The mystery of the kingdom of God, in fullness, will be revealed to those who are of his kingdom. The Lord is willing to share, as is evidenced by that which we now know. It is because of our belief, our possessed faith that all knowledge will be ours.

The mysteries that are yet unraveled will be clear one day. God has said as much in Matthew 13: 12. It says that the person who has something will be given more, and more than enough. It goes on to say that the person who has nothing will have even that taken away.

I thought about the aforesaid when I came across Mark 4: 11, 12. In it, Jesus’ disciples asked why He spoke to the people in parables.

And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them.”

On the surface, this sounds like an attempt by Jesus to confound those who might be seekers of the truth, desiring to follow God. But that couldn’t have been Jesus’ intent because we know that God wants us to seek Him. He wants none to perish.

So a closer look at who Jesus delivers the parables to is in order. The answer is in a parallel passage found in Matthew 13: 15. It explains why this certain class of people will listen and look, but will not understand and see the truth.

“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 [God] should heal them.”

In other words, it was the people’s choice to close their ears and eyes; not God’s. Jesus always spoke plainly about the path to salvation. But He did hide heavenly mysteries within likenesses of the kingdom. He hid them from a people who would see and not see, who would hear and not hear the truth.

This was a secular and religious class of people. They all lacked faith in Jesus. What Jesus did reminds me of Him telling us “Don’t throw your pearls before swine.” (Matthew 7: 6)

Strangely, these were not a people who blindly opposed Jesus. On the contrary, His words made a positive impression upon their hearts and minds; but because of shallowness, skepticism and selfish pride, they were determined to ignore conviction.

They didn’t possess truth nor did they love truth. They purposely hardened their hearts to avoid conversion and healing.