Matthew 13:24-58

²⁴Jesus also told the crowd another parable, by which he tried to explain that although God MTY/EUP is a king, he will not immediately judge and punish all the wicked people. Jesus said, “ God is like a landowner who sent his servants to sow good wheat seed in his field.

²⁵While those servants were sleeping and not watching the field, an enemy of the landowner came and scattered weed seeds in the midst of the wheat. Then he left.

²⁶After the seeds sprouted and the green plants grew, the heads of grain began to form. But the weeds also grew.

²⁷So the servants of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, you RHQ gave us good seeds and those are the ones we RHQ planted in your field. So where did the weeds come from?’

²⁸The landowner said to them, ‘ My enemy did this.’ His servants said to him, ‘So, do you want us to pull up the weeds and put them in a pile?’

²⁹He said to them, ‘No, do not do that, because you might pull up some of the wheat at the same time.

³⁰Let the wheat and the weeds grow together until harvest time.’ At that time I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather the weeds, tie them into bundles to be burned. Then gather the wheat and put it into my barns.’”

³¹Jesus also told this parable: “The number of (OR, God's influence in the lives of) people whose lives God rules over will continue to grow. It is very much like mustard seeds grow after a man plants them in his field.

³²Although mustard seeds are among the smallest of all the seeds that people plant, here in Israel they become large plants. When the plants have fully grown, they are larger than the other garden plants. They become shrubs that are large enough for birds to build nests in their branches.”

³³Jesus also told this parable: “ The way people who let God MTY/EUP rule their lives MET can influence the world is like yeast that a woman mixed with about fifty pounds of flour. That small amount of yeast made the whole batch of dough swell up.”

³⁴Jesus told the crowd parables to teach them all these things. When he spoke HYP to them, he habitually used such illustrations.

³⁵By doing that, he fulfilled what God told one of the prophets to write long ago: I will speak MTY in parables; I will tell parables to teach what I have kept secret since I created the world.

³⁶After Jesus dismissed the crowds, he went inside. Then we disciples approached him and said, “Explain to us the parable about the weeds that grew in the wheat field.”

³⁷He answered, “The one who sows the good seed represents me, the one who came from heaven.

³⁸The field represents this world MTY, where people live. The seeds that grew well represent the people who let God rule their lives MET. The weeds represent the people who do what the devil, the Evil One, tells them to do.

³⁹The enemy who sowed the weed seeds represents the devil. The time when the reapers will harvest the grain represents the time when the world will end. The reapers represent the angels.

⁴⁰The weeds are gathered and burned. {The reapers gather the weeds. Then they burn them.} That represents the judging of people, which God will do when the world will end. It will be like this:

⁴¹I, the one who came from heaven, will send my angels, and they will gather from everywhere the people who cause others to quit believing in me MET and all those who disobey God's commands.

⁴²They will throw those people into the fires of hell. There those people will weep and grind their teeth because of the great pain that they are suffering.

⁴³God's brightness will shine on the people who have lived as he wants them to. It will shine on them as brightly as the sun shines. It will shine on them in the place where God, their Father, rules over them. If you want to understand this MTY, you should think carefully about what I have just said.”

⁴⁴“ What people do who begin to allow God MTY/EUP to rule their lives is like what a certain man did to acquire a treasure. A treasure was hidden in a field by someone {Someone hid a treasure in a field and never dug it up again}. When another man found it, he hid it by burying it again in order that no one else would find it. Being very happy that he had found something very valuable, he went and sold all his possessions to obtain money to buy the field the treasure was in. He then went and bought the field, and so he was able to acquire that treasure.

⁴⁵Also, what people do who begin to allow God MTY/EUP to rule their lives is like what a merchant did who was looking for good quality pearls to buy.

⁴⁶When he found one very costly pearl that was for sale, he sold all his possessions to acquire enough money to buy that pearl. Then he went and bought it.

⁴⁷What God MTY/EUP will do to people who falsely say that they are letting him rule their lives is like what certain fishermen did with the fish they caught in a lake, using a large net. They caught all classes of fish, both useful and worthless fish.

⁴⁸When the net was full, the fishermen pulled it up onto the shore. Then they sat there and put the useful fish into buckets, and threw the worthless ones away.

⁴⁹What they did in separating the good fish from the bad ones is like what will happen to people when the world ends. The angels will come to where God is judging people, and will separate the wicked people from the righteous ones.

⁵⁰They will throw the wicked people into the fire in hell. And those wicked people will weep and gnash their teeth because of the intense pain they are suffering.”

⁵¹Then Jesus asked us, “Do you understand all these parables I have told you?” We said to him,

⁵²“Yes, we understand them.” Then he said to us, “Because you understand all these parables, you will understand the following parable: You, along with all others, will teach people what you heard me say about God ruling people's lives. You will add that to what you formerly learned. You will be like a manager of a household who takes both new things and old things out of his storage room.”

⁵³When Jesus had finished telling these parables, he took us and left that area.

⁵⁴We went to Nazareth, his hometown. ◄On the Sabbath/On the Jewish rest day► he began to teach the people in the Jewish worship house. The result was that the people there were astonished. But some said, “ This man is just an ordinary person like us. So how is it that he knows so much and understands so much RHQ? And how is it that he is able to do such miracles RHQ?

⁵⁵◄He is just the son of the carpenter!/Isn't he just the son of the carpenter that lived here?► RHQ His mother is Mary, and his younger brothers are James, Joseph, Simon and Judas RHQ!

⁵⁶◄And his sisters also live here in our town./Do not his sisters live in our town?► RHQ So how is he able to do all these miracles?”

⁵⁷The people were unable to accept that he was the Messiah. So Jesus said to them, “ People honor me and other prophets everywhere else we go, but in our hometowns we are not honored, and even our own families do not honor us!”

⁵⁸Jesus did not perform many miracles there because the people did not believe that he was the Messiah.