The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?" He replied, "Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. (Matthew 13:10-13)
What is the 'knowledge of the secrets'?
Jesus is explaining why his students and disciples were able to hear and understand the teachings of Jesus but others were not.Jesus also explains the reason why he used so many parables.
We can see this effect today. We see many institutions may claim to teach people about Jesus, but because they seek to gain the power, respect, and admiration of others, they are unable to reveal the secrets of Jesus' teachings.
Some of these institutions were founded by those who sought many followers. So they set up an organization and appointed themselves the founder. Other teachers later followed as they also sought the income, prestige, and authority such a professional teaching position might bring.
Some of these institutions originally used government authority to force people to join the institution. But as these institutions sprung up over the centuries, they found enough followers to establish their independence. To this day, some of these institutions are threatening people with eternal damnation if they do not join their institutions.
Some of these institutions originally used government authority to force people to join the institution. But as these institutions sprung up over the centuries, they found enough followers to establish their independence. To this day, some of these institutions are threatening people with eternal damnation if they do not join their institutions.
Many of these institutions also oversaw the interpretation and translation of scripture and entrench the threatening stance. As if God needs to threaten us in order for us to come to love Him.
As a result, such institutions do not teach "the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven." Those institutions' teachers and leaders do not know this knowledge and thus their followers are not taught this knowledge.
Why are they secrets?
The secrets are "secrets" not because they are not being offered to everyone, but because many people are not serious enough to hear the message and take it into their hearts.They do not want this knowledge. They want to impress their friends and family. They want to use religion to keep up appearances - not to discover who they are and why they are here.
In other words, they want to present the facade of being religious, without being serious enough to inquire about those teachings. Jesus described this:
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. (Matthew 6:5)
Who is Jesus quoting?
This is quoted from Isaiah: The latter part of Jesus’ statement - "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand" - is drawn from the book of Isaiah:Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"One might ask why God is telling His servant Isaiah to make the hearts of people in that society calloused. Why?
And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
He said, “Go and tell this people: 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
Then I said, For how long, O Lord? And he answered:
“Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.” (Isaiah 6:8-12)
This explains that ultimately it is the Supreme Being who allows those who do not hear His message to not hear it: "Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes."
The Supreme Being is simply allowing those who want to be away from Him to remain away from Him. He doesn't want to force Himself upon us.
Why do we have these freedoms?
This is love. Love requires freedom. No one can be forced to love someone. As such, the Supreme Being allows those of us who do not love Him to remain away from Him.If He didn't, then we couldn't ignore Him very well, could we? Because the Supreme Being is God, it is pretty hard to get away from Him. So how does He hide from us?
He has put us within this physical world and given us these physical bodies, which we falsely identify with. These physical bodies allow us to take on false identities in order to pretend that we are someone else for a while.
This is the illusory energy of the physical world. When we falsely identify with these physical bodies we can think that we are the greatest. We can remain within our self-centeredness and chase the forms and things of the physical world without having to face Him.
While the Supreme Being wants us back, He wants us to decide this for ourselves. Those who make a determined decision to come to know Him and return to Him are given an opportunity to hear from God's representative and be guided back to Him. Those who decide we want to continue evading the Supreme Being and attempt to enjoy ourselves - we are left alone.
And alone is right. This is a lonely venture. Those who are left alone in the physical world - misidentifying ourselves with these physical bodies - are perpetually lonely. We might be surrounded by a big family and lots of friends or adoring fans, but we will still be lonely if we do not have our Best Friend and Soul Mate - the Supreme Being.
This is because the Supreme Being created us for the purpose of loving and serving Him. This is our real identity. But because love requires freedom, He allows us the freedom to choose Him or not. Those who decide they don't want to assume their real identity as one of God's loving servants and friends become overwhelmed by self-centeredness. This results in our fall to the physical world.
However, for those who are driven to understand the true meaning of Jesus words: For those who do not care what others think, and have a sincere and humble desire to come to know the Supreme Being as He is, the Supreme Being gives them the understanding to be able to hear the teachings His representative.
