Matthew 13
BSASBJesus teaches the crowds by the sea in parables, short pictures drawn from everyday life. They show how God’s kingdom is received, how it grows, and what it is worth. Some listeners are hardened and others have open hearts. The chapter ends with Jesus rejected in His own hometown.
Matthew 13:1-2
After a day of conflict, Jesus leaves the house and sits by the Sea of Galilee. The crowds press in so tightly that He teaches from a boat while they stand on the shore. The natural pulpit suits what He is about to say.
BSA: sat (“to teach, to rest”): Sitting was the normal posture of a teacher, so this is a formal teaching moment, not casual rest.
Matthew 13:3
Jesus tells His first parable: a farmer sows seed. He uses a familiar scene to carry a spiritual truth. The word is spoken to many, and what follows depends on the hearers.
BSA: parables (“stories that teach”): These are real-life stories that teach by comparison, drawing the listener in.
Greek: παραβολαῖς (parabolais, G3850) — “things thrown alongside.” A parable places one thing beside another so that the familiar scene lights up an unfamiliar truth.
See also: Mark 4:1-9.
Matthew 13:4-7
Seed falls in three poor places. On the hard path the birds eat it. On thin, rocky soil it shoots up fast but withers in the sun for lack of root. Among thorns it is crowded out. Much sowing seems wasted, yet the sower keeps sowing.
BSA: shallow (“lacking depth”): The trouble is not the seed but the missing depth beneath the surface. choked (“overwhelmed, suffocated”): The thorns do not attack the plant in a single blow. They slowly crowd out its life.
Matthew 13:8-9
Some seed lands on good soil and yields a rich harvest, far beyond what a farmer would normally hope for. Jesus then calls His hearers to listen with real attention. Hearing is more than sound reaching the ear.
BSA: hundredfold (“one hundred times as much, 100 times more”): The harvest is astonishing, showing what God’s word can do in a receptive heart. ears (“the ability to hear and understand”): Jesus is asking for understanding and response, not just listening.
Matthew 13:10
The disciples ask why Jesus teaches in parables. They sense that these stories are doing something different from plain instruction. His answer shows that parables both reveal and conceal.
Matthew 13:11
Jesus says His disciples have been given the knowledge of the kingdom’s secrets, and the crowds have not. This understanding is a gift from God, not something earned by cleverness. It is also an invitation, since those who come to Him are told more.
BSA: mysteries (“secrets, hidden truths”): These are truths once hidden and now being revealed by Jesus to those who follow Him.
Matthew 13:12
Whoever receives and values what God gives will be given more. Whoever shuts it out will lose even what little they thought they had. Truth welcomed grows. Truth ignored fades.
BSA: abundance (“an overflowing abundance, more than enough”): God’s gifts to the receptive do not just meet a need. They overflow.
Matthew 13:13
Parables meet people where they are. Those who will not truly look and listen see only a story. Those who are willing find the meaning inside it. The people’s own refusal is part of what Jesus describes here.
BSA: understand (“comprehend, grasp the meaning”): The failure is in grasping the meaning, not in missing the words.
Matthew 13:14-15
Jesus quotes Isaiah’s words about a people whose hearts have become dull, who close their eyes so they will not have to turn. Behind the sad words lies God’s desire: that they would turn and He would heal them.
BSA: heal (“cure, restore, make whole”): God’s goal for His people is full restoration, not judgment. turn (“repent, convert”): Turning means a real change of direction, and healing follows it.
Greek: ἐπαχύνθη (epachynthē, G3975) — “was made thick or fat.” The heart is pictured as grown thick and insensitive, like skin hardened by long wear.
See also: Isaiah 6:9-10.
Matthew 13:16-17
The disciples are called blessed because they see and hear what earlier believers longed for. The prophets and righteous people of old looked forward. The disciples now stand face to face with the One they promised.
BSA: blessed (“happy, supremely fortunate”): Their good fortune is to be present when God’s promise arrives. longed (“desired deeply, yearned”): The old believers were not casual. They ached to see this day.
See also: Luke 10:23-24; 1 Peter 1:10-12.
Matthew 13:18-19
Jesus now explains the sower. The path is the person who hears the message of the kingdom without understanding it. The evil one takes it away before it takes root. The seed is a living message, and it has an enemy.
BSA: snatches away (“seizes, takes by force”): The enemy acts quickly and forcefully before the word can settle.
Greek: ἁρπάζει (harpazei, G726) — “seizes, carries off by force.” The word suggests a sudden grab, like a bird swooping on the seed.
See also: Mark 4:15.
Matthew 13:20-21
The rocky ground is the person who receives the word gladly but has no depth. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, the joy collapses. Early enthusiasm is real, but only roots hold when the heat arrives.
BSA: joy (“deep and lasting happiness”): The joy was real, but it was not yet tested or deeply anchored.
Greek: σκανδαλίζεται (skandalizetai, G4624) — “is tripped up, stumbles.” The word pictures a trap or stumbling block. Such a person trips over the cost of following Jesus.
Matthew 13:22
The thorny ground hears the word, but life’s worries and the false promise of riches crowd it out. Nothing dramatic happens, and the person simply becomes absorbed with other things. The word is still there, but it bears no fruit.
BSA: worries (“cares, anxieties”): Anxious concern for daily life can take the place that belongs to God’s word. deceitfulness (“false promises, seductiveness”): Wealth promises security and satisfaction that it cannot deliver.
Greek: συμπνίγει (sympnigei, G4846) — “chokes together, strangles.” The plant and the thorns grow side by side, and the thorns slowly squeeze out its life.
See also: 1 Timothy 6:9-10.
Matthew 13:23
The good soil hears the word, understands it, and bears fruit, though in different measures. God is not asking for identical results. He is looking for hearts that truly take in His word and let it grow.
BSA: good soil (“fair, beautiful ground”): The soil is called beautiful because it is open, prepared and fit for growth.
See also: John 15:5-8.
Matthew 13:24-26
Jesus tells a second parable. A man sows good seed, but an enemy secretly sows weeds in the same field at night. Only when the wheat bears grain does the weed show itself. Good and evil grow up mixed together in the world.
BSA: weeds (“tares, darnel, a type of harmful plant”): Darnel looks almost like wheat until it matures, so the difference is hard to see early.
Greek: ζιζάνια (zizania, G2215) — “darnel, a weed resembling wheat.” Darnel looks so like young wheat that even careful workers cannot easily tell them apart.
Matthew 13:27-28
The servants are puzzled that a field sown with good seed now has weeds. The owner knows the answer: an enemy did it. They offer to pull the weeds out, but the owner is thinking of the wheat.
Matthew 13:29-30
The owner refuses to pull the weeds now because the wheat would be damaged. He will let both grow until the harvest. Then the harvesters will separate them. God’s patience now is real, and so is His judgment at the end.
BSA: harvest (“time of reaping, gathering”): The harvest is God’s appointed moment, not ours, for sorting what has grown.
Matthew 13:31-32
The kingdom starts as small as a mustard seed, yet grows into a great plant that shelters the birds. What looks tiny and unimpressive at first will become large. Jesus reassures His followers that God’s work does not depend on a grand beginning.
BSA: smallest (“least of all seeds”): The mustard seed was the proverbial picture of something tiny among the seeds a farmer sowed.
See also: Ezekiel 17:23.
Matthew 13:33
The kingdom is like yeast mixed into a large amount of flour until the whole batch rises. Its working is quiet and hidden, yet it spreads through everything. Christians have understood this picture differently, but all agree it shows steady, unstoppable growth.
BSA: leaven (“yeast, a moral influence”): Yeast works from within, quietly changing the whole lump.
Greek: ἐνέκρυψεν (enekrypsen, G1470) — “hid, buried inside.” The woman literally hides the yeast in the flour. Its work begins out of sight.
Matthew 13:34-35
Matthew says Jesus taught the crowds only in parables. He sees this as fulfilling the psalm in which the speaker opens his mouth in parables to utter what has been hidden. The kingdom’s secrets were planned long ago, and now they are being spoken.
BSA: hidden (“concealed, kept secret”): These truths were kept back for ages and now come out into the open.
See also: Psalm 78:2.
Matthew 13:36
Jesus leaves the crowds and goes into the house. His disciples ask Him to explain the parable of the weeds. Those who really want to understand come to Him privately and ask.
Matthew 13:37-39
Jesus explains the parable one piece at a time. He is the sower. The field is the world. The good seed are the people of the kingdom, and the weeds are the people of the evil one. The enemy is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age.
BSA: field (“the world with its inhabitants”): The field is not the church alone but the whole world and the people in it.
Greek: κόσμος (kosmos, G2889) — “world, ordered creation.” Jesus says the field is the whole world, so the kingdom’s seed is meant for every place and people.
See also: 1 Peter 5:8.
Matthew 13:40-43
At the end of the age the Son of Man sends angels to gather out of His kingdom everything that causes sin and all who live in lawlessness. They are cast into the furnace. The righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Jesus is the final judge, and the outcome is clear.
BSA: cause of sin (“stumbling block, offense, lawlessness”): The word covers whatever trips others and leads them into sin. shine (“be resplendent, like a light”): The righteous will radiate glory in their Father’s presence.
Greek: ἀνομίαν (anomian, G458) — “lawlessness.” The word means living as if God’s law does not matter, with no regard for His rule.
See also: Daniel 12:3; Matthew 7:23.
Matthew 13:44
A man finds treasure hidden in a field and joyfully sells everything to buy that field. The kingdom is worth more than all else. His giving up is not grim duty. It flows from joy at what he has found.
BSA: joy (“deep happiness, spiritual delight”): The man gives up everything gladly, because what he has found is better.
Greek: θησαυρῷ (thēsaurō, G2344) — “treasure, a stored-up store of wealth.” The word pictures a hidden hoard of wealth, such as people buried in the ground for safekeeping.
See also: Philippians 3:7-8.
Matthew 13:45-46
A merchant who has long searched for fine pearls finds one of great price and sells all he owns to buy it. In the first parable the man stumbles on the treasure, and in this one he is searching. Either way, the kingdom is worth everything.
BSA: precious (“valuable, costly”): This pearl is far above the rest, so no price is too high for it.
Matthew 13:47-50
A net gathers fish of every kind. When it is full, the fishermen sort the good from the bad. So at the end of the age the angels will separate the wicked from the righteous. The message echoes the weeds: for now the kingdom gathers all sorts, but the sorting is certain.
BSA: weeping (“intense crying, lamentation”): The picture is of deep grief, and Jesus uses it to show how serious the final loss is.
See also: Matthew 25:31-32.
Matthew 13:51-52
Jesus asks if they have understood, and they say yes. He then compares a trained teacher in the kingdom to a householder who brings out both new and old treasures. Those who learn from Jesus honor what God said before and share what He is now revealing.
BSA: discipled (“instructed, trained”): A disciple is a learner who is trained by following the Master.
Greek: μαθητευθεὶς (mathēteutheis, G3100) — “made a disciple, taught as a learner.” The word shares its root with the command to make disciples, so a scribe of the kingdom is one who has become a learner of Jesus.
See also: Matthew 28:19.
Matthew 13:53-54
Jesus returns to Nazareth and teaches in the synagogue. The people are amazed at His wisdom and mighty works, but they cannot see where it comes from. They know Him too well to see Him clearly.
BSA: astonished (“amazed, struck with wonder”): They were truly impressed, yet wonder did not become faith.
See also: Mark 6:1-3.
Matthew 13:55-56
The townspeople list what they know: His trade, His mother, His brothers and sisters. They treat the ordinary details of His family as reason to doubt Him. They do not ask whether God might be at work through someone so familiar.
BSA: carpenter’s (“skilled craftsman, possibly a woodworker”): Jesus came from a working household, and the townspeople could not see past that.
Matthew 13:57-58
They take offense at Jesus, who says a prophet is honored everywhere but at home. Because of their unbelief He does few miracles there. Faith does not make God’s power possible, but unbelief closes the door on receiving what He would give.
BSA: took offense (“were stumbled, scandalized”): His ordinariness became a stumbling block that kept them from believing. unbelief (“lack of faith, disobedience”): Their unbelief was more than doubt. It was a refusal to respond to Him.
Greek: ἐσκανδαλίζοντο (eskandalizonto, G4624) — “were tripped up, were scandalized.” They stumbled over Jesus as over a stone in the road. The same word was used for the shallow listener in verse 21.
See also: John 4:44.