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II. Speaking of Mysteries

A. Rejection and Riddles

The narrative section of the third book describes the growing controversy over Jesus’ preaching among the Jewish religious establishment - the Pharisees and scribes - who finally accuse Him of being possessed by the Devil (see Matthew 12:24).

At this point Jesus begins to speak in "parables" (see Matthew 13:3).

A parable is comparison that uses everyday images and stories to illustrate deeper truths.

In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, parabole translates mashal, a Hebrew word used to describe proverbs (see 1 Samuel 10:12; 1 Kings 4:32), riddles (see Psalm 49:4;Sirach 47:15, and allegories (see Ezekiel 17:2; 24:3).

All these Old Testament types of mashals are important for studying and understanding the structure and style of the individual parables told by Jesus.

But we’re interested here in why Jesus has begun to speak in parables. It’s a question that’s also on the Apostles’ minds (see Matthew 13:10).

Again, the Old Testament provides the context for Jesus’ answer (see Matthew 13:13-15):

This is why I speak to them in parables, because "they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand." Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:

"You shall indeed hear but not understand,
you shall indeed look but never see.
Gross is the heart of this people,
they will hardly hear with their ears,
they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart and be converted,
and I heal them."

Isaiah wasn’t foretelling the future in the passage Jesus quotes (see Isaiah 6:9-10). He was talking about his own contemporaries - the people that God had called him to preach to in the 8th century, after the death of King Uzziah (see Isaiah 6:1; 2 Chronicles 26).

Jesus knows this. He doesn’t treat the passage from Isaiah as a prophecy that has gone unfulfilled for eight centuries. He is finding parallels between Isaiah’s contemporaries and his own. In the Pharisees’ rejection of Jesus’ preaching, history was repeating itself.

Jesus also wants to evoke God’s earlier punishment of Israel for its hardness of heart.

In the verses immediately following those that Jesus quotes, God tells Isaiah that his faithless generation will be punished with exile and captivity - their cities laid to waste and made desolate, their populations carried off to far distant lands (see Isaiah 6:11-12).

Jesus will later say directly that the kingdom is being "taken away" from Israel and given to the Gentiles and Jews who believe (see Matthew 21:43). Interestingly, this is the precise message in the other places where Isaiah 6:9-10 is quoted in the New Testament (seeJohn 12:20; Acts 28:26-27).

B. What Has Lain Hidden

Speaking in parables, Jesus is pronouncing judgment on those who refuse to hear Him, to recognize in His words and deeds, the Messiah promised by the prophets.

And we see in the Old Testament several occasions where prophets speak parables against rulers who have done wrong and remain blind to their need for repentance (seeJudges 9:7-15; 2 Samuel 12:1-6).

However, if parables are used to cast judgment on unbelievers, they are also given for the benefit of the faithful. This is the message of Matthew’s second explanation of why Jesus speaks in parables (see Matthew 13:34-35):

All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. He spoke to them only in parables, to fulfill what had been said through the prophet: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation (of the world)."

The "prophet" Matthew quotes is actually Psalm 78. Again, the Old Testament context offers rich ground for meditation and interpretation.

Psalm 78 is a long, didactic history of Israel that itself is something of a parable. It is quoted (see John 6:31) and alluded to throughout the New Testament (for a few of the examples, compare 1 Corinthians 10:4 and Psalm 78:15-16; Matthew 15:8 and Psalm 78:36-37;Revelation 2:17 and Psalm 78:24; Acts 7:21 and Psalm 78:37; Psalm 78:70 and Romans 1:1; John 21:16 and Psalm 78:71-72).

The line that Jesus quotes comes at the start of the Psalm. The Psalmist promises that he will be explaining "mysteries from of old" - that is, declaring "to the generations to come the glorious deeds of the Lord and His strength (see Psalm 78:1-4).

Isn’t this what Jesus says He is doing in His parables - revealing "the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" - God’s salvific plan (see Matthew 13:11)?

And is it a coincidence that Psalm 78 ends by describing the ascendancy of King David to "shepherd Jacob, His people, and Israel, His inheritance" (see Psalm 78:68-72)? As we’ve mentioned, one of the underlying themes - if not the predominant one - in Matthew’s Gospel is the fulfillment of God’s promises to David in the life and work of Jesus.

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