pearl is not only a valuable possession. It is a lovely one, too; a thing of grace and adornment; a thing of lustre and glory. It is also to be observed that the man described here is a man who appreciates this. He is a “merchant seeking goodly pearls” (Matthew 13:45). The very reason why he is seeking them is because of their goodliness and beauty. And the thing he sets store on in his seeking and selecting is that they should be eminent in this way. Hence, therefore, the great significance of his final decision. In his search he comes across one particular pearl, such as he had never previously seen. He believes it to be one which it is impossible to surpass. He finds it therefore—hardly surprisingly—to be of very “great price.” That matters not in his eyes. He “goes and sells” all that he has, and brings the money together, and thankfully hands it over in exchange for that “pearl” (Matthew 13:46). So it is, also, that we ought to feel and do by the gospel of grace. As it was with the Apostle, so should it be to ourselves, “the glorious gospel of the grace of God,” the thing in comparison with which all other things are but as “dung and dross” (Philippians 3:8), and for the sake of which all that is inconsistent therewith, is parted from with delight (cf. Psalms 27:4, the “beauty of the Lord,” Psalms 96:9 etc.). Even so, in brief, the word of salvation is to those who view it aright, something as super-excellent in its methods and means as it is in its end.
III. Nothing will show all this like the end.—For the present, no doubt, it often appears as though the reverse were the truth, and as though it signified little whether a man saw or did not see the preciousness and beauty of truth. But that is simply because of what the third parable tells us with regard to the present; and of what the parable of the tares had previously told us of it in a different way. The present is a permittedly mingled condition of things. This had been represented in the previous parable by the tares and the wheat growing together. This is represented hero under a different figure, that of a “net.” The “kingdom of heaven,” as it is now, is “like unto a net cast into the sea,” and having within it, therefore, “gathered” together fish of “every kind.” For the present, therefore, and while the “net” is still in the “sea,” its contents are mingled together. The good and the bad are both there, sharing a common lot, for the time. But it was for a time—and for a time only—that this state of things was meant to continue. By and by, in the nature of things, the “net” would be drawn up on “the beach.” And when “on the beach,” in the nature of things again, its contents would remain “mingled” no more. There were those there, on the contrary, who would “sit down” and begin separating between them, and who would not conclude, also, till they had made a thorough and permanent end of the task. Then would be seen finally, what was sometimes so hidden now, how great was the difference in their lot; and how much it signified whether men saw or did not see the true character of the word. Where are the “good” fish now? Gathered in vessels. Where are the “bad” now? “Cast” wholly “away.” Where those persons now that once despised the word and yet were allowed for a time to stand by the side of those who honoured and prized it? “Severed” now from among them by the hands of those angels who have come forth for that purpose. “Severed” from among them and “cast away” from them—to where? To the same place and state as were previously spoken of in the same connection in the parable of the tares (cf. Matthew 13:50; Matthew 13:42). So doubly assured is it, therefore, that it shall not be with them, as with those who love the word, in the end.
Hence briefly, and to the disciples especially, as to those appointed to sow that seed of the word, the application of all. Let them, as such, take very good care:—
1. To understand the gospel themselves (Matthew 13:51).—How could they teach it unless they did? How could they lead into truth if they themselves were in error?
2. To prize it themselves.—This word of the kingdom, we have just seen, should be a peculiar “treasure” (Matthew 13:44-46) to all. It should be especially so to the “scribe” who should be of all men the most familiar with its meaning. And almost more so to the “householder” or steward (1 Corinthians 4:1), who has to dispense it to others. Let neither know of any “treasure” but this (end of Matthew 13:52).
3. To follow in doing so the example and teaching of the Master Himself.—This method of parables had been emphatically a bringing forth of “things new and old”—of illustrating and teaching the unfamiliar by means of the familiar (see before on Matthew 13:1-17). Also, as we saw before (Matthew 5:17 etc.), all that both seemed and was “new” in the teaching of the Saviour, was in very truth only the further extension and so the fulfilment of the “old.” Let those who were to go forth in the Saviour’s name adopt the same plan. Never be stale. Never be crude. Never obsolete. Never new-fangled. Always “up to date.” Never despising the past.
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Matthew 13:44. Treasure hid in a field.—
1. Another parable teaching us that the church, in regard of the precious doctrine of grace and salvation to be had by Christ in it, is, a rich treasure, able to relieve and supply all wants and necessities; therefore called a hid treasure, which the misbeliever, how wise soever in the world, cannot perceive.
2. The believer who findeth it will make no reckoning of the worth of any earthly thing in comparison of it, but will part with whatever is pleasant or profitable unto him in this life, rather than be deprived of this grace.
3. As he laboureth to have this treasure, so he hath a care to keep it.—David Dickson.
The hidden treasure.—I. There is a treasure, placed within our reach in this world, rich beyond all comparison or conception; a treasure incorruptible, and undefiled, and unfading.
II. The treasure is hidden.
III. The hidden treasure is at last found.
IV. The instant, ardent effort of the discoverer to make the treasure his own, now that he knows what it is and where it lies.
V. He parts with all in order that he may acquire the treasure.
VI. When the man had discovered the treasure, “for joy thereof” he went and sold all, in order to buy the field that contained it.—W. Arnot, D.D.
Matthew 13:45-46. The pearl of great price.—
I. The person represented by this merchant.—Different characters, different classes of sinners, are represented as being saved in the two parables of the hid treasure and the pearl of great price. For examples of these, let me select two remarkable men—Colonel Gardiner and John Bunyan. Gardiner’s was a sudden and remarkable conversion. In salvation he found as much as the man in the treasure which his ploughshare brought to light, what he never sought nor expected. Bunyan, on the other hand, seeking the pardon of sin, a purer life, and a holier heart, had been a merchant seeking “goodly pearls;” and, in his case, the seeker became the finder.
II. The pearl of great price.—As all which the merchant sought in acquiring many goodly pearls was found in one—one precious, peerless gem—Jesus teaches us that the soul finds in Himself all it feels the want of and has been seeking in other ways—peace with God and peace of conscience, a clean heart and a renewed mind, hope in death and a heaven of glory after it.
III. How this pearl was obtained.—It was not bestowed as a gift. On the contrary, the merchantman, trading in goodly pearls, bought it at the price of all he had. Though we cannot, in the ordinary sense of the term, buy salvation, no man is saved but he who gives up his sins for Christ, takes up his cross, and, denying himself daily, follows Jesus.
IV. Some lessons taught by this figure of a merchant.—
1. To make religion our chief pursuit.
2. To guard against deception.
3. To examine our accounts with God.—T. Guthrie, D.D.
Matthew 13:46. Goodly pearls.—No heart is, at this moment, quite vacant, quite listless, quite objectless. We will not speak of men whose goodly pearl is mere thoughtless self-indulgence. But we speak of three goodly pearls, sometimes reflecting, sometimes counterfeiting, the pearl of great price.
I. The pearl of true reality.—The thing that is a substance of which there are ten thousand shadows. Is there a goodlier pearl than this in all God’s universe? We do not complain of this object of search, but of the method of seeking. How often is the search of truth not a business, but a pastime, not a struggle, but an excuse! Away with the worship of doubting.
II. The pearl of virtue.—Let no man disparage it. God does not; Christ does not; but let no man make the pearl a thing which looks only at the act, and never enters into the heart, out of which, God says, are the issues of life. The seeker of the pearl of virtue must listen to what God has to say about it, and be wrapped within the folds of the righteousness of Christ.
III. The goodliest pearl of all to be threaded on this string is the pearl of love.—But who can tell the sorrows of the pursuit, or the disappointment of the attainment? One loves and the other does not. Oh, the merchant seeking this pearl, is a very sorrowful man ere all is done! But God is the Fountain of love, and offers Himself as its satisfaction. That is the Pearl of price.—C. J. Vaughan, D.D.
Matthew 13:45-46. Finding something better than sought.—The application of the parable is, intellectually at least, a short and easy process. It is not precisely the case of a man who finds the kingdom of God when he is seeking something else; neither is it the case of a man who first thoroughly knows the worth of that kingdom and then sets out in search of it. There is no such example; no man knows its worth before he obtains it. The merchant knew the value of pearls and set out in search of them, but such a pearl as that which he found he had never seen before, and never expected to see. So, although a man has some spiritual perceptions and spiritual desires, although by a deliberate judgment he determines to seek the life eternal in preference to all the business and pleasures of the world, he does not at the outset understand how exceeding rich the forgiving grace of God is. Nay, he thinks, when he first begins his search for salvation, that it may be accomplished by the union of many attainments, such as men may possess. Precious pearls and a number of them indeed; but still such pearls as he has often seen in the possession of other merchants, and as he has in former times had in his own store. He goes out with cash in hand to buy pearls, but he leaves his house and land still his own. He expects to acquire many excellent pearls and retain all his property besides. He did not conceive of one that should be worth all he had, until he saw it. It is thus that people under conviction set out in search of something that will make them right before God.—W. Arnot, D.D.
Matthew 13:46.Sacrifice for gain.—If a man wants money, he must seek it; if he wants learning, he must pay its price in hard study. Ignorance he may have without effort. To raise thistles a man need not prepare the ground nor sow the seed; to raise wheat he must do both. Toil is evermore the standard of value. Cost and worth are ever close neighbours. Only by the rugged path of toil do men reach the heights of great attainment; only by paying the price of heroic effort do they write their names high in the temple of fame. We are all familiar with the answer of Euclid to King Ptolemy Lagus when he asked, “Is there not a shorter and easier way to the study of geometry than that which you have laid down in your Elements?” His reply was, “There is no royal road to geometry.” There is no road to heaven but that of sacrifice, that of cross-bearing; we must go in this narrow way or not at all. But it is also a way of joy, a path of pleasantness and peace. You must not expect to become a Christian by accident. That blessed experience must be the result of deliberate determination, of intelligent seeking, and of faithful enduring. This truth is earnestly affirmed in many parts of Christ’s teaching. Christ’s honesty is worthy of commendation. He clearly lays down the conditions of discipleship; we must take up the cross and follow Him.—R. S. MacArthur, D.D.
Matthew 13:47-50. The net.—
I. The net gathers of “every kind.”—This is set before us as a picture of the church of Christ as it now is. It embraces every variety of character.
II. This mixture arises from the manner in which the kingdom of heaven is proclaimed among men.—It is not proclaimed by addressing private messages to selected and approved individuals, but publicly to all. The recruiting sergeant watches for likely men and singles them out from the crowd; but the kingdom of heaven opens its gates to all, because it has that which appeals to humanity at large, and can make use of every kind of man who honestly attaches himself to it.
III. But this mixture is at length to give place.—The end is not a mere running down of the machinery that keeps the world going, it is not a mere exhaustion of the life that keeps us all alive, it is not a hap-hazard cutting of the thread; it is a conclusion, coming as truly in its own fit day and order, as much in the fulness of time and because things are ripe for it, as the birth of Christ came.
IV. The distinction which finally separates men into two classes must be real and profound.—It is here said to be our value to God. It is possible some one may defend himself against the parable by saying, “I will not alarm myself by judging of my destiny by my own qualities; I am trusting to Christ.” But precisely in so far as you are trusting to Christ, you have those qualities which the final judgment will require you to show. “If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” You are useful to God in so far as you have the Spirit of Christ.—M. Dods, D.D.
The draw-net.—The net is not the visible church in the world, and the fishes, good and bad, within it, do not represent the true and false members of the church. The sea is the world. The net, almost or altogether invisible at first to those whom it surrounds, is that unseen bond which, by an invisible ministry, is stretched over the living, drawing them gradually, secretly, surely, towards the boundary of this life, and over it into another. As each portion or generation of the human race are drawn from their element in this world, ministering spirits, on the lip of eternity that lies nearest time, receive them and separate the good from the evil.
I. Some of the reasons which commend this interpretation.—
1. It assumes, according to the facts of the case and the express terms of the Scripture, that the same persons who draw the net also separate the worthy from the worthless of its contents on the shore.
2. In owning this along with Olshausen, it owns also that the angels who separate the good from the evil at the end of the world are angels, and does not, with him, explain them away into the human ministry of the gospel.
3. It is perfectly congruous with the habits of fishermen, and the character of the instruments which they employ. When you allow that the angels cast and draw the net as well as divide its contents, the incongruities disappear and the picture starts into life, true to the original.
4. If any struggles are made against the encircling net during the slow, solemn process of drawing, any efforts on the part of the captives to leap out into freedom, they are made, not by one kind in displeasure at being shut up with another, but by every kind indifferently in displeasure at being shut up at all. Like the indefinite terror of mute fishes when they feel the net coming closer in, is the instinctive alarm of human beings when the hand of death is felt gradually contracting the space in which the pulses of life are permitted to play.
II. Objections which may be urged against this interpretation.—
1. The Lord at another time, in calling some of His Apostles, said, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). He did; and I think it is by a mistake in instituting an analogy between that fact and this parable that interpreters have been led into a wrong track.
2. But has not the Lord said in this parable, as in all the rest of the group, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea? He has; yet the fact does not prove that He meant to represent the church by the net, and the labour of Apostles by the spreading and drawing of the net. The closing lesson about the kingdom relates to the closing scene of the kingdom—the separation of the wicked from the good on the great day. From the order of the subjects in the series you might expect this; from the picture actually presented you are logically led to infer this; but, especially, you know this from the spontaneous explanation then and there given by the Lord.—W. Arnot, D.D.
The parables of the net and the tares.—There is obviously considerable resemblance between this parable of the net and the parable of the tares. But the one is not a mere repetition of the other under a different figure. Every parable is intended to illustrate one truth. Light may incidentally be shed on other points, as you cannot turn your eye, or the light you carry, on the object you wish to examine without seeing and shedding light on other things as well. Now the one truth which is especially enforced in the parable of the tares is that it is dangerous in the extreme to attempt in this present time to separate the evil from the good in the church: whereas the one truth to which the parable of the net gives prominence is that this separation will be effected by and by in its own suitable time. No doubt this future separation appears in the parable of the tares also, but in that parable it is introduced for the sake of lending emphasis to the warning against attempting a separation now; in this parable of the net it is introduced with no such purpose.—M. Dods, D.D.
The emphasis in the parable.—The parable sets the present mixture of good and bad in the kingdom of heaven or in the church over against the eventual separation.—Ibid.
Matthew 13:51-52. The householder and the disciples.—
I. All truth is of necessity old as well as new.—The truths Christ taught were only new truths because men, from sin and neglect, had overlooked them.
II. As things new are in reality old, so things old—the things of the Spirit of God—never become obsolete.—They take new life, and are seen in new developments day by day.
III. Every man’s experience is a treasure-house of old and new things, by which it is allowed him to profit. The past is a precious possession of every one of us.—A. Ainger.
Things new and old.—What were the things which our Lord was anxious to assure Himself that; His disciples had understood? Evidently the things which they had just heard. “Therefore” is a particle of inference; but the argument from which the conclusion comes is not explicitly given. We can have little difficulty, however, in supplying it.
I. Our Lord is arguing from His own example.—“You say you have followed Me; well, then, note My practice; let My method show you what yours must be; let it show you what is the duty of every scribe who is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven; his teaching, like Mine, must blend the old and the new.” It was, no doubt, strange to the Twelve to hear their work set forth under the image of the text. They could understand being disciples of a prophet, or heralds of a kingdom; they were, perhaps, not greatly startled when they were told to be fishers of men; but the name of scribe must have had sinister associations for them. Jesus would have it understood that in itself the office was not only a necessary, but a great and noble thing. It was right that those who had the leisure and capacity should make a special study of the words of inspiration, that they should not keep to themselves the knowledge they gained. Our Lord would have His Apostles know that work of this honourable kind awaited them. They were not to be the mere preachers of a new doctrine. The later prophets and the Psalms were to be as dear to them as to the greatest of Rabbis; nay, infinitely dearer and more suggestive because vocal with life-giving truths hidden from the wise and prudent. Yes, they also were to be scribes and interpreters. We hardly realise, I think, how closely our Lord’s own practice corresponded with this remarkable precept; but in all His teaching how careful He was to blend the old and the new! His discourses are filled with thoughts and illustrations, the germs of which it is easy to discover, and with sayings which had become the common property of generations. When He pointed His disciples to the parables they had heard that day, He intended them to observe this very fact, that they were a fusion of old and new. He laid no claim to a perfect originality, but freely chose His materials out of the popular teaching of the day. We know that some of the most impressive parables He spoke—the surprise parables, as they are called, because they tell of the Master’s coming, as well as the fixed limiting of Christ’s work—are expansions of sayings to be found in the Jewish Talmud. And not a few of the terms most characteristic of Christianity were current in our Lord’s day. “Baptism,” “regeneration,” “kingdom of God,” “kingdom of heaven”—these were words and expressions not strange but familiar to Jewish ears. They were not the coinage of Christianity, but they were minted anew by its Author; they were stamped afresh with the Divine image and superscription.
II. As in His teaching, so in the choice of His witnesses we see the action of the same principle.—He calls the fishermen from their craft, not to obliterate their old experience, but to utilise it in the new when He should make them fishers of men, to prove that the patience and fertility of resource in which they were trained on the Sea of Galilee had ample scope in the higher vocation. He calls Matthew, bidding him abandon the most secular for the most sacred of employments; but must not the publican have found abundant opportunity of bringing out of his treasury things new and old?
III. The Christian teacher is assumed by our Lord to have a treasure on which to draw, and a varied treasure.—And this, of course, implies that it is a treasure which is for ever growing. It is true both of teachers and the taught that our Lord’s ideal is in many cases an alarming one. They are uneasy when the old is presented in a new garb; suspicious when old terms and formularies are exchanged for equivalents which make a fresh appeal to the conscience or demand fresh exercise of thought. Through a dread of innovation, the secret of which is often nothing else than mental indolence, people identify truth with a certain set of words, any revision of which is felt to be profane. The old, imperishable truths must be fused with new and living thought. Surely no view of Scripture does it less honour than the assumption that it has been completely explored, and that no new methods of inquiry, no new conditions of the church and the world, can ever make it yield what it has not yielded already. “I am verily persuaded,” said the pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers, as they embarked in the Mayflower, “that the Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of His Word.” “It is not incredible,” says Bishop Butler, “that a book which has been so long in the possession of mankind contains many truths as yet undiscovered.” Yes, the old prayer of the Psalmist is that which befits every student of the Bible: “Open Thou mine eyes that I may see the wondrous things of Thy law.” And yet, precious as is the treasure of the written revelation, it does not constitute the whole treasure of the Christian scribe. Our confidence that the words of Christ shall never pass away lies in this—that they are not rigid rules for spiritual life; they have a power to consecrate all human interests, and to adjust themselves to all conceivable social conditions, until the kingdoms of this world shall be finally brought under His sway. The attempt has been made to treat Mohammedanism as a religion worthy to be placed in competition with Christianity. Is not this the essential quality which differentiates Christianity from all other religious and professed revelations, that whereas they profess to be complete and final, the Christian revelation is not confined within the covers of a book, but consists in a life and a spirit? But the essential weakness of Mohammedanism is this, that it has upon it the mark of finality. It is a religion of the letter, and not of the spirit.
IV. But is not the text intended to describe the attitude of mind incumbent upon us all in regard to truth?—We cannot fulfil our Lord’s description unless we are keeping our minds loyally open, and while reverentially tenacious of the old, are ready to hopefully welcome the new. Look at the map of the world according to Strabo or Ptolemy. Can anything be more ludicrously incomplete than that strange medley of fact and guesswork? But the geography of Strabo and Ptolemy satisfied the ages in which they lived, and was, no doubt, regarded at the time as a final achievement. It took centuries to develop the knowledge we have to-day. And the map of human knowledge is in the same condition. It is made up of ascertained facts and conjectures more or less wide of the mark; while beyond the regions of the explored or guessed at there lies the vaster domain for which no voyager has set sail. But this courageous openness of mind, which is the mark of a firm, manly faith, is a very different thing from the restless, inconstant spirit which is ever on the look out for novelty, which grasps at the new because it is new, and distrusts the old because it is old; which makes no distinction between facts and theories, but takes up eagerly with the latest speculation. In a stirring, excitable time, we cannot too carefully remember that while facts have an imperious claim upon us, theories have no such claim. They are not yet parts of the truth, and they may never be parts of it. They are only tentative efforts to combine facts, explain facts, or manipulate facts.—Canon Duckworth.
Matthew 13:51. Understanding the word.
1. Hearers of the gospel should labour to understand what they hear.
2. The minister by catechising should take account of his hearers, for so doth Christ, saying, “Have ye understood?”
3. People, of what quality soever, should be willing to give account to their teachers of their profiting in knowledge: for the disciples answer, “Yea, Lord.”—David Dickson.