Summary
Why Jesus Spoke in Parables
A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning—an extended simile or metaphor drawn from ordinary life: sowers and seed, yeast and flour, sheep and coins, treasure and pearls. This was Jesus' characteristic way of teaching, so much so that the disciples noticed a pattern: when Jesus addressed unbelievers, He spoke in parables; when He spoke to His own, He explained things plainly. That difference prompted their question in Matthew 13:10: "Why do you speak to them in parables?"
Jesus answers in two parts. First: "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given" Matthew 13:11. The word "secrets" (or "mysteries") refers to truths that human reason cannot deduce on its own—truths known only by divine revelation. The kingdom of heaven is not a conclusion the mind reaches by climbing; it is a gift the Father gives.
Second, Jesus quotes Isaiah: people see but do not perceive, hear but do not understand, because their hearts have grown dull, their ears hard, their eyes shut Matthew 13:13-15. Scripture diagnoses this condition everywhere: the idolaters of Psalm 115 become like the lifeless things they make; David prays, "Create in me a clean heart, O God" Psalm 51:10; Paul warns of itching ears that turn from sound doctrine 2 Timothy 4:3-4 and of unbelievers whose minds "the god of this world has blinded" 2 Corinthians 4:4. By nature, every one of us has spiritual heart disease, spiritual hardness of hearing, and spiritual blindness.
So why parables? Not because Jesus wanted to confuse people, and not out of frustration. A helpful image is the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat. A thermostat determines the condition of a room; a thermometer reveals the condition of the body. Parables are thermometers. They do not cause unbelief; they expose it. They show the hearer's true spiritual state—and at the same time, they show that understanding Jesus, trusting Jesus, loving Jesus is never a self-generated achievement. It comes only by divine revelation, by God's gracious action through Word and Sacrament. Faith itself is gift, not decision. As Jesus' Stories - "Parables' Purpose" puts it, parables reveal our spiritual condition and reveal that only God can change it.
This is why Jesus says to His disciples, "Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear" Matthew 13:16. If you trust Christ, that trust is the fruit of God opening your ears, unstopping your eyes, and creating a new heart in you. He claimed you in the waters of Baptism and will not let go. The same Christ who bore your sin on the cross continues to give Himself to you through His Word.
That truth shapes how we carry the ache for those we love who do not yet know Jesus. We cannot change their hearts; only God can. But we are called to share the gospel and to pray, trusting that God uses the proclamation of Christ crucified to bring the dead to life, the deaf to hearing, and the blind to sight.
Video citations
- Jesus' Stories - “Parables’ Purpose” — What you open your Bible's please with me to the 13th chapter of the gospel of Matthew, if you're using a Pew edition of Holy Scripture, you're going to find that in the New Testament on page 12.…