TEXT [Commentary]

B. The Reason for Parables (13:10-17)

10 His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?”

11 He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets[*] of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. 12 To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. 13 That is why I use these parables,

For they look, but they don’t really see.

They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.

14 This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says,

‘When you hear what I say,

you will not understand.

When you see what I do,

you will not comprehend.

15 For the hearts of these people are hardened,

and their ears cannot hear,

and they have closed their eyes—

so their eyes cannot see,

and their ears cannot hear,

and their hearts cannot understand,

and they cannot turn to me

and let me heal them.’[*]

16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.”

NOTES

13:10 Why do you use parables when you talk to the people? As Jesus spoke to the crowd, his disciples asked him why he was speaking to them in parables (cf. Mark 4:10-12; Luke 8:9-10).

13:11 You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom. Jesus’ answer to the question implies that this manner of speaking was due to the rejection of his message by many of his listeners. But this was ultimately due to God’s sovereign purpose in revealing the secrets of the Kingdom (lit. “mysteries”; cf. Dan 2:28; Mark 4:11; Luke 8:10) to whom he chooses (cf. 11:25-27). These secrets evidently amount to the Kingdom truths signified in the parables of this chapter. God permits (lit. “gives”) some to understand these secrets, but he does not give this understanding to others.

13:12 To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. . . . But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. These solemn words confront Jesus’ disciples with God’s sovereignty in graciously revealing himself to some and in justly withholding that revelation from others.

13:13-15 Jesus’ language in 13:13 echoes Isa 6:9-10, and in 13:14-15 he goes on to directly cite those verses from Isaiah as an OT pattern now fulfilled in his own ministry (cf. John 12:39-40; Acts 28:26-27). Isaiah 6 describes a well-known vision of God in all his holiness that led Isaiah to confess the sinfulness of his people and himself. God cleansed Isaiah of his sin and called him to ministry to his sinful people. But the commission involved the awesome and awful responsibility of confronting the people with their rebellious unbelief of God’s message. They had revelatory opportunities, but they did not understand what they heard or perceive what they saw. Due to their hardened hearts, they were unable to respond with believing ears and eyes in turning to God so that he might heal them (cf. Jer 5:21-23). By analogy, the rebellious response to Jesus’ announcement of God’s rule led to judicial hardening through further enigmatic teaching, which those on the outside were not able to grasp. But God is sovereign over the initial rebellious response, as well as over the further hardening. Mark 4:11 makes an even stronger statement about the use of parables to conceal truth.

13:16-17 many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see. The disciples not only see what the crowds do not, but their blessedness also exceeds that of many OT worthies, both prophets and righteous people, who longed to hear and see what the disciples heard and saw. They were privileged by God’s grace to experience the climactic eschatological words and deeds of Jesus that inaugurated the Kingdom. The OT luminaries could only anticipate these things (cf. 11:11-13; Heb 11:39-40; 1 Pet 1:10-12), but Jesus’ disciples witnessed them and received Jesus’ private explanations of their significance (13:18-23, 36-43).

COMMENTARY [Text]

The fact that the disciples asked Jesus why he was speaking in parables implies that this was something relatively new in his ministry. Yet some commentators take this too far, holding the view that the Jews had decisively rejected the offer of the Kingdom and that in response, Jesus would now speak of the postponed Kingdom exclusively in mysterious language (Toussaint 1980:168; Walvoord 1974:96). In fact, Jesus had previously used some parabolic imagery (7:24-27; 9:15-17; 11:16-19; 12:29, 33, 43-45), and he would continue to speak plainly (without parables) to unbelievers as the narrative proceeds (see 15:3-7; 16:2-4; 19:4-9, 17-22; and most of chs 21–23). There is a sense in which Matthew 13 marks a transition in Jesus’ ministry. Opposition has indeed come to a head in Matthew 12, but the parabolic discourse of Matthew 13 is neither an entirely novel method of teaching or a new teaching about a postponed Kingdom. Jesus’ parables describe the present response of Israel to his Kingdom message. When his disciples take up that message after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the parables will just as accurately describe the response of the nations to the preaching of the church until the end of the age. My disagreement with Toussaint’s and Walvoord’s views on this is not so much over the decisive nature of Matthew 13 as it is over the presence of the Kingdom.

The Sovereignty of God. Finite creatures will never, even after their glorification, fully understand the interplay of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. Matthew 13:11-15, with its citation of Isaiah 6:9-10, is one of the most abrupt affirmations in the Bible of God’s prerogative to reveal himself to whomever he wishes. Yet this statement is not as striking as the previous one in 11:25-27, which speaks even more bluntly of God’s “hiding” the Kingdom message from those who reject it. Matthew 11:27 also goes further than 13:11-15 in affirming that Jesus shares the divine prerogative of revealing the Father to whomever he wills. Be that as it may, one can only respond to these affirmations of divine sovereignty with a spirit of awe and worship. One must remember that in the Bible, if not in every Christian theology, the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of God’s creatures go hand in hand. This is clear when Matthew 11:25-27 is compared with 11:28-30, and when Peter willingly makes a true confession of Jesus, but God has revealed this truth to him (16:15-17). It is also clear that those whom God sovereignly rejects are those who willfully reject God. God does not throw his pearls before pigs (7:6). The doctrine of God’s sovereign election, as the saying goes, comforts those afflicted by sin and afflicts those comfortable with sin. It also provides assurance that the preaching of the Kingdom message will be attended with God’s blessing in bringing people to faith. God will bring his people to himself.