Why did Jesus speak in parables, apparently not wanting everyone to understand the point of His teaching? Today’s question is a good one. We know that Jesus did often speak in parables, and one time his disciples asked Him why he was doing that. His apparent response was that He didn’t want everyone to understand certain mysteries; He was doing it to keep them ignorant. Let’s think about this.
In fact, let’s start by reading in Matthew chapter 13, beginning in verse number 10.
“Why Do You Speak in Parables?”
“And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” Jesus answered them, “To you [that is, my disciples] it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted” (Matthew 13:10, note added).
It almost sounds as if this is just a sovereign choice of God. God wants some people to understand, and God wants other people not to understand. We can make that assumption, that wrong assumption, if we just isolate Scriptures and forget about the context that surrounds them.
Surely God is making sovereign decisions, and He is deciding that some will receive blessings that others will not receive. But His decisions are often based upon conditions that people meet, or don’t meet. And so when Jesus says, “To you, my disciples, it has been granted, but to others it has not been granted,” we shouldn’t assume this is because God for no reason arbitrarily decides to grant revelation to some and not to others.
These people who are His disciples made a decision to become His disciples. They counted the costs, and they said “Okay, I’m willing to pay the price to be a disciple of Christ.” And so Jesus says people like that get certain privileges. They get to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom. But people who refuse to become My disciples, I’m not going to cast My pearls before the swine, as He told us we should not do (Matthew 7:6).
Let’s keep reading, moving on to verses 12-13.
“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.”
“Whoever has”, in context, would be someone who has some understanding or some relationship with God. Jesus said “to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance.” But whoever does not have some understanding, some revelation, hasn’t taken the first step, “even what he has shall be taken away from him.”
The Reason Jesus Spoke in Parables
Moving on to verses 13 and 14,
“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…”
Now Jesus quotes from Isaiah, “You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive” (Mathew 13:14). So Jesus said that these people are actually fulfilling prophecy. People are hearing, but they’re not getting it, and part of His role as the Messiah is to fulfill the prophecies that speak about Him.
But listen to the reason. Even the prophet Isaiah reveals the reason for this. Jesus continues to quote from Isaiah,
“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” (Matthew 13:15).
“For the heart of this people has become dull.” Jesus is pinning the blame on the people. “Your heart has become dull. With your ears you scarcely hear.” Now listen to this, “And they have closed their eyes.” The reason you don’t see is because you don’t want to see.
Deception is an Election
This is really a fascinating yet tragic subject in many ways. We know that the world is full of people who are deceived. We often think of them as poor innocent deceived people, but the fact is that deception is an election. It’s something that people choose. The reason that they choose to be deceived is because they refuse to believe the truth. And the most tragic thing about deception is, of course, if you’re deceived, you don’t know you’re deceived. If you knew you were deceived, you wouldn’t be deceived, would you?
So, all deceived people actually think they’re not deceived. That’s a characteristic of all deceived people. That’s part of the package of being deceived. You don’t think you’re deceived.
Deception is an election. I wrote a little article on this; you can read it here.
So, if we are deceived, how do we get out of the deception?
How to Understand the Parables
Understanding all comes down to the condition of our hearts. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).
So, we have to purify our hearts, and as little children say, “Oh Lord, I don’t want to be deceived. I want to know the truth so that I can obey the truth and please you, and do what you want me to do. But people who don’t want to serve the Lord, they’re going to find a justification for what they believe. There’s plenty of reasons that the devil is going to give them not to believe the truth. The main job of the devil, when you think about it, is to deceive people. He provides people with lies—listen closely—that they want to believe.
“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” (Matthew 13:15).
Seeing and hearing is something that people have to choose for themselves to do. It’s not that Jesus doesn’t want everybody to understand. God desires that all people would be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (see 1 Timothy 2:4).
God has made us to be free moral agents, and we have a choice. He’s put us in an environment where we have the option to believe lies, or to believe the truth. Which way we go reveals what is in our heart. It’s what’s in our hearts that’s motivating us as to what we’re going to believe.
You might remember the original temptation in the beginning of Genesis. “Don’t eat from the tree lest you die.” And the devil said just the opposite, “You will surely not die.” And so Adam had a choice then. “Will I believe what God has said, or will I believe what contradicts what God has said?”
God loves everybody. God wants everybody to come to the light. The trouble is people love darkness (see John 3:19).
Thanks for joining me. Hope to see you again on the next Little Lesson!
