Why Did Jesus Speak in Parables? He Said Something Strange

Most people think they know the answer to this one. Jesus told stories because stories are memorable, because farmers and fishermen could understand them better than abstract theology, because a tale about seeds and soil lands differently than a lecture on the kingdom of God. That explanation is warm. It is reasonable, and it is almost certainly

incomplete. Because there is a passage in the Gospel of Mark, one that most Sunday school teachers quietly skip, where Jesus is asked directly why he teaches in parables. And his answer is one of the most unsettling things he says in any of the Gospels. Tonight we are going down the rabbit hole, because the question of why Jesus

spoke in parables is not as simple as good storytelling. The answer cuts deep into how Jesus understood his own mission, why the crowds kept getting larger while the understanding stayed shallow, and what it means that the most famous teacher in history apparently designed some of his teaching to be misunderstood. The passage most people skip.

It is in Mark chapter 4. Jesus has just told the parable of the sower, the one about seeds falling on different kinds of soil. Some seed falls on the path and gets eaten by birds. Some falls on rocky ground and dies in the sun. Some falls among thorns and gets choked. And some falls on good soil

and produces a harvest. After he finishes, the crowd disperses. And when Jesus is alone with his inner group of disciples, they ask him about the parables. And Jesus says this, "To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see, but not