But blessed are your eyes that see, and your ears for they hear

 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea.  And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.  Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying:  "Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.  Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.  But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.  But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop:  some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"  He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.  Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;
For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.'

"But blessed are your eyes that see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."

- Matthew 13:1-17

On Saturday, we read Jesus' words as He began to conclude the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:13-21):  "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.  Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.  You will know them by their fruits.  Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?  Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Therefore by their fruits you will know them.  Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven."

On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea.  And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.  Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying:  "Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.  Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.  But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.  But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop:  some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"  As we begin to prepare for the commemoration of Jesus' Ascension on Thursday, the lectionary skips forward to this parable in chapter 13 of Matthew's Gospel.  On Saturday we had read almost to Jesus' final words in the Sermon on the Mount.  But in today's reading, we skip ahead into Jesus' ministry, to a time when He is so well-known that many come to see Him out of curiosity, and so great multitudes come to Him.  Also by this time in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus has begun to have conflicts with the religious leadership, who openly demand to see a sign from Him to prove His identity as Messiah, which He refuses.  They have accused Him of casting out demons by the power of demons.  It is at this point in the Gospel that He begins to introduce a new style of preaching.  He begins to preach in parables.  In contrast to the Sermon on the Mount (which began with the Beatitudes), in which Jesus spoke explicitly of the blessedness of the kingdom of God and God's righteousness, parables are "word-pictures" which illustrate aspects of the Kingdom and rely on the perception of the listener.  My study bible adds that in the Old Testament, metaphors of sowing and harvesting are common (Psalm 126:5, Jeremiah 31:27-30, Hos 2:21–23; Joel 3:12–14).  These are images common to daily life for the people.  In this first parable, which introduces both the disciples and His audience of "great multitudes" to the use of parables in His preaching, Jesus introduces Himself in a particular way.  He is the Messiah who is the sower in the earth, foretold in Isaiah 55:10-13.

 And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"  He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.  Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand."  The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, my study bible notes, are not simply obscure concepts or some religious truths only for the elite.  Neither is the understanding of the parables just an intellectual process.  My study bible remarks that even the disciples find the message hard to understand.    Even as Jesus  taught the same message to all, it is the simple and innocent -- at whatever level of personal education or sophistication -- who are open to its message.

"And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:  'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.'"    Jesus quotes from Isaiah 6:9-10.  According to St. Chrysostom, this prophesy of Isaiah does not mean that God causes spiritual blindness in those who otherwise would have been faithful.  He explains rather that this is a figure of speech which is common to Scripture as giving people up to their own devices (as in Romans 1:24, 26).   That people will hear and not understand and will see and not perceive means that God permits self-chosen spiritual deafness and blindness (compare Exodus 8:15, 32 with Exodus 10:20, 27).   They did not become blind because God spoke through Isaiah; rather Isaiah spoke in prophecy as he foresaw their blindness. 

"But blessed are your eyes that see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."  This statement has echoes of Jesus' comparison of John the Baptist, considered the last and greatest of the prophets, to those who are least in the kingdom of heaven:   "Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" (11:11).  It is a tremendous blessing, far greater than we can commonly count it, to be a part of this Kingdom and experience its truths.

In our next reading, Jesus will address the meanings hidden in the parable He has taught of the Sower.  But one thing we can notice right off, and that is that Jesus promises that the seed that fell on good ground and yielded a crop:  some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  This is a teaching that gives us an idea of exponential growth somehow contained in this Kingdom, and in this work of the Sower.  We might call it "magical" -- as if these seeds are magical seeds from a fairy tale.  But that would be entirely missing the point.  There is not magic in the work of God, but something greater and more potent than what might be called magic.  The work of God is precisely that:  it is God's work in us.  It is the work of the holy, and this Kingdom will be accompanied -- even as it continues through our faith today -- with the promise of the Holy Spirit among us.  We are to be reminded here of the opposite of the purpose of the practice of magic that this work is the work of God.  What is produced is not merely something that comes of our own effort, but with the help of God, by the grace of God, and by the nature of the Kingdom which is divine.  Jesus gives us a picture of what is often called synergy, which means that those who struggle through the difficulties of faith and allow that seed to take root in the good ground of the heart and soul do not produce results solely on their own.  It means that our fruitfulness is not ours alone, but the work of God who works in us with our assent.  That is, with our hearts capable to receive this mysterious reality, we may watch it equally mysteriously grow in our lives.  Many decades ago, I prayed for God to make God's presence known to me because, being a very hard-headed person, I needed to know for myself, and not simply because someone else told me so.  My prayers were answered to the extent that what you now read as part of this blog is a continuation of several years' practice, and which is still ongoing.  It is the last thing I could and would have expected when I embarked on an honest simple prayer to God.  My writing skills have been used in journalism and other forms of more commercial writing, and there are other talents I have developed in life and worked at.  I often wonder myself why I do not pursue other forms of writing at this time.  But this is where God has led me, and the course of several years of writing -- through which ideas and insights continue to unfold, such as they are (and I hope worthy of reading and in some way helpful to my audience) -- continues to lead me forward, especially through prayer.  It is one small example of the power of God at work which we can't expect, can't predict nor plan, and which I say truly I cannot claim essential credit for.  It is something which is given, a gift one dare not refuse even when it is entirely different from one's expectation and/or social milieu of value.  The long and the short of it is that this growth is surprising, unexpected and unplanned, and in the hands of God as our faith grows.  Let us consider also Jesus' words when He teaches that "many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."  Let us consider the astonishing ways in which we are blessed and given every day grace and the gift of the possibility to experience this Kingdom.  We must open our eyes to realize how rich we are, and how we have been blessed with Christ's promise -- even when we live among those who have eyes and do not see, ears and do not hear, and hearts that have grown dull.