"Why do you speak to the crowd in parables?"
It might have seemed like Jesus was being intentionally cryptic, speaking one way publicly, and then in more detail behind closed doors. Was he being intentionally evasive? Did he desire to set an inner circle of initiates apart on the basis of secret or hidden knowledge?
Because knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven
has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.
Were the crowds, in fact, simply out of luck, the wrong kind of soil for the seed the sower wanted to sow? Were they destined to be those who had not and would eventually lose even what little they had?
To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich;
from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
Parables were definitely different from logical arguments or syllogisms. They weren't going to overwhelm anyone with sheer intellectual force. They were, rather, invitations. They presented the possibility for anyone who was interested to understand, and, having understood, to have go ever deeper. They were not challenging riddles the solutions to which were only presented to insiders. They were open to all. But they only opened themselves to those who were themselves open. As with faith itself, they did not circumvent the role of human freedom, but rather rewarded hearers in the measure that they engaged their freedom.
You shall indeed hear but not understand,
you shall indeed look but never see.
There were obviously many people in the time of Jesus, as in the time of Isaiah whose hearts had hardened. They were unwilling to look and see or hear and understand. The purpose of speaking in parables was not that his message be impenetrable to them. It seemed that the motivation stemmed rather from the desire of God that they eventually would understand with their hearts and be converted so that he could heal them. Rather than cementing them in the hardness of their hearts with direct opposition, Jesus presented teachings that would respond disproportionately to even the least genuine effort or openness. Far from the modern discourse of shouting down our opponents, Jesus presented himself in such a way as to not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick (see Matthew 12:20). Even when it sounded like he was being critical of those who wouldn't listen or stingy in revealing the truth of his message it always stemmed from a deeper desire for all to be saved and come to knowledge of the truth (see First Timothy 2:4). He wanted all to experience that which his disciples were the first to recognize.
"But blessed are your eyes, because they see,
and your ears, because they hear.
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