Jesus spoke in parables to both reveal and conceal truth. Parables were a form of teaching that illustrated spiritual realities through everyday examples, but they also served to separate those who were open to truth from those whose hearts were hardened. They invited understanding for the humble while obscuring meaning from the proud and unrepentant.
“And the disciples came and said to Him, ‘Why do You speak to them in parables?’ He answered and said to them, ‘Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.’”
(Matthew 13:10–11)
To the disciples, Jesus explained the meaning of the parables. They had received grace to understand because they had responded to Him in faith. But to the crowds and religious leaders who had rejected Him, parables served as a form of judgment.
“Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”
(Matthew 13:13)
Jesus then quoted Isaiah to show that this method fulfilled prophecy:
“‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive… lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.’”
(Matthew 13:14–15)
This was not about God withholding truth from sincere seekers. It was about confirming the blindness of those who had already closed their eyes and hardened their hearts. Jesus did not hide truth from the humble, He veiled it from the defiant.
At the same time, parables fulfilled the role of prophecy and teaching:
“All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables… that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: ‘I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.’”
(Matthew 13:34–35)
Parables also required spiritual hunger. They forced listeners to think, seek, and ask. Jesus often ended with:
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
(Matthew 13:9)
In this way, parables were both an invitation and a filter, offering truth to those who desired it, and concealing it from those who rejected the light they had already been given.