Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive

 And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"  He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.  Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;
For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.'

"But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."

- Matthew 13:10-17

Yesterday we read that on the same day Jesus went out of the house where He was preaching and sat by the sea.  And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.  Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying:  "Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.  Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up and because they had no depth of earth.  But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.  But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop:  some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"  He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given."  My study bible says that the mysteries of the kingdom are not merely obscure concepts nor are they religious truths that are only for the elite.  Neither is the understanding of the parables simply an intellectual process.  Even the disciples, it notes, find the message hard to understand -- and this is something of which we should be well aware.  While Jesus teaches the same message to all, my study bible says that it is the "simple and innocent" who are open to its message.

"For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him."  Here is the logic of the Kingdom.  If we have ears to hear, we will hear in abundance.  If we do not, even what we think we have will be taken away.

"Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:  'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull.  Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.'  But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."   Jesus also references this passage of Isaiah in John's Gospel (John 12:40).  It is related to faith in general and also specifically to Jesus' ministry, as well as this new style of preaching in parables.  According to St. John Chrysostom, Isaiah's prophecy does not mean God causes spiritual blindness in people who would otherwise be faithful.  It is a figure of speech common to Scripture that reveals that God gives people up to their own devices (as in Romans 1:24, 26).  My study bible also says that this indicates that God has permitted their self-chosen blindness (compare Exodus 8:15, 32 with Exodus 10:20, 27).  The people did not become blind because God spoke through Isaiah, but rather Isaiah spoke in prophecy, foreseeing their blindness.  And by contrast, there is a deep reassurance here, a great and tremendous blessing, in that these (His disciples) see what many prophets and righteous men have desired to see and hear, and did not.

In a particular sense, Jesus emphasizes the great mystery of faith.  It is like "the wind" that "blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes" (John 3:8).  But in Jesus' teaching on His use of parables, He makes it clear that there is some sort of counterpart in us that is responsive to this "wind" (Who is the Holy Spirit) or to Christ Himself.  We, too, put up our own internal obstacles, we rest in a condition in which our ears are hard of hearing and our eyes are blind to something.  At this juncture in Jesus' ministry, when He starts to preach in parables, it has become clear that the leadership is not only against Him, but is plotting ways to destroy Him (12:14).  The Pharisees have brought a serious false accusation against Him (that He casts out demons by the power of demons), and they're not going to stop searching for ways to accuse Him.  There are others in many cities who've seen His "mighty works" and yet rejected His ministry (11:20-24).  This is a clear-eyed assessment and adjustment of His ministry to the conditions that He has found, the receptivity (or non-receptivity) of the people to whom He's been sent and has ministered.  This is the reality of the world in which we live, and the nature of faith that we continue to find around us.  Jesus not only accepts the response He's found, but does far more in this acceptance than meets the eye.  He teaches us about God -- that faith is not imposed upon us.  God does not force nor compel anyone to return God's love.  This statement or awareness isn't simply profound in terms of its implications for God's nature, but it also teaches us truths about ourselves:  that we have freedom to choose faith or not, and that we also have the hand of love that is continually extended and awaiting response.  What it also teaches us is our own responsibility in this struggle for faith.  We need to be aware that it is not automatic, and that our relationship with the Creator who loves us can be abused or lost, frayed with rejection, locked up within ourselves where we choose or prefer blindness or hardness of hearing.  It emphasizes the essential importance of simply being aware of our choices, and our need to return to God's love and to rejoice in the blessing we're given.  Jesus' great emphasis to His disciples, practically none of whom are highly learned nor particularly known (at this point) for their piety or holiness, are the ones to whom the transcendent is revealed -- those things that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see and hear, and have not seen nor heard.  This is the tremendous measure of the blessing we're given.  It's important to remember that, as my study bible noted (above), the disciples don't understand the parable nor immediately grasp its meaning.  But they are there with Him.  They respond to His call, and to His ministry.  The relationship is there.  St. Paul writes that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).  It is the response in us to something not given by intellectual proof nor coercion nor manipulation.   Faith, in fact, is trust.  It is a trust inspired by Christ, by the presence of the Kingdom and the holy.  It is a particular response to God's love, a way of living in that reciprocal and endlessly reciprocating relationship.  Faith in our lives is this blessing of the substance of things hoped for.  It is the evidence of things not seen.   We may accept or reject it, but without it we lose immeasurable love and hope.