Why Did Jesus Speak in Parables — Matthew 13 Explained

Jesus spoke in parables to reveal the kingdom to those who were ready to see and to conceal it from those whose hearts were closed. Why did Jesus speak in parables? Matthew 13 gives a clear answer: parables teach by everyday images, they test the listener, and they separate true disciples from casual onlookers.

[Matthew 13:3-9]

Think of the parable of the sower. On the surface it is a simple farming story about seed and soil. For a first-century hearer, the imagery was immediate, familiar, and memorable. Yet Matthew records that the disciples sensed something more and asked Jesus directly why he taught that way.

[Matthew 13:10]

What Jesus answered in Matthew 13

Jesus answers the question in the next verses. He says that the secrets of the kingdom are given to the disciples, but to the crowds he speaks in parables because, as he puts it, "seeing they do not see; hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." In other words, parables are not merely ornament. They are a method of revelation that always includes a test of the heart.

[Matthew 13:11-17]

Matthew intentionally frames this teaching as a turning point. He says, before Matthew 13 Jesus sometimes taught simply, but here he begins to speak mostly in parables. He repeats this fact later, noting that "without a parable he did not speak to them." That change is significant. The parables enlarge Jesus' teaching, but they also sharpen its demand. Those who want to understand must want God more than intellectual curiosity.

[Matthew 13:34]

Three purposes of parables, as seen in Matthew 13

Read closely, and Matthew 13 shows at least three related purposes: to reveal, to conceal, and to separate.

First, to reveal. Parables open a window on the kingdom using ordinary things: seed, fishing nets, a field. The images bring theological truth out of the abstract and into the world people live in. When Jesus explains the parable of the sower to his disciples, he unpacks those images so that the picture of how the kingdom grows, and how people respond, becomes clear.

[Matthew 13:18-23]

Second, to conceal. That sounds odd until we remember that revelation from God always requires a response. Jesus does not hide truth for mischief. He speaks in stories because many in the crowd were not open to repentance or trusting faith. The parable allows truth to be present without forcing understanding on hearts that are not willing. Old Testament prophecy used the same pattern, which Matthew points to by echoing the prophetic hardening motif in places like Isaiah 6.

[Isaiah 6:9-10]

Third, to separate. Several of Matthew 13's parables end with a separation scene: the wheat and the weeds, the dragnet, the good and bad fish. The stories are not merely pedagogical, they are eschatological. They show that God's kingdom comes with patient judgment and final sorting. The parable itself invites response, and that response reveals where a person stands.

[Matthew 13:24-30]

[Matthew 13:36-43]

We can see this threefold purpose lived out in the crowd. Some hear and their hearts change. Some admire the story but go home unchanged. Others, hardened, drift away. The parable both opens truth to those willing and also confirms the hardness of those who refuse to believe. That was not accidental, it was part of Jesus' pedagogical design.

How parables work as a teaching method

Parables are economical and subversive. They compress a moral and spiritual world into a brief story, and they dislocate expectations so a listener must think. Jesus' images are often startling. He compares the kingdom to tiny seed that becomes a great plant. He says a man scatters good seed and an enemy sows weeds. Such contrasts invite imagination and moral choice.

Because parables work through comparison rather than proposition, they do several useful things at once. They stick in memory better than a sermon of abstract propositions. They allow listeners to supply missing pieces, which encourages active engagement. And by leaving some things implicit, they call listeners to seek the explanation, which is what the disciples did.

Scholars note another practical effect. Parables guard vulnerable truths. Robert H. Stein and others have pointed out that parables are not self-evident allegories; they need interpretation and context. Jesus provides both to his followers. That preserves the authority of the teaching while protecting the message from casual or hostile misreading.

One concrete example: when Jesus told the crowd about a field sown with good seed and then an enemy sowing weeds, he allowed the story to be heard by all. Later, when the disciples asked for clarity, Jesus explained that the field is the world and the harvest is the end of the age. The story had done its work, and the explanation showed how the story fits into redemptive history.

What this means for us

Parables still do their work. They invite us into the story of God's kingdom in a way that demands personal response. If you find yourself puzzled by a parable, that puzzlement is part of the invitation. It asks you to listen, to pray, to place yourself before the Teacher and ask for sight.

[Psalm 78:2]

At the center of Matthew 13 is a pastoral tension. God wants people to know him, but that knowledge must be received with the heart. These stories are not clever tricks, they are invitations. They reveal the kingdom to those who come hungry, they hide it from those who are merely curious, and they separate wheat from weeds so that God's justice and mercy can be finally displayed.

So when you ask why did Jesus speak in parables, the short answer is this: because stories teach the heart more deeply than propositions, because they call for a response, and because they fit the way God has always dealt with human freedom. Matthew 13 helps us hear that answer not just as doctrine but as an invitation to examine our own soil.

[Matthew 13:44-46]