Why Parables?

When the disciples asked Jesus as to why he taught the public in parables (Matthew 13:10-17), he made a seemingly strange statement. The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are not for public consumption. Why did Jesus hide the meaning of his teachings in veiled parables? Is God just arbitrary and unfair?

The key is the receptivity of the individual. Those who are open to learn from Jesus will receive divine illumination to understand further. Those who reject the message of the kingdom from the start, any little bit of understanding they may have had will vanish. They will no longer be able to plumb the depths and real meaning of Christ's parables.

Many of Christ's hearers were diligent students of the Bible, but even that understanding would be removed by God, because they rejected the message of the Messiah. The Greek implies a willful closed-mindedness of seeing but not wanting to see, hearing but not wanting to hear. Why?

Jesus goes on to quote from Isaiah 6:9-10 which describes a people with hard hearts who do not want to see or hear. It is the people who are culpable. It was their unwillingness to repent at the gospel message that made it impossible for them to understand the Messiah's teachings. On the other hand, the disciples were willing to repent, and therefore God gave them understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

So, to those who respond, the parables of Jesus provide further insight into the kingdom of heaven. However, to those who do not repent, those same parables remain a mystery. What a privilege we have when we come to know the deeper things of Christ!