As opposition against Him increased, Jesus spent more and more private time with His disciples. There was a growing polarization in the response to His ministry and teaching. As a result, Jesus turned to His favorite method of teaching, the parable. A parable is a simple story taken from daily life that illustrates a grander truth. A parable calls upon the involvement of the hearer to make an interpretation. As such it is an effective way of both, teaching truth to “those with ears to hear,” while at the same time, veiling truth from those who are hard-hearted. For those who are hardened to truth, everything they hear is obscured, and they become a fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy (6:9-10) about a people whose spiritual faculties were dulled so that they could not understand.
