Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Kingdom Scribe: Steward of the Old and New (Matthew 13:51–52)

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The Kingdom Scribe: Steward of the Old and New (Matthew 13:51–52) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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It is good to have you with us again.
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It is a pleasure to be here. If you are new here, this is
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where we take a stack of articles, commentaries and
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theological papers, stuff that might look a little intimidating
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on a shelf, and we try to get to the bottom of it.
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Yeah, we try to figure out what it actually means for your life,
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your walk with God. And we have quite the topic
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today. We're looking at a very specific
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and I think often overlooked moment in the Gospel of Matthew.
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A. Hugely overlooked.
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Moment. Yeah, let's set the stage.
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We are in Matthew 13. Now, even if you haven't spent
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years in Sunday school, you probably know Matthew 13.
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Oh, for sure. This is the chapter with the
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heavy hitters. You have the Parable of the
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Sower, the Mustard Seed, the Pearl of Great Price.
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It is basically the greatest hits album of Jesus parables.
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It is the third great discourse in Matthew's Gospel.
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I mean, it's monumental. Right.
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But here's the thing I noticed while reading through the prep
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material for this deep dive. When we read this chapter, we
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usually stop after the stories we do.
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We read about the Pearl, we read about the net, and then we check
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out. We figure the sermon is over, so
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we pack up our Bibles and go home.
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That is exactly right, and it's, you know, it's a dangerous
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habit. How so?
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We tend to treat the parables like they are just moral stories
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or illustrations. And once the illustration is
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done, we think the teaching is done.
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OK. But verses 51 and 52, which are
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right at the end of this discourse, are where Jesus
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pivots. He stops talking to the crowds,
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turns to his inner circle and basically gives them their
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marching orders. It feels a bit like when a
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teacher finishes the lecture, the bell rings, the class
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leaves, but he asks 3 or 4 students to stay behind.
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That is a very good analogy. The crowds are gone, the noise
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is gone, and now he has to verify something.
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He has to verify that these men, who are going to be the
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foundation of the Church, actually grasp what just
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happened. So the mission for this deep
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dive is to look at these two verses.
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We want to figure out what this diagnostic question is that
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Jesus asks, and then we want to unpack this weird title he gives
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them. He calls them scribes, which I
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have some questions about because I thought scribes were
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the bad. Guy Oh, we will definitely get
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to that. It is a shocking title.
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And then we need to talk about this attic full of treasure, the
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old and the new. Because honestly, the way the
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sources describe this, it sounds like it changes the way we
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should look at the entire Bible. It does.
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It fundamentally alters our approach to Scripture.
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It is not just about reading. It is about stewardship.
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Stewardship. And for our listeners who lean
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into Reformed theology, this touches on the Westminster
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Confessions view of illumination.
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You cannot just read the Bible like a textbook.
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Something has to happen inside you.
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A gift. A gift from the Spirit.
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OK, so let's get into the text. The scene shifts.
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Jesus asked a question in verse 51.
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He looks at the disciples and says, Have you understood all
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these things? It is a short question in the
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Greek. It is clipped direct.
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It seems like a polite check in, like everyone good.
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Any questions? But the commentary suggests this
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is actually a really high stakes moment.
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Why is this question so heavy? You have to look at the context
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of the whole chapter. I mean, think back to how
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Matthew 13 started. With the parable of the sower.
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Right, the seeds falling on the path, the rocks, the thorns and
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the good soil. And what was the defining
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characteristic of the path? The bad soil where nothing grew.
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The birds came and ate the seed before it could do anything.
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And Jesus interprets that for us.
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He says the birds represent the evil one who comes and snatches
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away what was sown in the heart. But why?
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What allowed the theft to happen?
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I'm not sure. Jesus says it is because he
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hears the word of the Kingdom and does not understand it.
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Oh wow, so understanding isn't just about being smart, it is a
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defense mechanism. It is the difference between
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life and death. It is the difference between the
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seed taking root or Satan's stealing it.
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So it's everything. It's everything.
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So when Jesus looks at the disciples at the end of the
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lecture and asks, have you understood?
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He is essentially asking are you the good soil or did Satan just
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rob you blind while I was talking?
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That definitely raises the stakes.
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It's not a pop quiz, it's a spiritual autopsy.
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That's a great way to put it, and the word he uses for
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understood is fascinating. The Greek is syndicate.
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I saw that in the notes. It implies something more than
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just hearing right? Much more it comes from the verb
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tsunami. If you break it down, sun means
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together and hayami is to send or to put.
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So literally it means to put together.
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To put together like connecting the dots.
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Exactly. Think about what they just
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heard. They heard about a farmer, then
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a mustard seed, then yeast and dough, then a treasure in a
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field, then a merchant with a Pearl, then a dragnet catching
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fish. Right, a whole bunch of
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different stories. If you just look at those on the
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surface, they're totally unrelated.
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What does a fish have to do with a Pearl?
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What does yeast have to do with a farmer?
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On the surface, nothing. They're just random metaphors.
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Right, but syndicate means you have the ability to synthesize
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them. You can see the invisible thread
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that connects the farmer to the Pearl and the Pearl to the net.
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You see the pattern? You grasp the coherent framework
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of the Kingdom of Heaven. You aren't just seeing the
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pieces of the puzzle, you are seeing the picture on the box.
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That makes sense. It's the difference between
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memorizing facts and actually grasping the concept.
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I can memorize a math formula, but that doesn't mean I
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understand why it works. Precisely.
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And in a theological sense, this ability to put it together is a
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gift, a gift Earlier in verse 11, Jesus told them to you it
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has been given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of
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heaven, but to them it has not been given.
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This is pure grace. You don't earn it.
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You don't figure out the Kingdom because you have a high IQ.
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You figure it out because God turned the lights on.
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That is the illumination we talked about.
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Yes, the Holy Spirit has to work.
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If he doesn't, the parables just sound like riddles.
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So the disciples answer him, and this is the part that always
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makes me wince a little bit. They say yes, just a flat yes.
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And I'm seeing you're thinking, do you really?
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Because I have read the rest of the Gospels, I know that in a
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few chapters Peter's going to say something ridiculous.
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For sure. I know they're going to argue
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about who gets to sit in the best chair.
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I know they're going to run away when Jesus gets arrested.
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So is this arrogance? Are they overestimating
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themselves? That is a very natural reaction
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for us to have, knowing their future failures.
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But the consensus among our Reformed commentators is that we
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should take them at their word here.
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OK, this isn't a boast. It is a confession of faith.
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How so? How is it a confession?
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They aren't claiming they know everything.
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They aren't claiming they have mastered all the nuances of
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theology and will never make a mistake again.
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They are saying, yes, Lord, we see who you are.
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We see that the Kingdom is here. You get the main point.
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So it's a yes of relationship, not just an academic yes.
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Right. And notice Jesus's reaction.
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He doesn't scold them, He doesn't say you guys are
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clueless. He accepts their answer.
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He takes their yes as valid. And that acceptance is the
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turning. Point it is the hinge of the
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entire passage because once they admit they understand, the
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relationship changes. How does it change?
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He pivots from teaching them to commissioning them.
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Therefore. Therefore, because you
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understand now something follows illumination leads to
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obligation. And this brings us to the title,
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verse 52. Therefore, every scribe who has
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been trained for the Kingdom of heaven is like a master of a
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house. Let's stop at Scribe.
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Let's do it. If I am a 1st century Jew or
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even just a reader of Matthew's Gospel, scribe is a dirty word.
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It is. The scribes are the villains.
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They are the ones telling Jesus he can't heal on the Sabbath.
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They are the ones who eventually help get him killed.
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Why in the world would Jesus take a title associated with his
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enemies and slap it on his disciples?
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It is a deliberate reclamation. You are right.
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In Matthew 23, Jesus creates a whole list of woes against the
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scribes and Pharisees. He calls them hypocrites, blind
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guides, whitewashed tombs. This is not a compliment.
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Not at all. They represented dead,
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legalistic, suffocating religion.
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So why use the word? Why not call them pastors or
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leaders or visionaries? Because the function of a scribe
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was actually good and necessary. A scribe was a student of the
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text. They were the ones who preserved
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the scripture, studied the law, and taught the people.
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Jesus isn't anti intellectual. He isn't saying study is bad,
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He's saying the way they do it is bad.
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He's redeeming the rule. He is purifying it.
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He is saying I am going to make you what they should have been.
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I am creating a Kingdom scribe. I noticed in the study notes
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there's a really interesting point about the grammar here,
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the phrase who has been trained? Yes, this is huge.
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The Greek word is methotheus. Which sounds like methothe is
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the word for disciple. It is exactly that root.
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It is a verb made out of the noun disciple, and it is in the
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passive voice. Grammar class time.
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Passive voice means the subject isn't doing the action right.
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The action is happening to them. Correct.
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If I say I kick the ball, that is active.
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If I say the ball was kicked, that is passive.
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The scribe here is described passively.
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Literally it translates to every scribe who has and discipled for
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the Kingdom. That seems like a small detail,
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but I feel like there's a massive theological point hiding
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in there. It is the difference between
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religion and the gospel. How so?
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In the Jewish system, how did you become a scribe?
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You worked for it. You found a rabbi.
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You applied, you studied, you memorized, you passed your
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exams. You pulled yourself up by your
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boots. You made yourself a scribe.
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It was an achievement. It was a credential.
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You earned the PhD. Not exactly, but in the Kingdom
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you are made a scribe. You are discipled by the master.
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It is monogistic. Break that word down for us.
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Monogistic. Mono means one.
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Ergon means work. It means there is one worker.
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God is the one who shapes you. You don't authenticate yourself
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by how smart you are. You are authenticated by the
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fact that Jesus Christ has laid His hand on you and taught you.
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That takes the pressure off, but it also completely removes the
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pride. You can't strut around saying
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look at my degree, you can only say look at my master.
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That is the defining mark of the Kingdom scribe.
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Humility. The old scribe stood over the
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word. They judged it.
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They added their own traditions to it until the word was buried.
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The Kingdom scribe stands under the word.
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A student. He is a learner first.
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You can never stop being a disciple.
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So we had this new kind of scribe, humble, taught by God,
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understanding the big picture. Now Jesus gives us a metaphor
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for what this guy actually does. He says he is like a master of a
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house. The Oiko despote.
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That sounds intense, despot. We usually use that word for
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dictator. In English yes, but in Greek
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despotes just means the ruler or the owner and oikos his house.
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So he is a house ruler, the head of the household.
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So like a dad? Yes, a father or a steward who
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is in charge of the estate. It's a position of dignity, of
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responsibility. And what is his job?
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Well, think about a large household in the ancient world.
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You have children, you have servants, you have extended
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family. The Oiko dispota is responsible
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for their survival. He has to feed them.
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This connects to First Timothy, doesn't it?
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But Paul calls the church the household of God.
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It does so if the church is a house, the scribes, the
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teachers, the pastors and in a sense, every believer are
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responsible for the pantry. We have to put food on the
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table. I love this imagery because it
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changes the purpose of Bible study.
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If I'm just a scholar, I might study just to fill my own head.
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I collect facts like people collect baseball cards.
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I put them in a binder and look at them.
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That is hoarding, and the Bible has nothing good to say about
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hoarding truth. But if I am a householder and I
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have a pantry full of food and my kids are starving?
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Then you are a monster if you don't bring it out.
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Knowledge is not a trophy for the shelf, it is bread for the
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table. It is meant to be consumed.
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It is meant to nourish. There is a verb here that
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describes how he brings the food out.
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The notes say it is ecbalay. Yes, and this is a surprisingly
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violent verb. Ecbalay means to cast out, to
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throw out, to drive out. Wait, like casting out demons?
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The exact same word. When Jesus casts out a demon, he
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ecbalay it. When he drives the money
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changers out of the temple, he ecbalay them.
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So why use that word for serving?
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Having dinner that seems aggressive?
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Here is your bread. Throws it in their face.
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I think it implies energy. It implies liberality.
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He isn't meticulously measuring out crumbs with a tweezer.
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He is flinging open the doors of the storehouse and bringing out
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the goods. Oh, I see he is eager.
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He wants the family to be. Full.
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He's generous. He is incredibly generous.
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He isn't saving the good stuff for himself.
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He's not rationing. He's distributing and.
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Where does he get this food? He brings it out of his
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treasure. A thesaurus, A storehouse, or a
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treasury. But notice he brings it out.
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He doesn't create it. That is the key distinction
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right there. The minister is a distributor,
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not a manufacturer. We live in a time that is
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obsessed with novelty. People want fresh revelation.
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They want a pastor who says something nobody has ever
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thought of before. God told me something new this
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morning. Right.
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And usually if it is new in that sense, it is heresy.
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The faithful scribe goes to the storehouse, which is scripture,
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and brings out what God has already put there.
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He doesn't bake the bread, he serves it.
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OK, so let's look at the menu. What is he serving?
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Jesus says He brings out what is new and what is old.
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This is the core of the message, the new and the old.
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Let's define these terms because I think people can get tripped
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up here. When Jesus says old, what is he
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referring to? In his context, he is talking
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about the Hebrew Scriptures, the Law, the prophets, the writings,
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everything we call the Old Testament, the history of
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Israel, the covenants, the sacrifices, the types and
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shadows. And the new?
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The Canina. This is the teaching of the
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Kingdom. It is the gospel.
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It is the fact that that the Messiah has arrived.
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It is the realization that the shadows are becoming a
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substance. So the Scribe brings out both.
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He doesn't pick one side. Correct.
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And this is where we have to park for a minute, because the
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church has historically been very bad at keeping this
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balanced. We fall into one ditch or the.
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Other all the time. Let's talk about the new only
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ditch first. This feels very modern.
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There is a vibe in a lot of churches that the Old Testament
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is, well, old. It is grumpy.
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It is full of wars and weird laws about not eating shrimp.
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Why can't we just be New Testament Christians?
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That is a very old heresy called Martianism.
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Martian was a guy in the early church who basically said the
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God of the Old Testament is a different, meaner God than the
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father of Jesus. So he took a pair of scissors
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and cut out the Old Testament. But why is that a problem?
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If we have Jesus, do we really need Leviticus?
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You absolutely do, because without the Old Testament you
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don't have the categories to understand Jesus.
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Give me an example. OK, take the cross, we say Jesus
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died for your sins. We say He is the Lamb of God.
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Those are beautiful phrases. But what does Lamb of God mean?
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It means sacrifice. But what is a sacrifice?
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Why does a lamb have to die? Why does blood have to be shed?
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If you don't have Leviticus, you don't have the history of the
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Passover. Then Jesus dying on a cross is
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just a tragedy. It's just a good man being
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killed by the Romans. Right, it has no theological
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weight. The Old Testament builds the
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dictionary. The dictionary.
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I like that. It defines holiness.
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It defines sin. It defines atonement.
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If you throw away the dictionary, you can't read the
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message of the New Testament. You lose the definition of the
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gospel. So the Old Testament is the
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foundation. You delete it, the house
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collapses. Exactly.
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The law diagnosis the disease, it shows us that we are broken
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and that God is holy. If you don't know you were sick,
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which is what the law tells you, then the cure, which is the
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gospel, doesn't make any sense. OK, so we need the old.
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What about the other ditch, the people who get stuck in the old?
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This is the error of traditionalism or legalism.
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This is where the scribes of Jesus Day were stark.
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They had the law, they had the ceremonies, but they didn't have
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the fulfillment. They're guarding the shadows.
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They were polishing the shadows. Imagine you have a photo of your
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spice. You love that photo.
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You frame it. You look at it every day.
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OK, but then your spouse walks into the room.
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You put the photo down and you hug your spouse.
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Exactly. But the legalist keep staring at
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the photo and ignores the person.
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The Old Testament is the photo, it is the promise.
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It is the shadow. Jesus is the reality.
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So you can't stop there. If you preach the Old Testament
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without bringing out the new, you are leaving people in the
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waiting room. You are giving them rules
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without the power to keep them. You are giving them shadows
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without the substance. So the true scribe, the Kingdom
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scribe, is the one who connects them.
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He shows the unity of Scripture. This is what we call the analogy
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of faith, letting Scripture interpret Scripture.
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Let's walk through a concrete example of this.
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How does a scribe bring out both in a single lesson?
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Let's say the story of David and Goliath.
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Everyone knows that story. OK, David and Goliath, if you
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only bring out the old, what do you get?
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You get a story about a brave boy who trusted God and killed a
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giant. Right.
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And the application is be brave. Face your giants.
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You are David. Your debt is Goliath.
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Slay it. Which isn't wrong I guess.
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It is a moral lesson. It isn't bad advice, but it
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isn't the gospel. It puts the burden on you to be
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the hero. So how do you bring out the new
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in that story? You look at it through the lens
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of Christ, you realize that you aren't David.
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You are the shivering Israelites hiding in the trench.
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I can relate to that. You are the one who can't fight
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the giant. Who is David?
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David is Jesus. He is the King who comes from
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the sheepfold, the one rejected by his brothers, who goes out
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into the valley of death as a representative substitute.
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He fights the battle alone. He defeats the enemy and then
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because he won, the rest of us share in the victory.
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That completely changes the feeling of the story.
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Instead of I need to try harder, it becomes look what my king did
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for me. Exactly.
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You use the old, the narrative, to point to the new, the gospel.
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You bring out both treasures. That is what feeds the soul.
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Let's try one more. What about the Sabbath?
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That is a command. Keep it holy.
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The old is the command work six days rest one.
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It is a creation ordinance. A scribe teaches that we need
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rhythm, but he doesn't stop. There he brings out the new.
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He brings out the new that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.
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He shows that our ultimate rest isn't just a nap on Sunday
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afternoon. It is ceasing from our works of
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righteousness and resting in Christ's finished work.
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So the physical rest points to a spiritual rest, yes.
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Yeah, the old frames it, the new fulfills it.
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This sounds great, but it also sounds like hard work.
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It requires a lot of guarding the treasury.
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The sources mentioned that the scribe is also a watchman.
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You have to protect the food supply.
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If someone tries to put poison in the pantry, the householder
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has to stop them. We touched on martianism, but
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let's get specific about the poisons we see today.
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The sources list a few errors, liberalism, legalism, and
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antinomianism. Let's break these down simply.
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What is the core mistake of liberalism in this context?
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Liberal theology, generally speaking, wants the new values
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love, inclusion, grace, but it wants to detach them from the
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old foundations we're. Difficult parts.
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Right Wrath, Judgment. The holiness of God.
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The creation order. It wants the flower, but it cuts
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the stem. And flowers without stems die.
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If you preach God as love, but you throw away the Old Testament
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definition of why his love is surprising because he is also
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holy and we are sinful, then God is love just becomes God is
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nice. And nice doesn't save anybody.
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It becomes sentimental mush. It has no power to change a
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life. It's a house with no foundation.
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And we have legalism. Legalism is the opposite.
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It loves the foundation, it loves the rules.
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It clings to the old, but it treats the new as if it didn't
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really finish the job. It says yes, Jesus saved you,
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but now you have to keep yourself saved by following this
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checklist. As of the prison.
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It burdens the conscience. It is what Peter called a yoke
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that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear.
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And the third one, antinomianism, that is a $5
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word. It means anti law.
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This is the person who says I am New Testament, I am under grace,
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I don't need the 10 commandments.
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I can live however I want because Jesus paid it all.
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That sounds like freedom, but it is actually chaos.
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It is licentiousness. The true scribe corrects this by
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showing that the New Covenant doesn't abolish the law.
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It writes the law on the heart. We don't keep the law to get
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saved. We keep it because we are saved
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and we love the God who gave it. We have talked about the theory.
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Now I want to land the plane. The sources break the
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application down into three parts head, heart and hands.
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This is crucial. It has to touch the whole
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person. Let's start with the head, the
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intellectual side. The implication is stark.
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You cannot steward what you do not know.
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If you are going to be a scribe who brings out old and new
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treasures, you have to know where the treasures are located.
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You can't distribute food if you don't know the pantry is.
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Right. This is a call to reject
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biblical illiteracy. And let's be honest, the modern
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church struggles here. We are often content with very
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surface level engagement. A verse of the day on Instagram.
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A quick devotional that makes us feel good.
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Coffee cup theology. Exactly.
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But the Kingdom scribe studies, he digs, he tries to understand
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the progressive nature of revelation.
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He wants to know how Genesis links to revelation.
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It is a call to love God with your mind.
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But if it stays in the head, you just become a theology nerd.
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It has to move to the heart. This is about affections.
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Do you treasure the treasure? Jesus calls it a treasure for a
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reason. I think a lot of people find the
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Bible boring. They wouldn't admit it out loud,
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but they do. Boredom is a heart condition.
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If you are bored with the story of redemption, it is because you
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don't see the glory of it. The psalmist in Psalm 119 says,
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Oh how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day.
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He isn't reading it because he has to.
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He is reading it because he is hungry.
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So the scribe delights in the connections when he sees Jesus
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in the Old Testament. It should be an aha moment that
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leads to worship. It should thrill us.
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It should change how we feel. Finally, the hands.
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This is the action. This is the ministry.
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Obviously this applies to pastors.
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For pastors, it is the primary job description.
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Stop trying to be a CEO. Stop trying to be a political
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pundit. Stop trying to be a stand up
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comedian. Ouch.
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You are a steward. Feed the sheep, open the book,
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show them Christ and all the scriptures and feed their souls.
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But the part of the application that really hit me was for
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parents. The sources call fathers and
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mothers Orchidis, photo masters of the House of their own little
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flock. This is where the rubber meets
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the road for most of our listeners.
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If you are a parent, you have a household, you have a little
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church right there at your dinner table.
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And your job is to feed them. Yes, and do not outsource this
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to the Sunday School teacher or the youth pastor.
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They are great helpers, but you are the scribe of your home.
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That sounds intimidating though. I'm not a theologian, I don't
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know Greek. How do I bring out the treasure
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for a six year old? It doesn't mean giving them a
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lecture on monarchism. It means telling them the
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stories. Bring out the old.
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Tell them about Daniel and the lion's den.
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Tell them about God parting the Red Sea.
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Show them God's power, and then bring out the new.
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Tell them that Jesus is the better deliverer.
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He's the one who really rescues us from the real lions.
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To share the wealth. Share the wealth when you
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discipline them. Use the law to show them why
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what they did was wrong, but use the gospel to show them
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forgiveness. You are applying the old and new
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every day. And quickly How does this apply
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to evangelism? Talking to our neighbors.
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It gives us a balanced framework.
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When we share our faith, we often rush straight to Jesus
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loves you, and that is true, but it is the new treasure.
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If you give the solution before the problem, people don't care.
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Right. If I went up to you and say I
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have the cure for the plague, but you don't think you have the
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plague, you will think I'm crazy.
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Good point. You need the old the law to
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expose the reality of sin. You have to help people see that
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they have fallen short of God's standard.
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That is the diagnosis. Then when the diagnosis is
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clear, you bring out the new, you bring out the remedy, the
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grace of God in Christ. You need both to be a faithful
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witness. This has been a massive topic.
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We started with a simple question, do you understand?
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And we ended up with a vision for the whole Christian life.
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It really is comprehensive. We receive the gift of
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understanding by grace, we are formed by the discipline of the
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Master, and then we are sent out to feed the world.
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And we should probably mention the context one last time as we
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close, because there is a reason this Commission feels urgent,
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yes. We cannot forget what comes
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immediately before verse 51, the parable of the dragnet.
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The net that catches everything. Jesus describes the end of the
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age, the angels coming to separate the evil from the
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righteous, the funnest of fire. It is a terrifying image of
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judgement. And that is the backdrop for the
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scribe. Jesus doesn't end the sermon
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with a period, He ends it with a deployment.
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He turns to these disciples and says, effectively the net is
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being hauled in, the clock is ticking, people are starving.
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I have given you the keys to the pantry, now go feed them before
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it is too late. That changes the tone
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completely. We aren't just librarians
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organizing books, We are relief workers distributing bread and a
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famine. That is the calling.
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Are you hoarding the treasure or are you flinging open the doors?
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That is the question we will leave you with.
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Thank you for diving into the deep end with us today.
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It was a privilege. We hope you have understood
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these things and more importantly, we hope you go and
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bring them out. We will see you next time on
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reformed thinking.