The Surprising Truth About Parables ( Matthew 13:10-17)

Introduction

Last time we looked at the parable of the Sower and I said how this parable had a double impact. We have looked at the impact it was designed to have on those who hear the word both on that day for the first time, but also to those listening to it ever since right down until today. But it was equally designed to have an impact on those who preach the word. Not only was it meant to say something to the listening crowds; it was also meant to say something to the inner circle of the disciples, and everyone who follows on ever since.

It is not difficult to see why at time the disciple became discouraged. To them Jesus was everything, the wisest and the most wonderful of Rabbis and they also had a growing understanding that he was the Messiah and the Son of God. Humanly speaking, he had very limited success. The doors of the synagogue were shutting against him. The leaders of the Jewish religion were his harshest critics and were obviously out to destroy him. True, the crowds came to hear him, but there were only some who were really changed, many who came to reap the benefit of his healing power, but many who encountered it, went away and forgot. There were many who came to Jesus only for what they could get. The disciples were faced with a situation in which Jesus seemed to be rousing hostility in the leaders of the Church and eliciting only a passing response from the crowd. It is not surprising to see that in the hearts of the disciples there was sometimes a sense of disappointment. But this parable also provides something for the preacher who is discouraged?

For discouraged preachers of the word the big lesson of this parable must be, the harvest is coming. At the end there is a picture of the seed which brings forth abundant fruit. Some seed may fall by the wayside and be snatched away by the birds; some seed may fall on the shallow ground and never come to maturity; some seed may fall mong the thorns and be choked to death; but in spite of all that, same seed falls on good ground and harvest does still come. No farmer expects every single seed he sows to germinate and bring forth fruit. He knows quite well that some will be blown away by the wind, and some will fall in places where it cannot grow; but that does not stop him sowing. Nor does it make him give up hope that there will be a harvest. The farmer sows in the confidence that, even if some of the seed is wasted, none the less the harvest will certainly come. So, this then is a parable of encouragement to those who seek to sow the seed of the word.

When someone sows the seed of the word, he does not know what he is doing or what effect the seed is having. No preacher or teacher ever does. It is our task to sow the seed, and to leave the rest to God. Furthermore, when someone sows the seed, they should not necessarily expect quick results. There is never any pressure in natural or spiritual growth. It takes a long time before an acorn becomes an oak; and it may take a long, long time before the seed germinates in the heart of a man. But often a word dropped into someone’s heart in their childhood lies dormant until some day it awakens and saves him from some great moral mistake or temptation. We live in an age which looks for quick results, but in the sowing of the seed we must sow in patience and, in hope, and we can leave the harvest to the months or the years and to God.

The Purpose of Parables

10 And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” 11 He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
 And seeing you will see and not perceive;
 15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
 Their ears are hard of hearing,
 And their eyes they have closed,
 Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
 Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I]should heal them.’

16 But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; 17 for assuredly, 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.

This is a passage full of difficult things; and we must take time to try to seek out its meaning. First of all, there are two things said at the beginning which, if we understand them, will go far to light up the whole passage.

The Greek word in Matthew 13:11 , which is translated, parable is sometimes translated as secret, or even mysteries in some translations. To us a mystery usually means something dark and difficult and impossible to understand. But in New Testament times it was the technical name for something which was unintelligible to the outsider, but crystal clear to the person who had been exposed to his cultural meaning. In the time of Jesus in both Greece and Rome the most intense and real religion was found in what were known as the Mystery Religions. These religions had all a common character. They were in essence passion plays in which was told in drama the story of some god or goddess who had lived and suffered and died. It was with that experience replayed in ritual form that enabled the worshipper to identify themselves with the particular God of the story. The mystery was meaningless to the outsider, but very precious to the member of the society. 

In a sense the Lord's Supper is like that. To the people who has never seen such a thing before, it will just look like a group of people eating little pieces of bread and drinking little sips of wine, and it might even appear meaningless. But to the believer who knows what they are doing, to those initiated into its meaning, it is the most precious and the most moving act of worship in the Church. Jesus is saying to his disciples: "Outsiders will not understand what I say in these parables; but if you know me; and you are my disciples; you can understand." Christianity can only be understood only from the inside. It is only after personal encounter with Jesus Christ that someone can understand. To criticize from outside is to criticize in ignorance. It is only the individual who is prepared to become a disciple who is able to experience the most precious things of the Christian faith.

The second thing Jesus says in his explanation of parables is that still more will be given to the one who has. and those who reject the message will have blessing removed from their lives. At first sight this seems cruel; but so far from being cruel, it simply states a truth which is an inescapable reality of life.

In every sphere of life more is given to the one who already has. The pareto law of economics applies here, but also in the world of scholarship the student who labours hard to gain knowledge is capable of acquiring even more insights into their subject. To them the ability to do research, or advanced courses are available. On the other hand, the student who is lazy and refuses to work inevitably loses out. The diligent and hard-working person is also in a position to be given more and thereby give more to others. Any gift can be developed; and, since nothing in life stands still, if a gift is not developed, it is lost.

It is also so with goodness and love. Every temptation we conquer makes us more able to conquer the next and every temptation to which we fall makes us less able to withstand the next attack. Every good thing we do, every act of self-discipline and of service, makes us better able for the next; and every time we fail to grasp such an opportunity, we make ourselves less able to seize the next when it comes along. Life is always a process of gaining or losing. Jesus laid down the truth that the closer we live our lives in his will the nearer to the Christian ideal we will grow. 

Within this passage are among the most difficult verses in the whole gospel narrative. And the fact that they appear differently in the different gospel translations show how much difficulty they caused the early Church. Being the earliest gospel, we would expect Mark to be the nearest to the actual words of Jesus. It ( Mark 4:11-12 ) renders it:

To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for  those outside everything is in parables; so that they may indeed see but not perceive and may indeed hear but not understand; lest they should turn again and be forgiven.

If these verses are taken at just the superficial level they make the extraordinary statement that Jesus spoke to people in parables in order that some might not understand, and to prevent them turning to God and finding forgiveness. Matthew is later than Mark and makes one significant change: This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not here, nor do they understand. As Matthew has it, Jesus spoke in parables because people were too blind and deaf to glimpse the truth in any other way. It is to be noted that this saying of Jesus leads into a quotation from Isaiah 6:9-10 . That was another passage which caused a great deal of heart-searching among Christians over the years. In the Revised Standard Version, it says:

Go, and say to this people: "Hear and hear, but do not understand; see and see, but do not perceive." Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.

Again, it sounds as if God had deliberately blinded the eyes and deafened the ears and hardened the hearts of the people, so that they would be unable to understand. The nation's lack of understanding is made to almost seem a deliberate act of God. Just as Matthew expanded on what Mark said but by doing so removes the responsibility from God and lays it fairly and squarely upon the people. What is the explanation of all this? We may be certain of one thing--whatever else this passage means; it cannot mean that Jesus deliberately delivered his message in such a way that people would fail to understand it. Jesus did not come to hide the truth from people; he came to reveal it. And beyond a doubt there were times when many people grasped that truth. When the orthodox Jewish leaders heard the threat of some of Jesus’  Parables, they understood all right, and recoiled in horror from its message because of the implications of it in respect of their position as a ruling elite. 

The truth is that the words of Isaiah, and the use that Jesus made of them, are an attempt to put ourselves in the position both of Isaiah and of Jesus. Jesus’ use of these words tell us three things.

(i) They tell of a prophet's bewilderment. The prophet brought a message to people which to him was crystal clear; and he was bewildered that they could not understand it.  That is repeatedly still today the experience of many who preach and teach the Bible.

(ii) They tell of a prophet's despair. It was Isaiah's feeling that sometimes his preaching was doing more harm than good, that in some ways things seemed to be getting worse instead of better. Again, that is the experience of every bible teacher and preacher. There are times when those whom we seek to win seem, in spite of all our efforts, seem to be getting further away from, instead of nearer to, the Christian way of life. Our words go whistling down the wind; our message meets the impenetrable barrier of human indifference; the result of all our work seems less than nothing, for at the end of it some people can seem further away from God than they were at the beginning.

(iii) But these words tell of something more than a prophet's bewilderment and a prophet's despair; they also tell of a prophet's ultimate faith. Here we find ourselves face to face with a Old Testament conviction that both the words of the prophet, and of what Jesus said, to many is not understandable because of the condition of their hearts. To put it simply, it was a primary article of Jewish belief that nothing in this world happens outside the will of God; and when they said nothing, they meant literally nothing. It was just as much God's will when people did not listen as when they did; it was just as much God's will when people refused to understand the truth as when they welcomed it. Everything has its place in the purpose of God and that somehow God was weaving together success and failure, interest and indifference into a story of his authorship.

The ultimate purpose of everything can then be seen as good. It is exactly this thought that Paul plays on in Romans 9:11 . These are the chapters where he tell how the Jews, the chosen people of God, actually refused God's truth and crucified God's son when he appeared among them. But as a result of their rejection the gospel went out to the Gentiles; and the ultimate result is that the Gentiles will someday gather in the Jews. The apparent evil is gathered up in a larger good, for all is within the plan of God. That is what Isaiah was feeling. At first, he was bewildered and in despair; then the light came and in effect he said, I paraphrase "I cannot understand the conduct of this people; but I know that all this failure is somehow in the ultimate purpose of God, and he will use it for his own ultimate glory and for the ultimate good of men."

Jesus took these words of Isaiah and used them to encourage his disciples; he said in effect, "I know that this looks disappointing; I know how you feel when people refuse to receive the truth; but in this, too, there is purpose--and some day you will see it." Here is our own great encouragement. Sometimes we see our harvest and we are happy; sometimes there seems to be nothing but barren ground, nothing but total lack of response, nothing but failure. That may feel that way to our human eyes and human minds, but at the back of it there is a God who is fitting even that failure into the divine plan of his all-knowing mind and his unstoppable power. There are no failures and there are no loose ends in the ultimate plan of God.