NOTES for Mat 13:10-17

What is a parable? Why does Jesus speak to the people by using parables? Why is it given to the disciples to know the mysteries of the Kingdom, with Jesus explaining the meaning of His parables to them, while leaving the others, as it appears, in ignorance? To answer all these questions, it is important to understand what parables were used for in antiquity, and in the East also in the Middle Ages and later, right up to the present day.

It would seem that the simplest thing would have been to explain everything plainly; then no one would have had any misunderstandings. In reality, however, such a direct approach is useful only in part, and not only because it trains a person away from thinking by offering ready-made answers. The point is also that, with this kind of teaching, the student often does not even have questions. He does not know what to ask about at all, because the teacher decides for him what he needs to know. A parable works differently.

Above all, it lets a person see the unfamiliar in the familiar, the unexpected where everything had seemed long known and understood. It teaches a person to ask questions, and not idle ones. There are, after all, questions asked for the sake of questions, just to pass the time in a more or less learned and more or less friendly conversation. But a parable teaches one to ask questions that become urgent because the familiar has, if not collapsed, then at least been shaken. Urgent questions are questions asked from inside just such a shaken reality.

A person is, of course, free; he can brush the parable aside, and then his reality will again stand firm, or at least it will seem that way to him. In that case the parable will remain for him only a tale, a fable, a beautiful paradox with no relation to his own life or to life in general. It is about such people that Jesus says they see without seeing and hear without hearing.

Those who are inclined to listen must first become aware of the questions that flow from the parable and formulate them for themselves. They must understand what is unclear and unfamiliar to them in what is clear and familiar. A person can and must do this work himself; no hints are needed here. Until he has done it, he remains among those whom the Savior calls "outsiders." But once the questions have been formulated, they are asked, as Jesus' disciples do.

Only then can one speak plainly; then a person will hear and understand, of course according to his own measure. Jesus acts in exactly this way. He is not a teacher in the worst sense of the word, one of those who impose their knowledge on everyone who has not managed or been able to run away. He speaks only to those who are ready to hear and want to do so, leaving the door open for the rest as well, in case they want to enter.