Why did Jesus teach in parables?

"And when He was alone, they that were about Him with the Twelve asked of Him the parables. And He said unto them, Unto you it is given [to know]† the mystery of the kingdom of God; but unto them that are without, all things are done in parables: that beholding they may behold, and not see; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest it may be they should be converted, and they should be forgiven.‡ And He said to them, Know ye not this parable and how then will ye be acquainted with all parables? He explains the mind of God, not to the Twelve only, but to those who were about Him. They were those within: all else were "without," to whom all things happen in parables, a rebelling people without even a reprover now. But those within have the privilege of knowing the mystery of the kingdom: grace thus wrought distinguishing those separated to Christ from the guilty nation, given up increasingly to judicial darkness, though it reproved them for their want of understanding.45 Nor was this parable hard to discern, but elementary and fundamental, a sort of introduction to those which were to follow. Nevertheless, the gracious Lord, if He rebukes, proceeds to expound it, as we have seen in verses 14-20. "Parables": so Edd., with ℵBCLΔ, Amiat. Memph. The reading of AEΠΣ Syrpesch Goth. Æth. is "parable." †["To know"]: so Ccorr DΔ, etc., Old Latin Syrpesch hier have the word, but Edd. omit, as ℵABCpm KLΠ Syrsin. ‡"They should be forgiven": so Edd., with ℵBCL, etc. "Their sins," etc., is found in AD, etc., Syrsin pesch, Old Latin, Memph.

Verse 3 offers another important detail: The Lord ‘spoke to them many things in parables, saying, Behold, the sower went out to sow …’. This is the first time the word parable occurs in the New Testament. The disciples, struck by this method of teaching, asked the Lord: ‘Why speakest thou to them in parables?’ (v. 10). The Lord’s answer is telling. It confirms that the teaching of the parables of the kingdom of heaven is directly related to the rejection of the king: ‘Because to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, but to them it is not given’ and ‘because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear nor understand’ (vs. 11, 13). This was a case of ‘judicial blindness’. The Lord quotes from Isaiah to show this: ‘for the heart of this people has grown fat, and they have heard heavily with their ears, and they have closed their eyes as asleep’ (v. 15). This is solemn indeed. They could not see because they had refused to see.

When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was asked by His disciples why He spoke to the crowds in parables. His answer was: ‘To you is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to them who are without, all things are done in parables, that beholding they may behold and not see, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest it may be, they should be converted and they should be forgiven’ (Mark 4:11–12). In other words, the Lord Jesus expounded His doctrine (v. 2) in parables for a specific purpose: so that one group would understand them while another would not and, as a result, would not be saved.

45 Mark 4:10-12. — Compare Matt. 13:10-17, where the Divine motive behind the Lord's words is made quite clear. The "remnant" is discriminated from the nation at large, whose wilful repudiation of Him as the Messiah, as represented by its leaders, brings upon the mass ("the many" of Dan. 9:27, Mark's "those without," Luke's "the others") that judicial sentence of blindness which Isaiah (Isa. 6) proclaimed, but modern critics, such as Schmiedel (col. 1866) and Bousset (p. 42), are slow to apprehend. A diatribe of one of these is against the "preposterous dogmatic pedantry of a later age." Jülicher pronounces the words reported by Mark as "impossible in the mouth of Jesus." Compare with such infatuated views Neander's remarks: "There is here expressed a moral necessity that those destitute of the right will (on which all depends, and without which the Divine drawing is in vain) could understand nothing of the things of the Lord which they saw and heard. So long as they remained as they were, the whole life of Christ, according to the same general law, remained to them an inexplicable parable" (p. 107 f.). Cf. the judicious remarks of Burkitt (p. 88) on the subject. Menzies refers to Rom. 11:8, comparing Mark 3:5. Salmond cites Matthew Henry: "A shell that keeps good fruit for the diligent, but keeps it from the slothful." — J. Wesley: (a) would not, (b) could not.

These examples are sufficient to illustrate the nature of what is called in Scripture a "mystery." It may consist of a dream, a vision, a parable or a verbal prophecy, the essential feature being that the divine communication cannot be understood without a subsequent divine communication which explains the first. And it will be found that the Greek word, mysterion, mystery, first occurs in the chapter of Daniel to which reference has been made (Dan. 2). In the Septuagint version the term is applied repeatedly to the forgotten dream of Nebuchadnezzar and its interpretation. Daniel and his friends "sought mercies from the God of heaven concerning this mystery." "Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night." Daniel said, "The mystery which the king asks the explanation of." "There is a God in heaven revealing mysteries." "He that reveals mysteries has made known to thee what must come to pass." Nebuchadnezzar said, "Of a truth your God is a God of gods, and Lord of kings, who reveals mysteries; for thou hast been able to reveal this mystery" (Dan. 2:18-19, 27, 28, 29, 30, 47; Dan. 4:6). It may be seen therefore that a mystery is a secret thing which would remain such apart from divine revelation a matter to the knowledge and understanding of which initiation is necessary.

Now, as there was the mystery concerning the Gentile monarchies, so, the Lord said, there was a mystery concerning that kingdom which, according to Daniel 2:44 the God of heaven would establish, never to be destroyed. This mystery He set out in His teaching by parables, thereby concealing from the multitude for the time being the meaning which He afterwards revealed to His apostles. For He said, "Unto you is given [to know] the mystery of the kingdom of God; but unto them that are without, all things are done in parables; that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear and not understand." He thus added a solemn warning to the people. Upon the nation at large the sentence of judicial blindness would fall, as Isaiah had prophesied (Isa. 6:9-10). For the Light of the world was among them, yet they refused to see light in His light; hence darkness would come among and upon them, and even as He was speaking, the truth as to God's provision in view of their rebellion was veiled from their eyes in parables.

In private the disciples inquired about the parable, to which the Lord answered that they were privileged to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but the crowd was addressed by parables so that they would not know. Though they might hear and see what was on the surface, yet they would not perceive the significance of these things, lest they would be converted and have their sins forgiven. This does not mean that these things were hidden from them because God desired them not to be converted. In fact, if men would only recognize their ignorance and seriously inquire, they too would be converted and find forgiveness of sins, while those who were willingly ignorant would remain that way.

251 We see here again that the Lord's ministry amongst the Jews was ended. "To you it is given," He says to the disciples, "to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to those that are without all these things are spoken in parables, in order that seeing they may not perceive, and that hearing they may not understand, lest they be converted, and their sins be forgiven them." They are under the judgment of God. The Lord does not mean to say here that a soul might not believe in Jesus individually, and thus be forgiven; but that the nation, having rejected the testimony of Jesus, was now deserted of God, left outside, and exposed to His judgment. He reproves the disciples because they too could not understand the parable, nevertheless He explains it to them in His grace.

The disciples now come and say unto Him, "Why speakest Thou unto them in parables?" and the Lord makes it an occasion to explain these things unto them. "He answered and said unto them, Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given." The same parable would be just like the cloud of Israel in a former day — full of light to those within, full of obscurity to those without. Thus it is with the sayings of our Lord. So solemn was the crisis with unbelieving Israel now, that it was not His intention to give clearer light. Conscience was gone. They had the Lord in their midst, bringing in full light, and He was refused, especially by the religious leaders. He had now broken with them: here was the clue to His conduct. "To you it is given to know," etc. It was kept from the multitude, and this because they had already rejected the clearest possible proofs that Jesus was the Messiah of God. But, as He says here, "Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance." Such was the case with the disciples. They had already received His person, and now the Lord would supply with truth to lead them on. "But whosoever hath not" (the Christ-rejecting Israel), "from him shall be taken away even that he hath" — the Lord's bodily presence and the evidence of miracle would soon pass away. "Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing, see not; and hearing, they hear not; neither do they understand" (ver. 13). That judicial sentence of darkness which Isaiah had pronounced upon them hundreds of years before, was now to be sealed, though the Holy Ghost still gives them a fresh testimony. And this very passage is afterwards quoted to mark that it is a finished thing with Israel. They loved darkness rather than light. What is the good of a light to one that shuts his eyes? Therefore would the light be taken away too. "But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them: and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them" (vers. 16, 17).

Verse 9 shows that not all would be willing to hear what was involved in this parable. The disciples question why the Lord should use this means of addressing the crowds: no doubt they felt it pointless if the crowd saw no spiritual application. But He answered that His disciples are intended to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but unbelieving Israel was to be left in the ignorance they really preferred.

The principle of verse 12 may appear to be startling: the one who already had would be given more: he who had nothing would only lose what he appeared to have. By speaking in parables the Lord was giving in such a way that only faith could receive it. Unbelievers could understand easily the literal things of which He spoke, yet they did not really understand: though seeing, they did not perceive. Honesty would certainly recognize that the Lord was saying more than appeared on the surface, and true concern of faith would desire to understand, and therefore inquire. But inquiring would be an admission of ignorance, and the blindness of men's pride kept them from this.

Very full was the outline presented by the Teacher as He sat in the boat; and how wise was His manner of presenting it. By such a method of teaching He tested everyone in the vast crowd who heard what He said, to see who were desirous to learn. For we read: "Without a parable spake He not to them;" yet He spake, as Mark alone informs us, "as they were able to hear it" (4:33). The profit of souls was His aim, and all who desired it had the interpretation.