Matthew 13:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

This is why another Gospel writer records Christ rebuking them for their lack of understanding: "Why do you not understand this parable?" (Mark 4:13) His use of parables is not solely to enrich His teachings or make them more memorable; the prophets employed such methods too. So, what constitutes a parable? Consider the sower—let him sow. Where does He who is always present and fulfills all things originate? He did not emerge from a specific location, but rather, He came forth through His intent and provision for us when He took on humanity. Our transgressions had obstructed our path to Him and hindered our ascendance; thus, He came forth to meet us. What was His intention in coming? Was it to eradicate the thorn-filled land? To reprimand the farmers? Not at all. His purpose was to cultivate the earth thoroughly and to sow the seeds of righteousness upon it. Here, the seed represents Christ's teachings, the field symbolizes the souls of humanity, and the sower is Himself.

He did not come forth from a specific location, for He is omnipresent; however, He approached us in human form, hence it is said that He "came out," indeed from the heart of the Father. He approached us when we were unable to reach Him. What was His purpose in coming forth? Was it to illuminate the earth amidst the thorns, or to bring judgment? No, His intent was to sow. He refers to the seed as His own because the prophets also sowed, but it was not their own seed—they sowed the seeds of God. Yet He, being God, sows His own seed, for He did not acquire wisdom through grace; He Himself is the embodiment of God's wisdom.

The multitude lacks the same discernment, and each person possesses a distinct will that varies from the others. This is why He communicates through parables, allowing for various teachings according to their differing wills. Importantly, He did not speak entirely in parables to them, but rather only in many instances. For had everything been conveyed in parabolic form, the nations would have gained little benefit. He intertwines the clear with the obscure, inviting them to understand the incomprehensible through the clarity He provides.

The sower did not go out to sow wheat or barley for earthly sustenance but rather faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, along with hope in the resurrection and love for God and neighbor in a non-partial way. Christ went to sow, utilizing ten yokes of oxen, as declared by the great Isaiah, for ten yokes of oxen are never insufficient to complete a single barn. The ten yokes represent, in the divine essence, the holy visage of the Apostles. The twelve represent the Apostles before the Passion, while seven signifies those chosen with Stephen (the Archdeacon) after the Holy Resurrection. The twentieth is the voice from heaven—Saul, who was confronted with the question, "Saul, why do you persecute Me?" thereby disarming him, who had begun to oppose the one-flesh Israel, and arming him to fight for Christ. These represent mentally understood warriors. The twelve oxen ploughed the soul's field, the field of humanity, and in Christ sowed the seed of faith in Him. Our earthly mixture, the composite of the body, was made a single vessel to receive the divine solution of blood and water poured out to save from the thrust of the spear. The sower and benefactor of our being is Christ, who before His incarnation formed us from nothingness. Having broken death, He renews us and transforms us, making us immortal, blessed, and sublime in our entirety and essence, devoid of the admixture of evil. He is the clay, fashioned from our clay into flesh, encompassing the life-giving water of His divinity, which John the Baptist proclaimed with excitement when he beheld Jesus, exclaiming, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world," through the Cross and the outpouring of blood and water. This is further illustrated when the disciples inquired of Jesus where He would prepare the Passover; He instructed them, "Go into the city, and you will encounter a man carrying an earthen vessel of water. Say to him, 'The Teacher says: At your house I will celebrate the Passover with My disciples.' He will show you a spacious upper room, fully furnished. Prepare it there." This realization reflects the symbolism: the man carrying the earthen vessel of water represents John the Baptist, preaching the baptism of repentance. The city symbolizes the exalted Jerusalem, home to the assembly of righteous saints. The upper room, adorned with decorative mats like stars, resembles our royal altar, decorated with various ornaments. Furthermore, it is evident, as affirmed by the Apostle Paul, that he likens the Apostles and Prophets to oxen, stating, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain." He follows this with, "Is God concerned about oxen?" meaning this is spoken for our benefit. Recalling the exalted prophecy of Isaiah: "Ten yokes of oxen shall not fail to yield a single barn," it is quickly followed by, "He who sows six measures shall reap three." Should we consider that such a great transgression resulted in the production of only three measures from six sown? It does not say, "shall produce three measures," just "three measures," implying a meager yield. However, let us delve deeper for deeper significance. The six signifies the sowing of the church in humanity: four books of the Gospel, one book of the Acts of the Apostles, and the sixth, the writings of the great Apostle Paul in one statute. From these six, fruit is borne by those who follow the teachings of the saints in public life. Three forms of faith are sown: faith in the Father, faith in the Son, and faith in the Holy Spirit. The sower went forth to scatter not wheat that nourishes the body, but the life-giving faith. However, the seed failed to germinate universally: one seed fell "by the way," not on the Way itself—these are those imperfect in their relationship with Christ, who do not believe directly in Him. He declared, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Those "not far from the Way" are the Arians, and likewise the Hellenes or Jews, but they exist outside of Christ. While they may acknowledge Christ, their blasphemous denial of His equality with the Father estranges them from the true Path. Thus, the birds of the air—representing evil spirits—swoop down to devour God's seeds from the hearts of the unrepentant. The Lord Himself commanded against such practices, stating, "Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine." He further instructed, "Take a piece from those who have ten and give to those who possess none," meaning that to those with genuine faith will be granted more. "And that which he seems to have will be taken away," says the Lord. This indicates that no good will arise from works if one serves God without true faith. As the Lord declared, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned." The wicked heretics are no better than the infidels. Those caught in the thorns likely symbolize the Eunomians, for their blasphemy brings them to lawlessness, as they dare to speak madly about Christ, declaring Him a creature. This is like the thorns that suffocate them, preventing them from maturing in faith. This also applies to those within our church who are ensnared by worldly distractions, failing to allow the divine seed to thrive and bear fruit. Another fell not on stone, but into rocky soil. The Stone symbolizes Christ, as the divine Paul noted. In the stony ground lie those whose hearts are hardened and defiant. The human heart is softer than stone, which is the hardest substance. The seed, being softer than stone, is nonetheless denser than earth. The Lord forewarned against identifying with the stone those abominable followers of Macedon and Marathon, who blaspheme the Spirit and utter falsehoods about His creation. They invite the Lord's wrath without the hope of forgiveness, as the Lord stated: "Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, neither in this age nor in the age to come." Their hearts are not fertile in the way Christians' hearts are to receive the seed but are hardened rocks meant to contain the sanctuary. Acknowledging that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is in essence one with the Father marks them softened, yet denying the divinity of the Holy Spirit renders their hearts stony. They are partially sound yet fully blind, equating the Creator with the created and lowering the Sovereign to the level of a servant or a silent slave. The great Apostle excommunicates them: "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." Yet another seed, the Lord said, "fell on good soil and yielded fruits: one thirtyfold, one sixtyfold, and one hundredfold." The good soil symbolizes a righteous and prudent heart, cleansed from the thorns of heresy, which first yields the grass of faith, then the ear of hope, and finally the fully ripened fruit of love. The divine Paul illustrates this by stating that the greatest virtues are faith, hope, and love. Thus, he who believes yields thirty, he who hopes yields sixty, and he who has been perfected in love reaps a hundredfold from one seed, harvesting fruit three times. In honoring God, exalted within the Church, we comprehend the essence of Being with our spirit, perceive with our soul, and endure with our bodies. On earth we glorify, rise from the dead, and rest in heaven. The perfect person concerning the Trinity is faithful, humble, adored by all, merciful, loving to mankind, righteous, and does not spare the body, engaging in the Divine with a thirst for the Heavenly, living in the body among people and manifesting on earth as an 'image.' Thus, they gather thirty while living among men, sixty through service with angels, and a hundred in communion with God. By anointing with oil, they yield thirtyfold; by baptism, they yield sixtyfold; and through the complete anointing of Peace, they yield one hundredfold. He who believes in the Father produces thirty; he who confesses the equality of God the Son to the Father produces sixty; and he made perfect by the Spirit, who acknowledges that the Spirit is God, yields a hundred. Some devout individuals assert that faith directed to the Spirit yields thirty, to the Son sixty, and to the Father a hundred. They harm themselves thinking it necessary to diminish the Holy Spirit in favor of elevating the Father and the Son, ascribing higher significance to the Father and the Son in order. This mindset is deeply flawed. For they do not first believe in the Spirit but in the Father, then in the Son, and finally affirm the complete Holy Trinity of the Divine and Holy Spirit. As the divinely inspired hymn-writer expressed, there was a Trinity at the genesis of creation: "By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their host." By "the mouth," he refers to the Lord the Father; by "the Word," he refers to the Son; the Holy Spirit embodies the fullness of the Holy Trinity. The Lordship of the Spirit was manifest when Christ rose from the dead and instructed His disciples, "Receive the Holy Spirit... Whosever sins you forgive, they are forgiven." In this, He reveals the authority of the Spirit—that the gift of the Spirit empowers the forgiveness of sins. We must not find ourselves perishing alongside the heretics, wishing that the Queen of the South, who journeyed from the ends of the earth to Solomon in search of wisdom, would condemn us for our indifference towards more significant matters.

As all nations that scorned His righteousness remained under the dominion of evil, He went forth to plant righteousness where it had previously been absent due to their transgressions. The sower came forth to scatter seeds, emphasizing that He did not merely go out to plant; He declared, "He who sows," indicating that this is not the work of a new sower or one new to the task, but rather that this inherent ability to sow has always been His. From the very beginning of humanity, He has instilled the seeds of wisdom within creation. He is the one who, through Moses, imparted the seeds of His divine law to the people. It is He who, through the prophets, not only corrected current events but also revealed knowledge of what is to come. He came forth to spread divine teachings through His own embodiment within humanity.

In a different parable discussing tares, Christ identified Himself as the sower — the Son of Man — as He explained to His disciples: "He who sows good seed is the Son of Man" (Mt. 13:37). However, when interpreting this particular parable, He did not explicitly identify the sower. Thus, we can rightly conclude that Jesus Himself acts as the sower, along with the apostles, their successors, and all who preach the word of God, whether verbally or through writings. Just as the soil varies in the fields, so too does the multitude before the preacher, who spreads the divine message.

The parable, or mashal, was not foreign to the Jewish people, as the Old Testament had shown attempts to express particular truths through similar means (Judges 9:7; Exodus 5:1; Ezekiel 13:11, among others), and by this time, it was regularly employed by rabbinical teachers. Its primary feature is the conveyance of moral or spiritual truth in a more vivid manner than is achievable through straightforward explanation. For this reason, the instructor draws upon familiar phenomena from nature or everyday life, creating comparisons that vividly illustrate the presented truth and engrave it in the minds of the audience. Essentially, the parable resembles a fable, allowing for fictitious scenarios, yet it remains grounded in reality and does not attribute characteristics to its characters that contradict their inherent nature. While inherently simple, it conveys a serious and noble tone, extracting profound truths from the most commonplace occurrences, deeply embedding them in the listeners' consciousness. The entirety of the surrounding life provided boundless material for such parables; Christ, with His divine wisdom, embodied the truths of the kingdom of heaven through them. The sower on a hillside, the weeds among the wheat, the tiny mustard seed, the yeast in the dough, the treasure found by a farmer, and many other similar images served as occasions for Him to articulate the most profound truths in an engaging manner that the human intellect can grasp. While other teachers may have successfully employed compelling exhortations, it is through Christ that this form acquired a truly divine and transcendent quality, establishing the parable as a powerful tool for embedding the greatest truths of God's kingdom into the hearts of humanity. After leaving Simon the Pharisee's house, the Saviour was followed by a throng of people eager to absorb His divine teachings. Christ made His way to the lakeshore, where the crowd was large and pressed against Him, making it difficult for His voice to carry. Therefore, He entered a boat, as He had done previously, and from its elevated stern, like a pulpit, He addressed the multitude on the shore with teachings, specifically parables. The first of these remarkable lessons was the parable of the Sower, illustrating the initial sowing of God's word in the human heart. In a region like Galilee, the images and scenarios depicted in this parable were extremely relatable and comprehensible; indeed, the sower could be seen by all, casting seeds into a freshly ploughed field on a nearby sloping hill by the lake.

Parables also serve to conceal deeper truths from certain audiences, revealing them only to those who are more perceptive (cf. Mk. 4:33 and Theophilus). The prophets of old also employed parables, and during the time of the Savior, this style of communication became particularly prominent in explaining spiritual teachings.

The parables given by the Lord stand out due to their remarkable simplicity, clarity, purity, and significance. They predominantly draw from the familiar themes, jobs, and circumstances of daily life, ensuring their comprehensibility to all people. These stories center on Christ, His existence, His teachings, His Kingdom or Church, and the various relationships individuals have with Him, thus rendering them critically important for all. Their presentation is remarkably straightforward, making them accessible and understandable even to children, while appealing to individuals of all ages, genders, and backgrounds. In discussing the interpretation of parables, St. Chrysostom provides a vital guideline: it is not essential to analyze every detail literally; rather, one should discern the intended purpose and apply it beneficially, without seeking to decode every minor aspect, as not all specifics hold significant metaphoric meaning.

Concerning the mention of "Many," the key issue is not whether all the parables in this chapter were delivered by the Lord simultaneously or whether the Evangelist aggregated them from different occasions (notably, Luke attributes some of these teachings to various moments: see Lk. 8:9 and Lk. 13:19). What truly matters are the parables themselves, irrespective of the timing of their delivery. The phrase "The sower went out to sow" uses an image familiar to all, making it easily relatable. Sowing beautifully represents the dissemination of God’s Word, which, when it reaches the heart, may yield nothing or produce considerable fruit, contingent upon the heart's condition.