I have been writing a series of articles on the parables Jesus spoke in his ministry. Today I just finished an article on the parable of the sower and the seed to appear in an upcoming issue of The Good News. I was struck by a passage in Matthew 13 where Jesus tells the disciples why He spoke in parables. The reason is rooted in a little understood truth about reality. The world we see is not the world that is.

The parable of the sower and the seed is divided into two parts. In the first Jesus talks in general terms about a sower of seed in a field. When Jesus finished this first part of the parable, there was a break in the discussion. His disciples gathered around Him wanting to know what they had just heard. They knew the teachings from their Master well enough by this time to know there was a deeper meaning than just an agricultural lesson. "Why," they asked, "do you use parables when you talk to the people?" (Matthew 13:10, New Living Translation).

"He replied, 'You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. 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. That is why I use these parables' (verses 11-13).

Why is their understanding taken away? Who is responsible? The "why" is explained by Jesus. He uses a passage from Isaiah to describe a general spiritual condition among the Israelites of old and our people today. The average person, He says, looks but does not see and hears but does not listen. Therefore they lack understanding.

The account in Isaiah includes a conversation in a vision between the prophet and God. God asks, "Who will I send?" Isaiah volunteers to take the Lord's message to Israel. But God cautions that Israel will not be able to see, hear or understand the message. He says they will have hard hearts that cannot be penetrated. The same conditions existed in Jesus day. So He spoke the gospel within a parable that cloaked the message.

The same conditions exist today. God’s truth is not clearly seen, heard or understood by people today. And it's for the same reasons as in Christ's day or that of Isaiah. The world is cloaked in a great spiritual deception. Isaiah was eager to take the message of God to His people, but God told him that most would not hear. Heavy ears and eyelids lead to dullness of understanding.

Christ's words here are hard to receive. He says some are permitted to hear while others are not. His inner core of disciples were permitted to hear the explanation, and with it came understanding of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven. Was Christ being unfair? Not at all. The reasons are given in His explanation that follows in the parable. Here is a stark reality of how life really works. The world we see is not the world that is.

Isaiah said to God, "Here am I! Send me" (Isaiah 6:8). He was eager to take God's message to his fellow countrymen. Those of us who work today in the fields of the Lord are eager to take that same message of hope to anyone who will hear. Check your hearing. Check your eyesight. Unplug your ears. The world is not what it seems. There is much to learn.