Matthew 13.10-17

As we enter into this first parable, Matthew helps us understand "Why" Jesus speaks in parables. Let's look at this passage first, then we'll walk through it a little at a time.


¹⁰ The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”
 ¹¹ He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. ¹²Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. ¹³ This is why I speak to them in parables:
   “Though seeing, they do not see;
   though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
   ¹⁴ In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
   “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
   you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
¹⁵ For this people’s heart has become calloused;
   they hardly hear with their ears,
   and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
   hear with their ears,
   understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’^[a]
   16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. ¹⁷ For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.


It is interesting that we, as we enter into this sermon of parables, tend to ask the same question that the Disciples asked, WHY? Why speak in parables? Read there question and Jesus' response again:

¹⁰ The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

 ¹¹ He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. ¹²Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

The main idea of Jesus' response is this: "The secrets of the kingdom of God is not something that needs to be figure out, it is something that is revealed" (Mark Moore). The Kingdom of God is revealed in the words and actions of Jesus Christ, it is available for all of us. The more we listen, the more we will understand. And the less we listen, the less we understand. So the more that we have studied and gone to church and Bible Studies and Sunday School classes, the more the harder and different aspects of the kingdom we understand. The Less we do these things, the less we understand. 

Then Jesus explains this principle even more with quoting Isa. 6.9-10.

¹³ This is why I speak to them in parables:

   “Though seeing, they do not see;
   though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

   ¹⁴ In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

   “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
   you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
¹⁵ For this people’s heart has become calloused;
   they hardly hear with their ears,
   and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
   hear with their ears,
   understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’

Jesus is saying that those that do not listen and reject his teaching, his message about the kingdom, since they rejected me, I am now rejecting them. I speak in parables to conceal the secrets of the kingdom to those who rejected me and aren't listening. 

Wow!!!!

Jesus purposefully rejects people who have rejected him? Yes. 

The lesson for us is to not reject Jesus and to expose ourself to his teaching and revelation and kingdom as much as possible. This means that those who do accept Jesus' teaching and hunger and pursue it will understand the parables and will understand more about the kingdom of God, the parables are meant for them. Those that do not pursue to learn about the kingdom, they will be confused by the parables and the secrets of the kingdom will be kept from them. 

This is why Jesus ends this explanation to the disciples, showing them what an opportunity it is for us to have Jesus' teaching and his word. Look at the end of this passage:

¹⁶ But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. ¹⁷ For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

We are privileged to had the opportunity to study God's word and be exposed to the secrets of the kingdom of God. So why do we not study it and devote our lives to learning more about God's special revelation to the world? 

I know I'm preaching to the choir by the fact that you are reading this devotional blog and others aren't, they are the ones that need to be reading it. The thing is, people don't read the bible and study it a lot of times because it is hard to understand, but if they read and study more and more, the more it will make sense and God will reveal his secrets about the kingdom to you. 

I have a story for you. 

Dr. Cliff Claver (I think that is his name) is a president for world relief and he lives in Sudan where 2 million of our brothers have been martyred for the faith. One time he was bringing a bunch of seed in a plane to some people in Sudan so they wouldn't stave. The pilot landed the plane on the grass runway, and I saw a group of 200 to 250 sudanese people standing under a tree. And I’ve been to Africa enough to know that when people stand underneath a tree it’s a worship service. I approached them and asked what are you doing? despite the persecution they had been under their leader quickly said we are worshiping Jesus. Do you know him? yes I do, then the man turned to those under the tree and said, did you hear that, he knows Jesus. Then they all started dancing and exchanging pleasantries with me. Then their leader said, we heard there is a book. Yes there is a book and he said, did you hear that everybody, he has heard of the book. Then they asked me, have you ever seen the book? You don’t know how stupid I felt when I told them that I had several copies of the book back home. I immediately changed the subject. I said, hey I go to church in the USA and we collect money from people and with that money we buy seed and on that plane we have sacks of seed and we wanted to give it to you so you could plant it, because the American people are generous people and they don’t want your children to die of starvation if you plant these trees. The leader of the group looked at me and said please tell the people of America thank you for the seeds. But could we have the copy of the book first.

Do you hunger for the kingdom of God, for God's word?