Not many things pass the test of time. Fads quickly come and go. Languages evolve. Styles change. But storytelling has always remained constant. Two thousand years ago Jesus told parables to the people, and those stories are still memorable and relevant today. Almost everyone has heard them in some form. We cannot say the same about most other things. But it was not a common practice in Jesus’ time to speak in parables. The disciples began to ask Jesus why he was spoke in such a way. In fact, they often questioned Jesus about why he did certain things, especially things that seemed contrary to the current thinking or way of life.
Why did Jesus do what he did and say what he said?
The only explanation is that He must have known something that we did not. Something we could not see.
If someone had insight into heaven, knew the past and the future, knew God’s will intimately and had been there from the beginning, then that person would most certainly act differently and speak differently. Otherwise they would be a fraud.
Why did Jesus agree to die the humble death that he did on the cross, when his power was already well-known through his miracles of healing the sick and raising the dead? Even the people watching at the cross wondered why he didn’t just come down. The reason: He knew something more than just what was happening at that moment.
Matthew 13:10-17 ~ Jesus speaking in parables
Then the disciples came up and asked Jesus, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”
He answered them, “Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them. For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have more than enough. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. For this reason I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand. Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
You will listen and listen,
yet never understand;
and you will look and look,
yet never perceive.
For this people’s heart has grown callous;
their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
otherwise they might see with their eyes
and hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn back—
and I would cure them.
“But your eyes are blessed because they do see, and your ears because they do hear! For I assure you: Many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see yet didn’t see them; to hear the things you hear yet didn’t hear them.”
Isaiah also must have had knowledge of something more. Do you want to know what God is like? Isaiah 51-58 gives a wonderful insight into God’s view, the past and the future, a hope and a warning.
