Blessed are your eyes / Why Jesus spoke in parables

What did Jesus mean

The choice is yours.

What did Jesus say

Matthew 13:10–17

10 And his disciples came, and said to him: Why speakest thou to them in parables?

11 He answered and said unto them: It is given unto you to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given: and he shall have abundance. But whosoever hath not: from him shall be taken away even that same that he hath.

13 Therefore speak I to them in similitudes. For though they see, they see not: and hearing they hear not: nether understand.

14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esay, which prophecy saith: with your ears ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and with your eyes ye shall see, and shall not perceive.

15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross. And their ears were dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their hearts, and should turn, that I might heal them.

16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

17 Verily I say unto you, that many prophets and perfect men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them: and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Translation context

For translation purposes, you need to understand the language timeline.

God speaks in Hebrew in Isaiah (Jesus quotes Isaiah in this passage).

Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew text into Greek, and when doing so, flipped and softened some of the original Hebrew words. In Hebrew, God did the closing. In Greek, the people did the closing.

When Matthew writes his gospel, he uses the Jewish translated text to quote Isaiah.

This is important because of the softening. When Matthew writes this passage, he frames it as the people doing it to themselves. But in the Hebrew, it’s framed as God doing it to the people.

Biblical context

Right before Jesus recites this passage, he tells the parable of the sower to a crowd of people. You can infer that when he says “this people” he is referring to the crowd he recently spoke to.

We’ve analyzed this parable in our entry covering Direct Knowing. For quick reference, the parable asserts that God drops seeds. Some seeds land and bring forth good fruit, while others do not (for various reasons). We translated the seeds to be communication, love, guidance, wisdom and more from God. Jesus ends this parable by saying, “Whosoever hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

Later in the same sitting, Jesus tells another parable — the parable of the Wheat and the Tares. This parable slightly overlaps with the first one, but God is harvesting wheat as opposed to planting seeds. An evil man plants poisonous tares amongst the good wheat, but neither can be plucked until their “true nature” surfaces (since they look identical until fruiting). Once it surfaces, the tares can be burnt and the wheat can be gathered.

In both cases, he doesn’t explain the parables to the crowd. He just leaves them as-is.

A modern passage translation

10 And his disciples came, and said to him: Why speakest thou to them in parables?

Translation: Jesus’ disciples questioned him: Why do you speak to the people in riddles?

11 He answered and said unto them: It is given unto you to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Translation: Jesus answered by saying: You are given the secrets of God, but others are not.

12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given: and he shall have abundance. But whosoever hath not: from him shall be taken away even that same that he hath.

Translation: Whoever holds God’s secrets, he will not need anything. In fact, he will have more than what he needs. Whoever doesn’t hold God’s secrets, everything will be taken from him.

Minor note: This isn’t about material things. It’s about receptivity and understanding, which naturally flows into the rest of the passage. If you choose not to understand, nothing is there to compound.

13 Therefore speak I to them in similitudes. For though they see, they see not: and hearing they hear not: nether understand.

Translation: Because of this, I speak to the people in riddles. Because even though they look, they do not see and even though they hear, they do not listen. Neither their eyes nor their ears can discern properly.

14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esay, which prophecy saith: with your ears ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and with your eyes ye shall see, and shall not perceive.

Translation: These people are like the people of Isaiah, where God said: You will say these things to people; however, although they will listen to you, they will not understand. And although they will see you, they will not know what they are looking at.

Minor note: In the original Hebrew version, God tells Isaiah to do this (not just that he will encounter it). He tells him: Make fat the heart of this people, and make its ears heavy, and seal its eyes shut. With the original Hebrew words, it almost sounds as if God wants this to happen. But think of it this way: God knows the crowd of people Isaiah will encounter. Over and over again, these people have chosen other paths and even Isaiah says the following: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness.” So if this is the case, God knows that Isaiah is basically going into the wolfpack. Even though he says Isaiah will seal their eyes shut, it is really the people who have closed their own eyes (little by little, chapter by chapter), and sealed their own fate in the process.

15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross. And their ears were dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their hearts, and should turn, that I might heal them.

Translation: Their hearts cannot be penetrated. Their ears are tired of listening and their eyes have been closed. If not, then they would perceive correctly and feel this from their hearts. And if they did that, then I could help them.

Minor note: This is a continued parallel to what God said to Isaiah. He told Isaiah to “make fat the heart of this people” and Jesus is now saying that prophecy is fulfilled. At this point, their hearts are so fat that they are impenetrable.

16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

Translation: But your eyes (the disciples eyes) are lucky/fortunate, because you actually understand the real thing I’m saying. It isn’t masked by a riddle; you see underneath it.

17 Verily I say unto you, that many prophets and perfect men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them: and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Translation: Even the best of men and many prophets have tried to understand or longed to understand, but they haven’t.

What Jesus did not mean

Many people translate this passage as follows: Jesus and God chose to confuse people, so those people don’t turn and connect with them. And then they take it a step further and extrapolate that into modern times: Jesus and God choose to confuse us, as well.

Two things to remember.

One.

You can’t forget how those people got to those riddles in the first place: they chose that path consistently. And if you choose to forget that, then you’re also choosing to ignore personal responsibility and free will.

Two.

Jesus did not mean all people for all time should be confused and never connect with them.

Both Jesus and God were addressing specific people of that time. Those people chose not to listen, chose not to see, and chose not to understand over and over again. When the riddles came into play, it was Jesus and God sorting the wheat from the tares.

But we are a new harvest. And we do not have Jesus at our shorelines preaching to us. So it is our responsibility to use our eyes, ears, and heart to understand the riddles we’ve been left with.

If you choose not to, then you’re sealing your own eyes shut.

Where to start

While we do not have the luxury of Jesus teaching us at his shoreline or God roaring down to us from the mountaintops, we do have one thing the people of their time didn’t have: Jesus inside us.

And this might actually be the better of the two options… which ultimately just means, you have no excuse.

Even Jesus says so: “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you” (John 16:7)

Turn inward and ask Jesus for help.

Don’t allow your heart to be fattened. Don’t allow your eyes to be sealed. Don’t allow your ears to be dulled.

Let’s take what we’ve been given, and transform ourselves into the most beautiful harvest yet.

Benefits

You can turn the other way, transform yourself inside-out, feel the love of Jesus, and be welcomed into the Kingdom of God.