Matthew 13:13, commentary and pictures

Jesus spoke this to His disciples after the parable of the sower when they asked why He taught the multitude in parables, answering that He did so because the crowd looked without truly perceiving and listened without truly understanding spiritual truth.
Their blindness and deafness were not forced upon them by Christ but were willful, for they closed eyes and ears and made hearts dull and gross lest they understand and be converted and healed.
He taught in parables both to awaken inquiry in willing minds so the Holy Spirit could later unfold the meaning, and to veil truth from hostile Pharisees and expose evil without giving them grounds to arrest Him and stop His work.
As with the sower and the soils, the result depends not on the sower or the seed but on the condition of the heart, for worldly cares, pride in human wisdom, cherished traditions and unbelief choke the word, while teachable and honest hearts receive it and bear fruit.
In this was fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy of hearing without understanding and seeing without perceiving, leaving those who refuse the light they have been given without excuse and under judgment.

Words and Immediate Setting

Jesus spoke these words just after He had given the multitude the parable of the sower and the seed, when the disciples came asking why He spoke to them in parables, and His answer was that He spoke to them in parables because seeing they see not and hearing they hear not and do not understand. That failure was not mere lack of sight and sound but outward seeing and hearing without truly perceiving spiritual truth. It was having eyes but seeing not, ears but hearing not, and intellect but not discerning the hidden treasure of the gospel lying at their very feet.

To the disciples it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to the others it was not given. The rule governing this difference is that whosoever has, to him shall be given, and whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has. The Father hides these things from the wise and prudent and reveals them unto babes.

By contrast the eyes and ears of the disciples are blessed because they see and hear. They see and hear with believing hearts what many prophets and righteous men desired to see and hear and did not. As Jesus explained the parables, many listeners received and cherished His teaching, including educated and influential people.

Willful Blindness Described

The failure to understand is not caused by Christ blinding anyone, but by people closing themselves to truth; the blindness and deafness are willful, a condition men bring upon themselves by shutting eyes and ears to avoid recognizing the meaning. Though they receive light, feel conviction, and are shown the way to conversion, they refuse the word, and those who reject truth they have heard are accountable for that rejection and face the consequences of chosen ignorance. The same condition belongs to some professing to believe present truth who will not understand God's marvelous work confirming His Word nor perceive the workings of His Spirit, not for lack of sufficient evidence but because waywardness and corruption and hearts hardened through sin and conformity to the world cloud their conceptions of divine things, while pride and selfishness and vanity close ears and blind understanding lest the Spirit arouse attention and direct them in righteousness to the city of God.

Their state is closed eyes, dull ears, and hearts grown gross and unresponsive, lest they see with the eyes and hear with the ears and understand with the heart and be converted and healed, so that their hearts cannot be reached. It fulfills Isaiah's prophecy that by hearing they shall hear and shall not understand and seeing they shall see and shall not perceive, and there is no reason to be surprised at such unbelief, for it was predicted. In contrast stand those whose eyes and ears are blessed because they see and hear with believing hearts.

The will is not on the side of God's will: they do not love the truth, so it has no sanctifying and refining influence upon them, they cannot discern the sacredness of the work given them, and all surrounding light becomes darkness so that they call good evil and evil good. They are careless, proud, indifferent professors, opposed in will and character to truth, who though they see its evidence will not yield to its transforming influence nor bring it into practical life, whose testimony is unreliable, who must be separated from God's work, and who are gathered as tares for the fires of the last day until the cry comes that the harvest is past, the summer ended, and the soul not saved. Hearts given to covetousness and worldly ties refuse the word even while receiving light and conviction, and worldly cares, riches, and pleasures choke the seed so that hearing does not produce lasting faith unless it takes root, changes the heart, and is lived out.

Pride in own wisdom and trust in vain philosophy keep them from recognizing the beauty, power, and mystery of the plan of redemption, leaving the hidden treasure of the gospel undiscovered though they have eyes, ears, and intellect. A feeling of self-deluding superiority makes heavenly truth unable to take root, like seed on barren, hopeless, profitless soil, with exalted self claiming all faith, honor, and love while supposing others at fault. Such hearts speak reproof and condemnation hard as millstones that crush hope and courage, harbor roots of bitterness defiling many, are full of evil thoughts, suspect the purest, and make a man an offender for a word. The Jews had the treasure house of all knowledge in their midst in Christ and abundant evidence that He was the Messiah, yet passed over the hidden treasure without knowing it and sat in need at its very roots, because receiving Him meant giving up cherished traditions, selfish practices, and preconceived opinions, and they feared conviction and change.

The teachers of that day turned from the fountain of true knowledge, refusing instruction and refusing to join in sowing seeds that would restore God's moral image; they studied Scripture only to sustain traditions and enforce man-made observances, made it express sentiments God never gave, made indistinct by mystical construction what God made plain, and disputed over technicalities while practically denying essential truths, so the word was robbed of power and evil spirits worked their will. Dull hearing treats fitly spoken words as idle tales because the palsy of unbelief paralyzes mind and soul, especially dependence on own merits and lack of knowledge of justification by faith, and more evidence or teaching will not benefit unsanctified hearts nurturing unbelief and criticism until there is a converted heart, mind, and purpose. Teachers and ministers can be thus spiritually blind, idolizing own opinions and governed by preconceived ideas rather than a plain Thus saith the Lord, while Satan beclouds perceptions and hardens hearts. Under Satan's guidance some look without truly seeing and listen without truly hearing, receiving attractive deceptive errors that remove the pillars Christ established, set up a human structure in their place, and lay false foundations for minds.

Why Jesus Used Parables

Parables were meant to awaken inquiry, hold attention, and impress truth on the heart, and those willing to know divine things could understand them. Jesus explained them to honest inquirers, and as hearers later recalled the familiar scenes the Holy Spirit unfolded their meaning to open minds. Figures and comparisons from nature and life let Him communicate divine truth simply and help hearers remember it later.

He also used parables to present truths people were not yet ready to accept or grasp, veiling spiritual truth in figures so it could be given without being rejected at once. The clear meaning of truth was hidden under symbols and similitudes from the Pharisees and Sadducees because they would make a wrong use of what He told them, while to His disciples He spoke plainly. Great truths were hidden under similitudes so that people without the truth or the love of it could not know His doctrines. An honest and pure heart discerns His doctrines even in parables.

Parables let Jesus expose hypocrisy and evil deeds through simple illustrations that hearers could recognize. By this means He could set forth their true condition without giving His opponents grounds to arrest Him and interrupt His work. Hearers could recognize the meaning, yet could not condemn Him for expressing it through a simple illustration, and no personal offense was caused that would cut short His labor.

Parables were the only way He could rebuke sin without causing personal offense because evil angels in the form of men mingled with His hearers. Those agents made suggestions and criticized, misapplying and misinterpreting His words, so direct speech would have been seized upon. The same work continues now, with evil angels in the form of men talking with those who know the truth to misinterpret and misconstrue the statements of God's messengers and cause the words of life to lose their force.

This veiled teaching was the only way He could reach the people. He greatly desired by it to open their blinded eyes to see the uselessness of the multitudinous traditional ceremonies that constituted their religion. Divine truth had been given to the people but had become mixed with error, so Christ separated it from falsehood and restored it to its proper place where it could shine clearly.

He used varied illustrations to bring important truths to many kinds of people. Some parables were for all listeners, while others were suited to particular experiences or cases. Even the humblest were reached with tender care.

Sower and Soils Explained

The parable of the sower lays out the different responses of the human heart to Christ, and it explains why His ministry showed so little immediate result. Men and women were left free to accept or reject Him, for He would not use miracles to compel belief or obedience. Some hear the truth but quickly lose it like seed by the wayside, some receive it eagerly but fall away under trial like stony ground, and some let worldly cares, riches, and pleasures choke it so that Christian character is not developed. Only a few are nourished and strengthened until established, for merely hearing does not produce lasting faith unless the word takes root, changes the heart, and is lived out; many were stirred for a time and then lost the impression when they returned to worldly cares and temptations, while others carried the teaching into a holier daily life.

The difference in outcome lies in the condition of the soil, not in any difference in the sower or the seed. No hearer need remain inattentive or neglectful, because hearers are responsible for resisting the Spirit and can choose to let the heart be prepared to receive the word. A heart hard like a beaten path may not be moved by logic or argument, yet Christ's love shown through personal ministry can soften it so that the seed of truth takes root, even where presenting the Saviour at first appears fruitless. Minds and hearts that desire light and knowledge can receive the teachings as precious truth from heaven, but the message is not welcomed by everyone. God has prepared receptive hearts that will receive it with joy, while some reject the light and others heed the words, receive the gospel seed, and grow into faith in Jesus as Redeemer.

The seed is to be proclaimed everywhere even when results are not immediately visible, for poor soil is no reason to stop sowing. Truth spoken as seed sown in the mind cuts the heart even when its effect is not seen at once, and it remains to spring up and bear fruit to the glory of God in the saving of many souls. Good seed may stay hidden for a time in a worldly, selfish heart or lie dormant, then the Spirit works in that heart and brings it to fruit. Some who came eagerly yet only dimly understood had seeds of life take root that later bore fruit, lessons of divine truth linger even in the most careless memory and often after many days spring up and bear fruit, and after the crucifixion and resurrection the instruction was revived in attentive listeners who repeated it for future generations to the close of time. So for three years there was little apparent fruit, and Nicodemus did not publicly acknowledge Him though he carefully considered His teachings and works, until the raising of Lazarus became decisive evidence of His Messiahship to him.

Hearing or seeing the truth and being impressed by its theory does not by itself bring understanding; the message must present Christ and His redeeming love for the seed to spring up and bear fruit. The heart is a garden where good or bad seed is sown, and as the garden must be prepared for natural seed so the heart must be prepared for the seed of truth, with the mind like soil especially open in early life. It must be cultivated with diligent, persevering labor in preparing the soil, sowing the seed, and culturing the crop, with no raw land expected to yield a harvest at once; the soil must be broken up by repentance and the evil growths that choke the good grain uprooted, and as soil overgrown with thorns can be reclaimed only by diligent labor so evil tendencies of the heart can be overcome only by earnest effort in the name and strength of Christ, while good seed sown in good soil bears fruit unto eternal life and precious seeds of truth may be planted in the garden of the heart. Casting seed into the ground pictures Christ's death, the springing blade pictures resurrection, and the growth of the plant pictures spiritual sowing and growth, to be learned by children and youth preparing soil and sowing seed while parents and teachers explain each step. By contrast, teaching from books of skeptical science and philosophy, vague fanciful stories, and fanciful interpretations of Scripture sown in the heart grows to a plentiful harvest of infidelity seen in depravity, and wearisome abstract lessons exhaust young minds and are hard to remember, whereas work in garden and field brings direct contact with nature and impressions that do not fade because they are associated with objects continually before the eyes.

Christ is the great Sower who scatters the seed of truth, and God lays on parents the life duty of preparing the soil of their children's hearts so the Sower can sow truth there. They are to make the Word of God the standard and educate children in early years for usefulness, cheerful obedience, and Christian manhood and womanhood, with the promise of reaping in due time if they faint not, cultivating the soil of the heart and teaching through nature as minds can understand. An untrained mind is like an uncultivated field whose soil must be cultivated with unceasing care and sown with the precious seed of Bible truth, for the enemy sows tares there and unless watchful guard is kept they spring up to bear evil fruit. Sensible reading that leads the mind to take interest in Bible story, history, and argument throws light upon Scripture and quickens desire to study it.

Prophecy Judgment and Warning

In them is fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy that by hearing they shall hear and shall not understand and by seeing they shall see and shall not perceive, because the heart is waxed gross and the ears are dull of hearing and the eyes are closed lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and be converted and healed. There is no reason to be surprised at such unbelief, for Isaiah had predicted this same condition of gross heart and dull ears and closed eyes.

Those who reject the truth they have heard are accountable for that rejection and face retribution for their chosen ignorance. God has given truth and time to respond, and those who refuse the wisdom to be gained by doing His will remain without excuse and face judgment. The blindness and deafness are willful, for they close themselves to the truth so that their hearts cannot be reached.

Those whose hearts are gross and who do not care to be converted from the error of their ways are gathered in bundles with the tares to be consumed by the fires of the last day. To them all surrounding light becomes darkness until the cry comes from unfeigned lips that the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and the soul is not saved.

Like the Pharisees with unsanctified hearts and clouded perception, they have ears that do not hear and eyes that do not see. More evidence or teaching will not benefit those nurturing unbelief and criticism, for they need a converted heart and mind and purpose so they can receive the Word and act on it.

Matthew 13 is a warning that must be read carefully and heeded, read as for life and taken as personal warning to take heed to self. The warning guards against being blinded by human sophistry and against mocking burlesque of sacred things, which is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

Christ's teaching there looks to the future destiny of those for whom He gave His life, showing that those who are saved must form characters without fault in the sight of a pure and holy God. Those who build on the solid rock of God's Word cannot be shaken when the storm and tempest of heresy and false doctrine test faith in perilous times.

Hearing Aright Today

The seeing-not and hearing-not and not understanding is a blindness and willful deafness that men bring upon themselves, fulfilled as Isaiah predicted of gross heart and dull ears and closed eyes lest they see and hear and understand and be converted and healed. It applies to some professing to believe the truth for this time who will not understand the marvelous work of God by which He confirms His Word and will not perceive the workings of His Spirit wrought by His power. This is not because the evidence is insufficient, but because waywardness and corruption and hearts hardened through sin and conformity to the world cloud conceptions of divine things, while pride and selfishness and vanity close ears and blind understanding lest the appeals of the Spirit arouse attention and command assent and direct in the path of righteousness leading to the city of God.

It describes leaders whose insensibility and refusal to be led hindered the work, who did not perceive it or respond to the Holy Spirit's guidance, so that unbelief and counterworking delayed progress. It means teachers and ministers can be spiritually blind as people were in Christ's day, having eyes but seeing not and ears but hearing not, lest they be converted and healed. They walk and act in this blindness because they idolize their own opinions and are governed by preconceived ideas rather than by a plain Thus saith the Lord, while Satan beclouds perceptions and hardens hearts. They need the converting power of God upon them, for many of the people are far in advance of them in experience in the things of God, and their blindness holds them back from giving up their own ways to work for the salvation of a backslidden church and to point sinners to Christ, when the highest interest of souls for time and eternity is involved in rightly understanding the work for this time.

The unfruitful hearers are the skeptical, the superficial, and the secular, who cannot discern the moral glory of the truth or its practical personal application to their own hearts. This is because they lack the faith that overcomes the world, so the world overcomes them, while fruitful hearing is in proportion to understanding the Word, receiving it into a good and honest heart, and faith rather than learning, and close connection with God opens and quickens understanding. An honest and pure heart discerns doctrine even in parables, while those shut out are determined not to be convinced, following blinded judgment with unconquerable obstinacy and hearts misled by temper and gratified inclination. All who have teachable, unprejudiced minds see the simplicity of faith in Jesus Christ, but dull hearing treats fitly spoken words as idle tales because the palsy of unbelief paralyzes mind and soul, especially dependence on own merits and want of knowledge of justification by faith. Attentive hearing with desire to know the truth opens the understanding so the soul really possesses the truth and is sanctified through it, and each soul must itself accept the truth the Lord sends through His messenger, accepting the gracious words and so honoring God who sent the message in love.

Truth hidden under symbols and figures from Pharisees and Sadducees because they would make a wrong use of it, while spoken plainly to disciples, teaches ministers not to bring all points of faith to the front before prejudiced crowds nor present truths without full explanation when people are unprepared and ears would be closed. Truths held in common should be dwelt upon first to obtain confidence, then as people can be brought along the matter can be advanced slowly, with great wisdom and most cautious manner in presenting unpopular truth to gain access to hearts. Truth must be presented in a way people can receive, for introducing unfamiliar religious terms without clear explanation does harm, and patients unfamiliar with beliefs should be met where they are and not pressed with disputed doctrines. Gentle religious influence and clear teaching in the appropriate setting can weaken prejudice and prepare hearts, for hearers may not take in a message unless hearts are softened by God's Spirit and the seed personally cultivated.

Those who follow Him must have the mind of Christ and follow His example of sowing seeds of truth with care and self-denial and continued sacrifice for others' good. They are to labor unselfishly, earnestly, and perseveringly as co-workers with Christ and angels in the salvation of others without becoming weary in well-doing, sowing in trust that God will quicken the seed to life. Though the seed may lie dormant for some time, grace convicts the heart and awakens it to spring up and bear fruit to God's glory. Christ will cooperate with every person who cooperates with Him, wearing His yoke and learning His meekness and lowliness, and He Himself will daily teach His followers the meaning of the divine beatitudes, with angels ministering in every phase of life, forming in the saved characters without fault in the sight of a pure and holy God.