Why Did Jesus Teach in Parables?
By Andrew Richards · November 6, 2026
Jesus used parables to teach about God’s kingdom through familiar situations, challenge his listeners, and reveal how they responded to his message. They were more than simple illustrations. In Matthew 13, Jesus also connects them with the difference between hearing words and truly understanding. A story about seeds could become a question about the listener’s own heart.
In this article
A farmer. A traveler. A family argument. The setting sounds ordinary enough—until Jesus turns the story in a direction nobody expected. Then the listener has something harder to do than remember the plot.
What is a parable?
A parable uses a comparison or story to communicate a deeper lesson. Jesus often drew on recognizable parts of everyday life. Yet recognizing the scenery did not guarantee understanding what he meant.
BibleProject’s discussion of the parables emphasizes their ability to unsettle familiar expectations about God’s kingdom. They invite attention and thought. They are not merely cheerful moral tales with the answer printed at the bottom.
It helps to keep three things distinct: the story Jesus tells, the explanation the passage supplies, and the application we draw today. Blurring those together can make a personal idea sound like something Jesus explicitly said.
Jesus’ disciples asked the same question
In Matthew 13:10–17, the disciples ask why Jesus speaks to the crowds in parables. His answer addresses understanding, closed hearts, and the words of Isaiah. Some hear without receiving the message; his disciples have been given understanding of the kingdom’s mysteries.
That is the challenging part of the answer. Parables do not make everything instantly obvious to everyone. They can reveal truth while also exposing resistance to it.
Christian interpreters differ in how they emphasize divine judgment, human resistance, and the invitation to deeper understanding in this passage. The text should not be reduced to either “Jesus just wanted to make teaching easy” or “God refuses every person who asks a question.” The disciples themselves ask for help.
Bible Gateway’s discussion places this exchange in the surrounding conflict over Jesus’ identity. That context matters: he is not delivering disconnected puzzles to a classroom with no history.
The sower shows why listening matters
In the same chapter, seed falls on different kinds of ground. Jesus then explains the picture in verses 18–23: people respond differently to the message of the kingdom. Some do not understand; some receive it briefly; others are crowded by worries and wealth; good soil represents hearing, understanding, and fruitfulness.
The story moves attention from how well the farmer tells it to how the message is received. It gives the listener a way to examine their response.
A useful personal question is, “What is competing for my attention when I hear this?” That is an application prompted by the passage. It is not a license to look at someone else’s difficult week and announce which type of soil they are.
Watch how the Good Samaritan changes the question
Luke 10:25–37 gives another example. A man asks who counts as his neighbor. Jesus tells of an injured traveler, two people who pass by, and a Samaritan who shows compassion.
At the end, Jesus asks which person acted as a neighbor to the injured man. The attention shifts from drawing a boundary around whom to love to showing mercy to someone in need.
Notice what the story asks of us. “I understand that compassion is good” is only the beginning. A practical response might involve giving time to someone we would normally overlook. The application should grow from the story’s concern, rather than replacing it with whichever lesson we already wanted to teach.
| Reading question | Good Samaritan example |
|---|---|
| What prompted the story? | A discussion of the law and the question of who is a neighbor |
| What happens in the story? | A wounded person receives practical mercy from the Samaritan |
| What question comes at the end? | Who acted as a neighbor? |
| What response follows? | Jesus directs the listener toward showing mercy |
A thoughtful way to read any parable
- Read before and after it. Notice who is listening and what question or conflict prompted the story.
- Retell the main movement simply. Identify the problem, the unexpected turn, and the ending.
- Look for an explanation in the passage. Let Jesus’ explanation guide your reading when one is given.
- Be careful with small details. A detail can serve the story without being a secret symbol for something modern.
- Choose a fitting response. Ask what the passage challenges you to understand, reconsider, or do.
This is a reading aid, not a formula that removes every interpretive difficulty. When a passage remains hard, compare trustworthy commentaries and discuss it with someone who will patiently read the context with you.
A little perspective from Gus
For another passage where context deepens a familiar question, read why Jesus wept before raising Lazarus. And if you enjoy thoughtful questions woven into fiction, meet Andy and Gus in the free first illustrated chapter.
Scripture links use the King James Version. Explanations and applications are commentary; the Gus reflection is fiction.
Original fictional reflection—not a Bible quotation or a scene from the novel.
If Andy asked Gus for the quickest possible explanation of a parable, Gus might raise an eyebrow at the word quickest. Andy could understand the story perfectly and still hope the part about being kind to a difficult person was meant for someone else.
That is one of the useful things a story can do: give us enough room to recognize ourselves without supplying an easy escape.
The simple lesson: Give the story time to ask something of you.