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Matthew 13:47–58

God will judge sinners

Jesus said that God must judge people. He emphasised this. It would happen to all non-believers. Then the people judged Jesus. His own people refused to accept him too.

In Israel, people used a certain kind of net in which to catch fish. It was a large square net. It had ropes at each corner. It also had heavy things that made the net hang well. But, when the boat moved, the ropes pulled the net into a shape. It caught the fish as the boat dragged it through the water. (It was called a drag-net.) This type of net caught all sorts of fish. The boat would return to land, dragging the net. Some of the fish were not good for people to eat. So the people who caught the fish must check them all.

Jesus lived in a place where people’s main job was to fish. So most of those who heard him would know about the nets. The story taught the same lesson as the story about the good grain and the weeds. (Read Matthew 13:49–50. Compare Matthew 13:40–43.) Jesus taught the same truth twice. He explained it each time. This was to make sure that those who heard him had understood him.

Read Matthew 13:51–52. Here, Jesus showed that religious experts could believe in him too. There was nothing to stop them being his disciples. The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees knew the OT well. They thought that they understood it too. And they thought that Jesus’ teaching was different from the OT. But the OT and Jesus’ teaching matched. A good teacher would notice this. And Jesus wanted those who heard him to understand this too. In his book, Matthew often showed how they matched. He showed how the OT pointed to Jesus.

People who came from his home refused to accept Jesus (Matthew 13:53–58)

In these verses, Matthew began a new section of his book. He described people’s reactions to Jesus.

Jesus returned to Nazareth. That was the town where he grew up (Matthew 13:53–54). There, he went to the synagogue. It was the last time that Matthew recorded that Jesus went there. People were surprised that Jesus was in the synagogue. The people heard his words. They saw his actions too. But they could not believe in him. They gave an excuse for this. (Read Matthew 13:55–56.) They were familiar with Jesus and his family. They thought that they knew all about him. So they refused to accept him (Matthew 13:57).

Because of this, Jesus would not do many miracles there. It was for the same reason that he spoke only in parables. People would not believe in him. So he would not teach them in any other way.

Matthew recorded this incident here on purpose. In the parables, Jesus had been describing most of the Jews. They were like bad soil. They were like weeds. They were like fish that men must throw away. Now, the people who were in Jesus’ own district would not believe in him. They refused to accept his wisdom. They saw his wonderful actions. But they still did not recognise the source of the actions. They did not see that his actions were evidence of the work of God’s Spirit. They did not know that Jesus was the Son of God. So they did not understand that his disciples were his real brothers.

Questions

  • You can think that you know Jesus very well. But you may not really understand him. Is this possible? If so, explain how it could be possible.
  • Jesus clearly believed that knowledge of the OT was vital. Why is it vital?
  • Do people in your culture have their own ideas about Jesus? Do these ideas show what Jesus is really like? Do the people in your church have their own ideas about Jesus? Do they match what the Bible teaches about him?