Matthew 13:10-17 - The Reason For The Parables

¹⁰ Then His disciples came up to Him and asked, "Why do you speak to them in stories?"

¹¹ He answered: "It is you and not they who are granted the privilege of knowing the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. ¹² For to anyone who has, more will be given, and his supply will overflow, but from anyone who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. ¹³ This is why I am speaking to them in stories, because they look but do not see, they listen but do not really hear or understand. ¹⁴ So in them the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: "'You will listen and listen and not understand, and you will look and look and never see at all, ¹⁵ For this people's soul has grown dull, and with their ears they can scarcely hear, and they have shut tight their eyes, so that they will never see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn to me, so that I may cure them!'

¹⁶ "But blessed are your eyes, for they are beginning to see, and your ears, for they are beginning to hear. ¹⁷ For I solemnly say to you, many prophets and upright men yearned to see what you are seeing, and did not see it, and to hear what you are hearing, and did not hear it.

¹⁰ When He was by Himself, those who stayed about Him with the Twelve began to ask Him about the stories. ¹¹ Then He said to them, "To you the secret of the kingdom of God has been entrusted, but to those who are on the outside everything is presented in stories, so that ¹² 'They may look and look and yet not see, And listen and listen and yet not understand, Lest, perchance, they should turn and be forgiven.'"

⁹ His disciples were asking Him what this story meant. ¹⁰ So He said, "You are granted the privilege of knowing the secrets of the kingdom of God, but to others they are told in stories, so that they may look and not see, may hear and not understand.