God Doesn't Keep Secrets! Matthew 13:10-15

Matthew 13:10 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

Yesterday I mentioned that Jesus often used parables in his teaching.  Though the parables were not always easy to understand or apply, they forced the reader to think about the words and search for the meaning.  

One would assume that this was at the end of Jesus' teaching, when the disciples were alone with Jesus in the boat. Mark also states that other disciples were there as well. They were puzzled as to why he might use parables if it was harder for the crowds to understand what he was saying. 

11 He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 

This statement might have left them even more confused. The term "secrets" is often translated as "mysteries" in many other bible translations. 

"The parable conceals truth from those who are either too lazy to think or too blinded by prejudice to see. It puts the responsibility fairly and squarely on the individual. It reveals truth to him who desires truth; it conceals truth from him who does not wish to see the truth.” (Barclay)

"Been given" means by a special act of God!  (Ellicott)

"The mysteries of the kingdom - The word "mystery," in the Bible, properly means a thing that is "concealed," or that "has been concealed." It does not mean that the thing was "incomprehensible," or even difficult to be understood. The thing might be "plain" enough if revealed, but it means simply that it "had" not been before made known. Thus the "mysteries of the kingdom" do not mean any doctrines incomprehensible in themselves considered, but simply doctrines about the preaching of the gospel and the establishment of the new kingdom of the Messiah, which "had not" been understood, and which were as yet concealed from the great body of the Jews." (Barnes)

This comment still begs the question why have the secrets of the kingdom not have been given to the bystanders listening to Jesus teach.  I.e. the crowds

But if we understand the meaning of secrets as "not yet revealed", it is less about God intentionally keeping the truth from the crowds in an arbitrary way. But more in the sense of the time had not yet come yet for these mysteries to be revealed to them.  As we now know what is going to be happening soon with Jesus' revealing himself to the Gentiles, it confirms this interpretation of the text. 

12 Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 

The idea here is that the more one seeks the truth, the greater chance they will find it. And when they find it, they will continue to seek and find even more truth.  For those who don't seek or don't care, even what has been given to them will be taken away from them.  God has given all people free will.  One person may hear the gospel about Jesus and pursue who He is and what that might mean to them that He is the Savior of the world.  Others might not really care and not pursue it at all.  

13 This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

Jesus gets more specific as to why he uses parables to teach.  

"In this sense, the parables of Jesus were not illustrations making difficult things clear to all. They presented God’s message so the spiritually sensitive could understand, but the hardened would merely hear a story without heaping up additional condemnation for rejecting God’s Word."

Sometimes when we start quoting a bible verse, a person might put up a wall right away.  They will dismiss whatever we are presenting summarily because of their preconceived view of the bible.  But, they might be more open to an illustration or analogy that contains the same truth in a different vessel.  All truth is God's truth.  If something coming from something other the bible is true, it is true because the bible has already said it is true.  

There are many secular sayings that really say the same thing as the bible says.  I.e. In the 12 step program a key phrase is "one day at a time".  This is really a paraphrase of the Lord's prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread!"  

Or oftentime people say when they do some kind of charity work, 'I got back from them way more than I gave them."  Matthew 5:6 says, "God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied." (NLT)

When someone connects what they know to the truth with the truth of the bible, we can lead them to the WAY, the TRUTH and the Life, Jesus.  

14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

"It is not by any means intended that Isaiah, when he spoke these words, had any reference to the time of Christ. The meaning in both places is, that the people were so gross, sensual, and prejudiced, that they "would" not see the truth, or understand anything that was contrary to their grovelling opinions and sensual desires; a case by no means uncommon in the world." Barnes

15 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

It is not as though God wants to keep the truth from them, as he has clearly revealed it to all pepole in Jesus.  But by their own hardness of heart, they rejected the truth.  This is confirmed by the passage in the New Testament, "God is not willing for any to perish but all to come to a knowledge of the truth."  2 Peter 3:9

Why do you think some people turn to Jesus as the truth and some people reject him?  How can you help influence someone whose heart is hardened to become more softened?  I.e. open to Christ's message of hope.  Though you might already be a Christian, what of the dangers of our heart being hardened? We often call that "quenching the Holy Spirit"  If the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been revealed to you, do you think God wants you to keep them to yourselves?