The Gospel of the Kingdom - Matthew - The Reactions to the Parables

 

TEXT: Matthew 13:9-17; 34-35; 51-58 – “⁹He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” ¹⁰ And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” ¹¹ 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. ¹² For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. ¹³ Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. ¹⁴ And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive;¹⁵ For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’ ¹⁶ But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; ¹⁷ for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it”

³⁴ All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, ³⁵ 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.”

⁵¹Jesus said to them, “Have you understood all these things?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” ⁵² Then He said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.” ⁵³ Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there. ⁵⁴ When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? ⁵⁵ Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? ⁵⁶ And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” ⁵⁷ So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” ⁵⁸ Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”

As we close our study of Matthew 13, we need to consider the Purpose of these parables. Jesus uses His parables to accomplish a two-fold goal

• ·      To reveal God’s truth to the righteous (verses 9-12, 34-35, 51)
• ·      To conceal God’s truth from the unrighteous (verse 12-13)

This was prophesied by the prophet Isaiah in chapter 6:9-10 that Israel would not be able to understand or accept the truths in Christ’s parables – quoted in verses 14-17 above.

And Matthew closes this section with the Reaction to His parables – the people in Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth react to His parables in a two-fold way

• ·      First, they were amazed (verses 53-56)
• ·      Then they were angered – (verse 57-58)

 But because of this, Jesus does only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.

So, that leads us to the very important question – "how do you react to the teachings of Christ?

We can be either amazed or angry at the truths we find in His Word. The choice is ours.