Jesus disciples ask him, why Speak in Parables?

Matthew 13:10And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? 11And he answered and said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 12For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath. 13Therefore speak I to them in parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. 14And unto them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith,

God Himself makes a distinction between the disciples of Jesus and the indiscriminate crowds (13:11, 12). The “secrets of the kingdom” refer to various matters about the Kingdom that have before, been hidden but are now revealed.

Those to whom it is given to understand and perceive these “secrets of the kingdom” are Jesus’ disciples.

The one who already has enough light to follow Jesus as His disciple will receive more, and will come to grasp the secrets of the Kingdom as a result (13:12). But the one who does not even have the limited light necessary to take the first steps of serious discipleship to Jesus will be given no more.

Those who will not receive the first light of understanding, will also lose what little he or she does have—presumably the claim to be a true child of the covenant community. Therefore, the proclamation of the Kingdom must be in a veiled way and that is one reason why Jesus preached in parables.

Verses (13:13–17) recapitulate the same lesson, in terms of spiritual dullness on the part of the people. They are always hearing the word of God, but they never understand it. They actually close their eyes to large parts of its content, for fear that if they took a really close look, it would force them to see, understand, and repent turn from their ways.

Matthew 13:15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, And their ears are dull of hearing, And their eyes they have closed; Lest haply they should perceive with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And should turn again, And I should heal them.

The prospect of seeing and understanding, that leads to repentance, is unattractive to them, even as it is unattractive to many people today. The word is spoken in parables partly as a judicial sentence of doom on those who do not want to see.

There are some broader considerations that help us understand just what Jesus is saying here. The Scriptures frequently combine themes of God’s sovereign choosing and humanity’s personal sin Genesis. 50:19, 20

This is especially important to Matthew’s themes. Increasingly as his book progresses, Matthew showed that the failure of the people to understand who Jesus was and how the kingdom was dawning was simultaneously the fulfillment of prophecy (13:14) and therefore fixed in the purposes of God, while also the result of terrible rebellion against God, Matthew 11:25–30. Thus, the large scale rejection of Jesus does not mean things are out of control and God’s plans are failing, because God Himself predicted this outcome and already pronounced the appropriate sentence. But this does not mean people bear no responsibility for their response to the revelation Jesus is and what he brings. They are held deeply accountable, precisely because the revelation is so great.

Jesus gives an example of how serious it is to hear and not respond, it brings judgment.

Matthew 11:20 Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not. 21Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, the y would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment, than for you. 23And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted unto heaven? thou shalt go down unto Hades: for if the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in thee, it would have remained until this day. 24But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.

This combination of perspectives that helps to explain the parables.

The truth is that His very purpose in coming was to reach outsiders and make them His disciples (see 9:35–38; 10:1–10; 28:16–20). But, to use His own words, He was wise not to cast His pearls before pigs (7:6). And so He often preached in parables; that is, in a veiled way that hardened and rejected those who were hard and rebellious, yet in a way that enlightened (sometimes with further explanation provided) His disciples, those who were beginning to see the truth. Jesus’ parables do not simply carry information; rather, they exercise a discriminating function. They do not convey esoteric content only the initiated can fathom but present the claims of the inaugurated Kingdom and the prospects of its apocalyptic culmination in such a way that its implications are spelled out for those in the audience with eyes to see.

It now becomes clear why the first parable, the parable of the soils, is so important. It not only describes the measured advance of the Kingdom in terms of varied human responses, but implicitly challenges the hearer or reader to ask what kind of soil he or she is.

Those who produce no fruit because they are shallow, easily distracted by wealth, or for any other reason, probably will not understand it; so it is their sentence of doom. In fact, it condemns them even if they do understand it intellectually, but refuse to accept what it reveals of the Kingdom. Eventually, they simply take offense at Him, partly because they are not willing to consider His claims. Those who bear fruit will see themselves in it, but equally they will grasp the subtle way in which the kingdom invades human society at the present time.

THE SOWER

Matthew 13:1 “The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side. And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat: and the whole multitude stood on the shore. And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: and when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: but other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.… Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

Having paused till the press slackened, he privately retired to the margin of the lake, desiring probably to “rest a while;” but no sooner had he taken his seat beside the cool still water, than he was again surrounded by the anxious crowd. At once to escape the pressure and to command the audience better when he should again begin to speak, he stepped into one of the fishing-boats that floated at ease close by the beach, on the margin of that tideless inland sea. From the water’s edge, stretching away upward on the natural gallery formed by the sloping bank, the great congregation, with every face fixed in an attitude of eager expectancy, presented to the Preacher’s eye the appearance of a ploughed field ready to receive the seed.

As he opened his lips, and cast the word of life freely abroad among them, he saw, he felt, the parallel between the sowing of Nature and the sowing of Grace. Into that mould, accordingly, he threw the lesson of saving truth. Grasping the facts and laws of his own material world, and wielding them with steady aim as instruments in the establishment of his spiritual kingdom, in simple yet majestic terms he said, “Behold, a sower went forth to sow.”

Whether a sower was actually in sight at that moment of field or not, every man in that rural assemblage must have been familiar with the act, and would instantly recognise the truth of the picture.

The sower, with a bag of seed on his shoulder, moves slowly forth into the prepared field. His hand, accustomed to keep time with his advancing footsteps, and to jerk the seed forward with considerable force, in order to secure uniformity of distribution, cannot suddenly stop when he approaches the hard trodden margin of the field. By habit the right hand continues to execute its movement in unison with the sower’s steps as he is turning round; and thus a portion of the seed is thrown on the unploughed border of the field and the public path around it.

Three distinct obstructions to the growth and ripening of the seed are shown in the parable. In the first case the seed does not spring at all; in the second it springs, but dies before it grows up; in the third, it grows up, but does not ripen. If it escape the way side, the danger of the stony ground lies before it; if it escape the stony ground, the thorns at a later stage threaten its safety; and it is only when it has successively escaped all three that it becomes fruitful at length.

In this case, the Lord himself gave both the parable and its explanation; he became his own interpreter. The

From the Lord’s own exposition here and elsewhere recorded, we learn that the seed is the word of God; that the sower is the man who makes it known to his neighbours;

The SEED has been created by God and given to man. If it were lost, it would be impossible through human power and skill to procure a new supply: the race would, in that case, perish, unless God should interfere again with his creating power. For spiritual life and food the fallen are equally helpless, and equally dependent on the gift of God. The seed is the word, and the word is contained in the Scriptures. When we drop a verse of the Bible into listening ears, we are sowing the seed of the kingdom.

The seed is the word, but the Word is Christ: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.… and the Word was made fle sh and dwelt among us,” (John 1) Christ is the living seed, and the Bible is the husk that holds it. The husk that holds the seed is the most precious thing in the world, next after the seed that it holds. The Lord himself precisely defines from this point of view the place and value of the Scriptures,—“They are they which testify of me” (John 5:39).

The Different Types of Soil

THE WAY SIDE

It is a path beaten smooth by the feet of travellers walking the edge, or, runs by way of short cut through the middle of the field. The seed that falls there, left exposed on the surface, is picked up and devoured by birds.

The analogy being true to nature is instantly recognized. The spiritual hardness is like the natural in its cause as well as in its character. The place is a thoroughfare; a mixed multitude of this world’s affairs tread over it from day to day, and from year to year. It is not fenced like a garden, but exposed like an uncultivated untended field.

The soil, trodden by all comers, is never broken up and softened by a thorough self-searching. A human heart may easily become callous both to good and evil. “Every one that hears the word of the kingdom and does not take it in. The cause of the failure in both departments is, that the soil, because of its hardness, does not take the seed into its heart.

The seed is good:

If privileged and professing hearers of the Gospel come short of the kingdom, it is not the seed or God’s fault.

Felix the Roman governor was an example of the trodden way side. His heart, worn by the cares of business and the pleasures of sin passing made him hard, it presented no opening for the entrance of the Gospel. Paul, preached and Felix, said enough, quit before I might be converted.

At this point the parable addresses its lesson specifically to those who have lived without God in the world, and who have lived in the main comparatively at ease They have not a real heart-possessing, life-controlling religion, and they have never been very sorry for the want of it. They have no part in Christ, and no cheering hope for eternity. They are not ready to die; and yet they cannot keep death at bay. They know that they ought to care for their souls, but in point of fact they do not care; they know there is cause to be alarmed, and yet they are not alarmed. They neither grieve for sin nor love the Saviour;

Cares, vanities, passions, tread in constant succession over your heart, and harden it, so that the word of Christ, though it sound on the surface, never goes in, and never gets hold. Think not that the saints are by nature of another kind: they were once what you are, and you may yet become what they are, and more.

THE STONY GROUND.

A human heart, the soil on which the sower casts his seed, is in itself and from the first hard both above and below;

If the law of God has never broken the “stony heart” and made it “contrite,” When tribulation, the hot Sun, comes out, or persecution comes because of the word, the religion which reached no further than the surface cannot maintain its place there; it withers root and branch. The inward affection, such as it was, and the outward profession together disappear.

“All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12), has not been repealed.

It seems to have been after the manner of the seed on stony ground that king Saul’s faith grew and withered. It came away quickly at first, and presented a goodly appearance for a while;

Surface believers look good until hard times come, they have not grown any in Christ by His Word, so when its difficult, they whither away and are gone. There is no sign of Christ fruit in their lives. They are dead.

THE THORNS

In general terms, thorns, means any species of useless weed that occupies the ground and injures the growing crop: in the spiritual application it points to the worldly cares, whether they spring from poverty or wealth, which take over in a human heart the place due to Christ and his saving truth.

The earthly interferences are given in two categories, “The care of this world,” and “the deceitfulness of riches;” the term riches includes the pleasures which riches bring.

From our own experience in the world and the specific terms used by Jesus here, we learn that all classes and all ranks are on this side exposed to danger. This is not a rich man’s business, or a poor man’s; it is every man’s business. The words point to the two extremes of worldly condition, and include all that lies between them. “The care of the world” becomes the snare of those who have little, and “the deceitfulness of riches,” the snare of those who have much.

Thorns and thistles occupying the field suck in the sap which should go to nourish the good seed, and leave it a living skeleton. The capability of the ground is limited. When weeds of rank growth spring up, their roots greedily drain the soil of its goodness for their own supply; and as there is not enough both for them and the grain stalks, the weakest does not produce anything.

The weeds are indigenous in the soil: they are at home; the wheat is an exotic.

If you are poor, anxieties about work and wages, clothes and food, wife and children, become the thorn plants, harmless in appearance at first, which in the end may choke the seed of grace in your heart. If you are rich, the pleasure which wealth may purchase, or love of the wealth itself, may become the bitter root, which in its maturity may overpower all spiritual life within you, and leave only chaff, to be driven away in the great

Worldly cares nursed by indulgence into a dangerous strength are further like thorns growing in a corn field, they interpose a veil between the face of Jesus and the opening, trustful look of a longing soul. It is the lack of free, habitual exposure to the Sun of righteousness that prevents the ripening of grace in Christians.

1. As the thorns are indigenous and spring of their own accord, while the good seed must be sown and cherished; so, vain thoughts, lodged in our hearts from the dawn of our being, have the advantage of first possession, and get the start of their competitors in the race for supremacy

2. As long as the weeds live they grow. Every moment, until they are cast out of the field, they spread themselves more widely over its surface and drain away more of its nutritive juice.

3. The thorn is a prickly thing; it tears the husbandman’s flesh, as well as destroys the fruit of his field. In like manner the care of the world and the

4. It was where the seed and the thorns grew together that the mischief was done. The grain needs to grow alone in the heart of the field,

THE GOOD GROUND

The ground was ploughed, and the seed sank beneath it from the sower’s hand in spring; the earth was soft and the seed went to a sufficient depth, not crowed out by the weeds, it grew and produced a great increase.
In this parable Jesus means to teach us what things are against his kingdom, and that we must be honest and determine what soil we are. Only one type of soil advances his kingdom in our lives and in his plan.

What soil are You?

The good ground, is a committed Christian life that produces what Jesus intends;

A fruitful life, and a changed life, controlled by His Spirit and the Word.