Why Did Jesus Speak In Parables? The Hidden Revealed
Why Did Jesus Teach With Parables?
If you’ve ever read through the Gospels, you’ve likely noticed that Jesus spoke in parables. A lot. Have you ever wondered why Jesus taught this way so often? This was an important enough question for the disciples to ask. It was important for them to understand. It’s important for us, too.
Why did Jesus speak in parables? Parables have been a common way of teaching throughout the centuries. It was not new for Jesus to use parables in His teaching. A parable is essentially truth told in narrative form. Jesus's use of parables was twofold. Firstly, to teach those who believed in Him. Secondly, Jesus used parables to rebuke those who didn't believe Him. The disciples asked Jesus why He spoke in parables. He told them that He was revealing the secrets of the kingdom to those who believe, and concealing those same truths from those who are hard of heart (Matthew 13:11).
Join me as we explore more deeply why Jesus taught in parables.
The Backdrop
I cannot stress this enough: context is important. Vital. Context tells us what the passage is about. When rightly understood, the context prevents us from forming our own ideas of something and then reading them into the text. Before we land at Matthew 13:10-17, we must first understand the general context. Or we will find ourselves in danger of thinking Jesus is saying something that He is not.
If you have the time, I encourage you to read all of Matthew in one sitting. If you are unable to do this, then please read Matthew chapters 11-13 to have a better understanding of the context of what we’re looking at in Matthew 13:10-17.
Through Matthew 11-13 we observe a major theme. We observe either belief in, or rejection of, the Messiah, the one sent of God. Chapter 11 begins with John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus. John is the one who leapt in the womb of his mother because of the presence of the Christ. He was in prison and doubting, asking Jesus if He was the Christ, or if he should look for another (Matthew 11:3). Jesus's answer was wrapped up in His works, His miracles.
Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” (Matthew 11:4-6)
Jesus does many miracles before these chapters. The purpose of the miracles of Jesus was to prove that He was the Messiah of God, the chosen servant, the one who was sent to take away the sin of the world.
(For more on why Jesus performed miracles, see our article: Why Did Jesus Perform Miracles?)
These miracles of the Christ came into question in chapter 12. The religious leaders were attributing the works of the Spirit through Christ to Satan (Matthew 12:22-25). These leaders, and those who followed them, were hard of heart. The Messiah that they claimed they had been looking forward to was standing in their midst. Yet, they rejected Him!
The evidence that He was the Messiah was in His works. They denied His deeds and asked for more. Jesus does not oblige their request. Christ tells them that the sign that will be given to them is the sign of Jonah. (For more on this sign, see our article: The Resurrection in Matthew’s Gospel.)
Two groups of people are illustrated here. The first are those who are hard of heart. They are currently rejecting the Messiah. The second are those who believe in Jesus. They accept that He is who He says He is, the Son of God, the Messiah.
The Hidden Revealed
There is a crowd on the beach as Jesus is teaching in Matthew 13. We must not assume that the crowd is full of those who believe in Him. It has different groups of people:
Those who deny and reject Jesus
Those who are skeptical
Those who are first hearing of Him
Those who want Jesus to do something for them
Those who believe in Him
Jesus begins to tell this mixed crowd of people a parable. He is teaching them truth through a narrative. He does so in such a way that the meaning is not so clear. Enough so that His disciples ask Him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" (Matthew 13:10).
Jesus's response is most certainly something to pay attention to.
Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; For the heart of this people has become dull, With their ears they scarcely hear, And they have closed their eyes, Otherwise they would see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, And I would heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” (Matthew 13:11-17)
Jesus is saying that He does not speak clearly because of the hardness of heart. God's chosen people, the Israelites, profess their belief in God with their mouths but reject God's Messiah. This is why Jesus quotes from Isaiah. There are people amongst them that have hardened their hearts and become blind, deaf, and dumb.
Yet, those who see and hear are blessed. They have their eyes fixed upon the promised Messiah. They now see and believe in the one whom others have longed to see. Jesus does not waste His words and teaching on those who profess to be wise yet who are fools. On those who have closed their ears and shut their eyes to the truth. For those who suppress the truth in their unrighteousness, Jesus speaks in parables to make His teaching even more difficult to hear and understand.
Thus, some of the parables Jesus spoke were to reveal truths to His disciples while simultaneously hiding them from those who were hard of heart.
To Rebuke
Later in Matthew, Jesus uses parables to rebuke those who are hard of heart, those who rejected Him as the Messiah. In Matthew 21, Jesus is ushered into Jerusalem as the expected Messiah in words but is denied by their deeds. He cleansed the temple the second time and then the following day He gave them this parable,
“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them. But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?” They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.”
Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, This became the chief corner stone; This came about from the Lord, And it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.”
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. When they sought to seize Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a prophet. (Matthew 21:33-44, bold added)
For more on the context of this section, see our articles:
Here, the text clearly tells us that Jesus used a parable to rebuke the Pharisees. This time, He was teaching truth through a narrative to rebuke the hard of heart and not to hide the truth from them. In this case, they knew Jesus was speaking against them.
What will you do with the Son? This is a question you must answer for yourself. Will you deny Him? Rejecting your only Savior? Or will you believe in Him, entering into a life of denial of self and life in Christ?
Related Questions
What does it mean to speak in parables? A parable is a short story used to illustrate a lesson. Jesus often spoke in parables, using an earthly illustration to communicate a spiritual lesson. The intention of the person speaking the parable will often determine its meaning. Sometimes the speaker intends to hide the spiritual lesson from others. Other times the speaker intends to use an earthly illustration to make the spiritual lesson more clear. A parable differs from an allegory in that a parable has an unexpected twist or punchline in the narrative of the story to make its point.
What does the kingdom of God mean? The kingdom of God is a phrase that you will read throughout the Bible. When Jesus began His earthly ministry, He declared, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). The kingdom of God is the area or realm in which God reigns. The Bible declares that both the heavens and the earth are God's kingdom as He is the Creator and Sustainer of both and that Jesus is currently reigning as King until all enemies in His kingdom are placed under His feet (Hebrews 10:12-13).