Sometimes, it becomes self-evident when a little knowledge of the scripture is worse than no knowledge at all. I have counted a fairly large number of times in the past month that I’ve read Christian blog debates where this has been demonstrated.

Person A will use one of Jesus’ parables, to which Person B – in order to avoid addressing Person A’s point – will quote Luke 8:9-10 (or a synoptic equivalent) and declare that we can’t know what Jesus meant, because Jesus told parables to hide the truth from people!

His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,
” ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’

Whether it is due to willful ignorance, a purposeful lack of curiosity, or something else, these ‘literate illiterate‘ folks unwittingly demonstrate exactly what Jesus is talking about in this discussion.

First off, in the history of parable telling (and we have 3,000 – 4,000 examples of Jewish parables, some of which Jesus borrowed to give different meanings), there are no examples at all of anyone, including Jesus, using a parable to confuse people or hide the truth from them. On the contrary, the purpose of a parable is the exact opposite.

The Key

Every parable has at least one “secret” or “key”. With Jesus, most of his parables had at least two:

1. A high level “secret”, that of the “kingdom of God” or “kingdom of heaven” (which I’ve written about extensively), which would be better termed in English “the reign of God”, because it describes how God’s people should live – NOW – to demonstrate His reign in their lives here on earth.
2. A second “secret”, which is a demonstration of how we are to act in the kingdom, is the most obvious import in the parable.

Seeing and Seeing, Hearing and Hearing
In the teaching the “secrets” or “keys”, rabbis were expecting two things from their listeners: to understand their “secret”, and to accept that teaching and apply it to their walk. In Luke 8:10, Jesus chooses to refer to the words of the prophet Isaiah:

He said, “Go and tell this people: ” ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’

It is understanding this quote that the reader can get a hint at the two meanings of the words “see” and “hear”. When you understand the point the teacher is trying to make, you “see” it. Once you understand the message, if you choose to accept it as truth and to act upon it, you have “seen and seen” it. If you choose not to accept it as truth or to act upon it, you have “seen and not seen” it.

King David

One of the earliest examples of parable is from the prophet Nathan, when confronting David’s sin with Bathsheba and Uriah.

The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

“Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.” (2 Samuel 12:1-4)

At this point, David did not yet understand the “secret” of the parable. He did not “see” it. And so, he reacted by giving the honest judgement -

David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” (2 Samuel 12:5-6)

Next, Nathan gave the “secret” to David -

Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:7)

At this, David now “saw” (understood), and in seeing, he chose to see -

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” (2 Samuel 12:13)

I realize this seems foreign to us, but it is very poetic and very Jewish. And so, perhaps reading this, we will see and see and hear and hear, and in doing so, we will not discount Jesus’ use of parables as trying to “confuse” people…

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References – Brad Young, The Parables: Jewish Tradition and Christian Interpretation
Ray VanderLaan – Parables: the Good Samaritan