I have just begun a series in which I intend to study and discuss the eschatology of the parables of Jesus. The Parable of the Sower was Jesus’ first parable that he preached to the people. It has often perplexed laymen and scholars alike, that Jesus told his Apostles the reason he spoke in parables to the people was permit their blindness to remain undisturbed. That is, he wasn’t going to heal their hard hearts (Matthew 13:11). Rather, his words were meant for those who had “ears to hear” (Matthew 13:9).
It is important to understand, at this point in his ministry, that Jesus was drawing from a prophecy in Isaiah:
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, (Isaiah 6:8-11)
The context of Isaiah’s prophecy is that the ten northern tribes of Israel had apostatized. They were in a state of rebellion against God (Isaiah 1:3-4; cf. Hosea 2:5). Therefore the Lord said he would come to them and destroy them as a nation (Micah 1:3-6). Nevertheless, he told Isaiah to preach to this rebellious people, knowing full well that they wouldn’t listen. So, Isaiah asked the Lord, if the people wouldn’t listen, how long did the Lord want him to preach to them. The Lord replied, “until the cities are wasted… and the land is utterly desolate!” (Isaiah 6:11).
Knowing that Jesus was drawing from Isaiah 6:8-11, consider, therefore, what is behind Jesus speaking in parables and his reply to his disciples, concerning his reason for doing so (Matthew 13:11). If Isaiah’s words, falling on deaf ears, brought national judgment and destruction to the ten northern tribes of Israel, what would the words of Jesus do to Jerusalem, who, also, refused to hear? Knowing, therefore, that the Lord sent Isaiah to preach to the ten tribes of Israel, until their cites lay wasted and their land desolate, how should we understand Jesus’ commissioning his disciples in Matthew 28:19-20? While it is true that the Gospel has gone out in order to drew men to repentance and to trust the Lord, the other side of that coin is that those who reject the Gospel would be judge (Mark 16:16).
In Matthew 28:20 the disciples were told that Jesus would be with them until the end of the age, or in other words, “until the cities are wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land is utterly desolate!” (Isaiah 6:11). Therefore, Jesus’ disciples were sent to the Jews to preach to them, even though the Jews’ hearts were hard, and, as a nation, they wouldn’t listen (their own choice). Nevertheless, the disciples were to call out for their repentance until the Lord, Jesus, came forth out of his place in heaven to walk on the mountains of Judah (in the persons of the Roman armies), and Jerusalem would become a heap of a field, with all her stones thrown down, and she was desolate (Micah 1:3-6)!
This is speaking of 70 AD, when the Lord kept his promise to come in the clouds of heaven to judge Jerusalem and destroy the Temple (cf. Matthew 26:64). One simply cannot remove the parables of Jesus from the context in which they were spoken, and Jesus is quite explicit as to why some would hear and believe, and why others would not. It is expected for us, Jesus disciples, to take our Lord at his word and accept what he said in the context in which he spoke.
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