Before we consider the parables in Matthew 13, I would like to impress you with some of the warnings found in this chapter. Verses 10 and 11 say, “And the disciples came and said to Him, Why are You speaking in parables to them? And He answered and said to them, Because to you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, but to them it has not been given.” The King of the heavenly kingdom revealed the things of the kingdom in parables (v. 34) in order to make them mysteries to the opposing and rejecting Jews, that they might not understand them. From the time the King came to sow the seed until He comes back to reap the harvest, everything concerning the kingdom is a mystery to the natural mind. Only the enlightened mind of a submissive heart can understand these mysteries.
When the disciples asked the Lord why He spoke of the kingdom in parables, the Lord seemed to say, “In order to keep it from them and to let you know. Everything depends on you and on them, not on Me. Whether or not you can understand what I speak in parables depends on you.” In verse 12 the Lord continued, “For whoever has, it shall be given to him, and he shall be in abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.” The words “whoever has” refer to the receiver and follower of the heavenly King, to whom the revelation concerning the kingdom will be given in abundance. But the one who does not have is the opposing and rejecting Jew, from whom what the heavenly King has spoken and done will be taken away. This is the real condition of the Jews today. They have no knowledge whatever concerning the kingdom of the heavens. It is altogether a mystery unknown to them.
Verses 13 and 14 say, “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, neither do they understand. And in them is being fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, Hearing you shall hear and by no means understand, and seeing you shall see and by no means perceive.”
Verse 15 says, “For the heart of this people has grown fat, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should perceive with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with the heart and turn around, and I will heal them.” The reason those in that stubborn generation could not understand lay in their heart, which had grown fat. Fat signifies the pride of having something. The heart of those in that stubborn generation was proud. That was the actual situation of the Pharisees. Because their heart had grown fat, their eyes and ears were affected. They could see, but not perceive; they could hear, but not understand. As a result, the mysteries of the kingdom meant nothing to them. All the parables were mysteries simply because of their pride.
This is exactly the situation today. If certain Christian teachers and leaders were to hear a message like this, they would condemn it, criticize it, and reject it. They would listen, but they would not understand. They would see, but they would not perceive. The reason they could not understand or perceive is the pride in their heart of having something. If the Brethren teachers heard this message, they would say, “No, the kingdom has been suspended. This is not the dispensation of the kingdom; it is the dispensation of the church. The dispensation of the kingdom will be in the millennium, in the coming age of a thousand years.” This indicates the fatness of their heart, their pride in having something. This pride keeps people from understanding and perceiving. We must learn the first lesson given in the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (5:3). When we are poor in spirit, we have no pride in our heart. We are not proud of anything. Rather, we are unloaded, empty, and ready to receive something new from the Lord. We all need to prepare ourselves for what is revealed in this chapter.
I believe that the Lord has shown us the true interpretation of all these parables. Throughout these many years, I have not doubted anything regarding our understanding of them. In fact, in these days of working on the Gospel of Matthew I have been all the more confirmed that we have the correct interpretation, for our interpretation matches the history of the church and our experience. Because of the situation of today’s Christianity, we all need to know this crucial chapter, a chapter that is even more crucial than chapters five, six, and seven. We need the enlightenment concerning this chapter in order not to be leavened, mislead, or corrupted.
The Lord also said that His disciples were blessed. According to verse 9, they were blessed to have a hearing ear. Moreover, verses 16 and 17 say, “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to perceive what you are seeing and did not perceive, and to hear what you are hearing and did not hear.” What a blessing it is to see and hear the mysteries of the heavenly kingdom!