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of the N.I.V., and this relates not to individuals, but nations. How often is this verse
misquoted and misunderstood! Before they can disciple all nations, they themselves
must have been "discipled into the kingdom". In other words, they must be learners
themselves. The scribes were the teachers of the law, hence the word scribe in the A.V.
For the most part, instead of being occupied with the greatness of the divine law, they
wasted their time debating about such trifles as mint, anise and cummin, the length of
fringes, the breadth of phylacteries, the washing of cups and platters, and the particular
quarter of a second when new moons and sabbaths began. In His denunciation of the
Scribes and Pharisees the Lord Jesus uncovered these trivialities (Matt. 23: 23) and
showed the utter emptiness of their teaching.
As a complete contrast, the scribe of this last parable will have the word of the
Kingdom hidden in his heart. Those he represents will have "learned of Him" and out of
the kingdom Treasure will be able to bring things new and old, the contrast between the
old and new covenants, with their fullness of teaching and many other facets of truth.
With this parable the Lord Jesus finished His instruction in the secrets of the kingdom
of heaven in that particular locality, and from there, we are told, He moved to His home
town; the region around Nazareth, and taught in the synagogue. The people were
astonished at the fullness and wisdom of His teaching, so absolutely different from the
shallowness of the ministry of the Scribes and Pharisees.
They asked themselves how He had acquired this? After all, was He not just a
carpenter's son and one of themselves? As a result they took offence at Him (xiii.54-57),
instead of being proud of Him and glorifying God for His wonderful ministry. The last
verse of the chapter gives the sad consequence:
"And He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith (unbelief)"
(13: 58, N.I.V.).
Mark is even more definite:
"He could not do any miracles there except lay His hands on a few sick people and
heal them. And He was amazed at their lack of faith" (Mark 6: 5, 6, N.I.V.).
So unbelief even nullifies the work of God and caused the Lord to look upon their
attitude of rejection and opposition with amazement.
This was a prophetic intimation of His rejection by the whole nation at Jerusalem, and
the account of John the Baptist's murder which follows, a prophetic type of His own
murder later on. All three Gospels tell us that Herod Antipas had heard of Christ's
mighty works. Herod was the ruler of Galilee and Perĉa, which was a fourth of the
dominion of Herod the Great. A guilty conscience quickened his fears, and he imagined
that the Baptist has risen from the dead and would now confront him (14: 2).
Luke informs us that this idea was put into his mind by others (Luke 9: 7). John had
aroused Herod's animosity by telling him that it was not lawful for him to have Herodias
as his wife, for her first husband was alive, and even had he been dead marriage with a