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Matthew 13:36
As we dive into the explanation that Jesus is about to give to His disciples for the parable of the tares, we must not overlook the importance of the way in which this setting comes about. First, the disciples of Jesus were patient in their curiosity as they waited for Jesus to send the multitude away (Matthew 13:36). We also learn in Matthew 13:36 that Jesus “went into the house” (NKJV) which provided a secluded place where His disciples could approach Him for an explanation of His teachings. And thirdly, Jesus’ disciples “came to Him” (Matthew 13:36) and gave Him a request – they asked Him for help. They knew that what Jesus was teaching the multitude was an important lesson, and they knew that Jesus would help them to understand the parable. They did not take for granted that because they were the disciples of Jesus that they could figure it out for themselves – they went to the source for the answer – they wanted to be sure. And in approaching Jesus this way shows sincere humility and obedience to Him – it shows that their hearts were in the right place, and that is the key to receiving understanding with God and His word.
This is an example of the way in which we should approach God/Jesus with our requests/needs.
Today’s Bible verse of Matthew 13:36 is one in which I believe is very easy to overlook in our hustle and bustle busy lives. But Bible verses like this one is where we learn how to approach God with our requests/needs, which brings up another good point: when we come to God with our requests/needs, we must be aware that the requests that we bring to Him will be granted only if the requests are in His will for us. We too often get selfish with our requests to God and present them as needs but are only wants. It is not wrong to bring our wants to God but we must realize that our wants are not needs, and we should not be upset at God when our wants are not granted. God is looking out for our best interests “in His will for us” not in our “own earthly desires.” Sometimes this is hard to distinguish as our wants may be very important to us, but that is the whole point – we are not to seek, in our salvation in Christ Jesus, our own desires but the desires of God for us. Most generally, there is a big difference between the two.
We must also keep in mind that lessons like this are not meant to be discouraging, but to lead us to seeking God’s will for our lives as we grow in our relationships with Him through our salvation in Christ Jesus. Humility is not a bad thing, but it accompanies a sincere and obedient heart to God as we learn to give up our “selves” and seek God’s will for our lives. Jesus teaches us in Matthew 16:24-26, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? And in Matthew 6:33 Jesus teaches, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” And in Matthew 6:21 Jesus states, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Jesus turned water to wine in John 2, and this is the first miracle that Jesus performed. I often wondered why this, water to wine, was the first recorded miracle of Jesus, but the miracle is not about wine, but about the vats in which the water was stored, and about the purification rights conducted by the priests of the Old Testament that involved taking water from these vats and sprinkling it on the outside of a person’s body in a purification ritual. Jesus performed the water to wine miracle first to show that He is providing a cleansing of the heart – a cleansing from the inside out that is the spiritual cleansing that is necessary for true forgiveness that comes from the sincerity of the heart. The people drank the water turned to wine because Jesus came to purify us from the inside – He came to purify our hearts. This water was not to purify the outside of the body but the inside, bringing sincerity and obedience to our hearts which would open the door to making our whole body purified. The Apostle Paul teaches us in Romans 10:9-10, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
We need to approach God in a quiet time away from the multitude. We need to make it a point each day to come to Jesus with our desires/needs. And we need to understand that our desires/needs need to be brought to God with sincere, obedient, and humble hearts to God’s will for our lives.
Dear LORD,
We are seeking purified, sincere, obedient hearts in Christ Jesus. We are in need of Your guidance, and we need You to answer our prayers with direction for our lives. Please help us to understand that our prayers need to be in line with Your will for our lives. Please help us to realize that the answers You give us to our prayers may be other than that which we desire, but that Your will for our lives is what is most important. Please give us the strength to follow the guidance that You make clear to us and help us to overcome the deceitful ways that Satan tries to trick us with. Please purify our hearts in our prayers and hear us LORD so that we may grow in our relationships with You and bring glory to You through our lives – in Christ! In Jesus name I pray, amen.