THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
A Sower sows: Mt 13,1-23
At the beginning of this discourse we are told that Jesus is sitting. This is the posture for teaching just as we saw for the Sermon on the Mount (5,1). The boat is simply than a convenient pulpit. We can though note that it is not mentioned again; it is not said where Jesus speaks to the disciples in verse 10. It is a detail of Matthew that the crowd are standing. This may reflect the crowd standing at a distance from Moses on Mount Sinai (Ex 20,18-21) because his message came from God.
The crowd when Jesus first told the parable is most likely to have been rural, so a parable about sowing would appeal to them. By the time this scene came to be written down several decades later, the community would have been largely urban.
The Sower and the seed: 13,3-9
It is important to hear the parable first on its own. The immediate context is 12,50 and doing the will of God. In the background of chapter 12 are those like the Pharisees who are failing to respond to the ministry of Jesus.
If we take 12,50 as our guide, then the story as told in 13,1-9 becomes one of a response to the will of God. This goes from no response with the seed on the path, to the shallow roots on rocky ground, to being choked by thorns before finally arriving at the bountiful rich soil.
We are not told who is the sower, such is the nature of parables. It could be God either as Father or as Jesus himself. Either way, the sowing is prodigal and generous and even careless. The emphasis is then on the seed and what happens to the seed. Sirach 40,15 makes the comment that the roots of the godless are on sheer rock. The seed falling on rich soil would be the response of those who accept the invitation to become the family of Jesus by seeking to do the will of the Father (12,50).
Hence verse 9 puts the emphasis on the response, the call to hear.
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A Commentary: 13,10-17
The disciples ask a question in verse 10 and get a more sympathetic reply from Jesus than they do in Mark (Mk 4,13: how will you understand any of the parables?).
Verse 11 speaks of the mysteries of the kingdom. This, such as we see in Daniel 2 or the canticle of Ephesians 1 refers to the hidden plans of God for history and for establishing his just rule by overcoming the forces of evil.
Both here and in verse 12 we have a "divine passive", in other words God is the true subject and all understanding is in his gift.
An allusion from Jeremiah, Jer 5,21, leads into the Isaiah quotation amking the point at greater length. Its taken from the great scene of the call of Isaiah in chapter 6. It is inevitably a favourite quote for early Christians as they sought to understand why the Jews failed to respond to the message of Jesus. Thus these words of Isaiah are almost the last words of the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 28,26-27).
The beatitude in verses 16 and 17 which is special to Matthew echoes verse 9. It is a reminder of the privledged status of the disciples because they are witnessing what the prophets longed to see and hear. There's a similar message in 1st Peter. Matthew has changed Luke's prophets and kings (Lk 10,24) to prophets and the righteous. We have seen how being righteous is a key theme for Matthew (5,20).
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Interpretation of the Parable: 13,18-23
There is the lengthy history in Christianity of interpreting the parables as allegories. It is now accepted that with few exceptions that is the wrong approach. Parables are stories or metaphors and are to be understood as such. That is our reading of the parable itself in 13,3-9.
Here we have an interpretation which is clearly stated as an allegory: the seed is the word. The hearers are therefore the different types of soil. This leads straight to the conclusion of the abundant harvest in verse 23.
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The Sunday Gospel
We have seen how an allegorical interpretation of the parable is offered in 13,18-23 with a focus on the spread of the word. That is where the emphasis of the liturgy seems to lie with the reading from Isaiah 55. Just choosing the orginal parable (13,1-9) as the shorter Gospel does not provide that same focus.
The Isaiah reading comes at the end of the exilic portion of the book, Is 40-55. It's purpose is to encourage exiles to return from Babylon to Jerusalem. The strong ending of Is 55 stresses therefore God's ways and God's purposes which will find fulfillment.
Reading from verse 6 of the chapter might therefore have made for a better reading. However, Is 55,6-9 is read on the 25th Sunday of cycle A - and I have mentioned how Is 55,1-3 is read on the 18th Sunday. Whether such a piecemeal approach to an Old Testament chapter is good practice is another matter.
Futhermore, the whole Is 55,1-11 is read at the Easter Vigil (and there it would be appropriate to include the last two verses, 11-12). The importance for the Church of this chapter of Isaiah is clear.
I would add that this discussion is not just a curiosity. It is a reminder that the presentation of the scriptures by the lectionary needs careful consideration.
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