He spoke in parables

You don’t have to read through very much of the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus to discover that much of his teaching consisted of simple parables – or simple stories that contain deeper truths. It would not be a stretch to say that parables were the heart and soul of Jesus’ teaching. Matthew 13:34 tells us that “Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable.” It is a proven fact that short stories, such as parables are one of the most effective teaching tools there is. But Jesus did not use parables merely because they are valuable teaching tools. A closer look reveals that there is a deeper reason for Jesus’ use of parables.

In Matthew 13:10 the disciples of Jesus came to him and asked him “Why do you speak to them in parables?” Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.” In other words, the point of using parables was to reveal hidden truths or “mysteries” about the kingdom of God. Jesus confirmed this in Matthew 13:35 when he said that he spoke in parables in order to fulfill the promise God made in Psalm 78:2: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”

But if all God had wanted to do was reveal truth, he could have simply spoken the truth plainly and openly, rather than through parables. In Matthew 13:13 Jesus said that his use of parables also fulfilled another Old Testament prophecy: “so that, they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding.” Even though Jesus spoke many of his parables before crowds, Mark 4:10 tells us that it was only when he was alone with those closest to him that he revealed the true meaning of his parables. So parables really served two purposes – to reveal powerful, hidden truth to those with hungry hearts and “ears to hear” and to act as a judgment to those with calloused hearts who had closed their ears and eyes to God’s truth.

In Matthew 13:16-17 Jesus gave us more insight into the power of parables when he said to his disciples, “Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” Through his parables Jesus revealed things that the prophets of old had only prophesied about – “things into which angels long to look.” (1 Peter 1:12) Through the parables Jesus spoke, the disciples were given the “inside scoop” so to speak, about the inner workings of God’s kingdom. They were the first people to lay their eyes upon truths that God had kept hidden “since the creation of the world.”

As we read through the parables of Jesus, we need to keep these things in mind. The parables of Jesus are not simply some good teaching illustrations he came up with to help people understand the obvious. They are vehicles through which God revealed powerful truths that had been hidden from every past generation. It is only when we take this perspective of the parables of Jesus, that we can understand them in their proper light and gain the understanding from them that Jesus intended for us to have.