Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who has ears to hear, let him hear.
All Commentaries on Matthew 13:43 Go To Matthew 13
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Not because it will be just so much only, but because this star is surpassed in brightness by none that we know. He uses the comparisons that are known to us.
And yet surely elsewhere He says, the harvest is already come; as when He says of the Samaritans, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. John 4:35 And again, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. How then says He there, that the harvest is already come, while here He said, it is yet to be? According to another signification.
And how having elsewhere said, One sows, and another reaps, John 4:37 does He here say, it is Himself that sows? Because there again, He was speaking, to distinguish the apostles, not from Himself, but from the prophets, and that in the case of the Jews and Samaritans. Since certainly it was He who sowed through the prophets also.
And at times He calls this self-same thing both harvest and sowing, naming it with relation, now to one thing, now to another. Thus when He is speaking of the conviction and obedience of His converts, He calls the thing a harvest, as though He had accomplished all; but when He is seeking after the fruit of their hearing, He calls it seed, and the end, harvest.
And how says He elsewhere, that the righteous are caught up first? 1 Thessalonians 4:17 Because they are indeed caught up first, but Christ having come, those others are given over to punishment, and then the former depart into the kingdom of heaven. For because they must be in heaven, but He Himself is to come and judge all men here; having passed sentence upon these, like some king He rises with His friends, leading them to that blessed portion. Do you see that the punishment is twofold, first to be burnt up, and then to fall from that glory?
