Matthew 13:34–35: Why Jesus Taught in Parables
Short answer: In Matthew 13:34–35, Matthew says Jesus spoke to the crowds only in parables, then cites a psalm to show this fulfilled Scripture: a speaker opens his mouth in parables and utters things hidden from the foundation of the world. Matthew identifies Jesus as that speaker, so the parables are the appointed means by which hidden kingdom truth is disclosed. The form of Jesus' teaching is itself part of the revelation, and the disciples are given the explanation afterward in the house.
Why Jesus taught the crowds in parables
Matthew 13:34–35 sits in the middle of a cluster of kingdom parables told by the lake: the sower, the darnel weeds, the mustard seed and the yeast. Verses 34 and 35 step back from the stories themselves to comment on them. The crowds have just heard the mustard seed and the yeast, and now Matthew pauses to explain why Jesus spoke this way. The shape is simple: a summary statement about Jesus' public teaching, then a fulfillment formula tying that teaching to Israel's Scripture. Matthew uses this pattern elsewhere, and here it frames the parables as neither accident nor afterthought.
The quoted psalm belongs to Israel's worship, a teaching song that recounts God's dealings with his people. By citing it, Matthew places Jesus' parables in the stream of Israel's own Scripture rather than outside it. Verse 35 says the hidden things have been hidden from the foundation of the world, and now they are uttered. Notice the direction: the passage presents Jesus as the one who reveals, not as one who conceals from sincere seekers. The parables are public speech, spoken to the multitudes, and heaven's hidden purposes are being opened in them rather than locked away.
Then verse 36 marks a turn. Jesus sends the multitudes away and goes into the house, and the disciples come asking him to explain the parable of the darnel weeds. His answer names himself as the Son of Man who sows the good seed. That movement from crowd to house matters: the parables are told in public, but their explanation is given to those who come asking. The chapter does not encourage secret knowledge or private insight. It shows people bringing their confusion to Jesus and receiving an answer, which is the plain invitation of this passage.
Why Jesus taught the crowds in parables
Matthew 13:34–35 pauses the storytelling to tell us what Jesus was doing. After the mustard seed and the yeast, Matthew writes that Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the crowds, and that without a parable he did not speak to them. The word parable means a comparison, an illustrative story lifted from ordinary life: a farmer's field, a woman's kitchen, a tiny seed, a batch of dough. These are not riddles meant to keep people guessing for their own sake. They are pictures that carry truth, and Matthew presents this as Jesus' customary way of addressing the crowds in this chapter, not a rule for every sentence he ever spoke.
Then Matthew adds that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet. This is his familiar pattern: an Old Testament text finds its intended meaning in what God is now doing. The quotation speaks of opening the mouth in parables and uttering things hidden from the foundation of the world. Notice the direction of that sentence. Something kept from the beginning is now being said out loud. The emphasis falls on disclosure, not concealment. What was hidden is uttered; what was long unspoken is now on the lips of a teacher standing in front of ordinary people.
That matters for how we read the parables. They are not a code reserved for insiders, and Jesus is not pictured here as withholding truth from sincere seekers. The very next verses show the disciples coming to him in the house and asking him to explain the parable of the weeds, and he explains it plainly. The one who speaks in comparisons is also the one who opens them up to those who ask. So we come to these stories as learners, expecting the sower of the good seed to make his meaning known.
Why Jesus taught the crowds in parables
Matthew 13:34–35 sits at the close of a cluster of kingdom parables: the sower, the darnel weeds, the mustard seed and the yeast. Verse 34 summarizes the public ministry plainly, noting that Jesus spoke to the multitudes only in parables. Then verse 35 explains the pattern: this happened so that what was spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled. The quotation comes from Israel's own worship, a teaching psalm that recounts God's dealings with his people. Matthew is not introducing a novelty. He is placing Jesus' parables inside the stream of Israel's Scripture, where God's hidden purposes are brought into the open for a people who must listen.
The claim here is about revelation, not technique. The quoted words describe a speaker who opens his mouth in parables and utters things hidden from the foundation of the world. Matthew presents Jesus as that speaker, so the parables are the appointed means by which long-kept truth about the kingdom comes into the open. Notice the movement that follows in verse 36: Jesus sends the crowds away, goes into the house, and the disciples ask him to explain the parable of the darnel weeds. He answers with a detailed interpretation, naming himself as the Son of Man who sows good seed. The parables are public, yet their explanation is given to those who come asking.
That movement keeps the passage from becoming a warrant for secret knowledge. Jesus is not hiding truth from sincere seekers; he is the one who reveals hidden things and explains them to those who ask. The crowds hear the parable, and the disciples receive its meaning when they come to him. Read alongside the surrounding verses, this shapes how we approach the parables: not as puzzles to decode by our own cleverness, but as revelation from the Son of Man, received by listening and by asking him to explain. Grace comes first here. God's long-hidden purposes are disclosed in Christ, and our part is to come to him and listen.
Hidden things spoken in parables
Matthew 13:34–35 closes the public teaching of this chapter with a summary and a quotation. Jesus has just told the mustard seed and the yeast parables, and Matthew notes that he spoke to the crowds only in parables. Then he reaches for Psalm 78, where a psalmist promises to open his mouth in parables and utter hidden things. Matthew reads that line as fulfilled in Jesus. The verse does not explain the parables; it frames them. What Jesus is doing in these stories is not random storytelling but the appointed way God's long-hidden purposes come into the open. That framing is the anchor for everything readers debate here.
Careful readers differ over what the parables were for. Some stress concealment, pointing to Jesus' explanation later in this chapter that seeing, the crowds do not see, and they hear verse 35 as judgment as much as revelation. Others stress disclosure, since the verse says hidden things are uttered, and the crowds kept coming to listen. Both readings have real weight, and the text itself sets limits on each. It never says parables were told to confuse for no reason, and it never says every hearer understood. What stays central is that Jesus is the revealer of God's hidden kingdom purposes, not the keeper of a secret.
A related question is how the quotation works. Some read the psalm as directly predictive, a prophecy aimed at Jesus' ministry. Others say it supplies a pattern Jesus consciously fulfilled, the way a scriptural shape can be taken up and completed. Readers also differ on whether the private explanations given to the disciples are a privilege for leaders or simply the path of anyone who asks. Notice that the disciples had to ask. The passage holds out no secret knowledge for insiders and no withholding from sincere seekers. It presents a Lord who explains, and hearers who come to him with questions.
The one who opens his mouth in parables
Matthew has just told two short parables, the mustard seed and the yeast, and then he steps back to comment on the whole scene. The crowds have heard Jesus teach, but only in parables. Matthew says this happened so that a word spoken long before would be fulfilled. The prophet's line is put on Jesus' lips: he opens his mouth in parables and utters things hidden from the foundation of the world. Notice who is speaking in that quotation. It is not the crowd, not the disciples, and not Matthew himself. The voice of the psalm belongs to Jesus. His way of teaching is not a departure from his identity but a signature of it.
The content of what he utters is not a private code for insiders. Matthew calls it things hidden from the foundation of the world, which is to say the purpose God has held from the beginning. That purpose is the kingdom Jesus keeps announcing, and the very next verses show him unpacking it. When the disciples ask him in the house to explain the parable of the weeds, he answers plainly: the one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. What was hidden is now being disclosed, and it is disclosed in a person who takes time to explain himself to those who ask.
This keeps us from turning the parables into a secret handshake. The passage does not present a God who withholds truth from sincere seekers; it presents a Christ who speaks, is asked, and answers. The gospel is not a late idea patched onto an older story. It is God's long-kept intention, now brought into the open in the One who teaches, and who then explains his own words to the people who come to him in the house. Grace comes first here: he opens his mouth, and he opens the meaning to those who ask.
The disciples' question is worth noticing for its ordinariness. They do not decode the parable on their own; they come and ask. Jesus does not scold them for it. He answers, and the answer centers on himself as the Son of Man who sows. So the hidden things are not pried loose by cleverness but received from the one who tells them. Reading this passage well means letting the parables send us to the interpreter, and letting the interpreter send us back to the kingdom he describes, with our questions brought honestly to him rather than to speculation.
Coming to Jesus with what we do not understand
Matthew 13:34–35 closes the public teaching with a summary: Jesus spoke to the crowds only in parables, and Matthew reads this as the fulfilling of a psalm about opening the mouth in parables and uttering things hidden from the foundation of the world. The point is not that the teaching was designed to keep sincere people away. The hidden things are being brought out into the open by the one speaking them. That is grace before it is anything else. God takes the initiative to disclose what we could not have found on our own, and the parables are the shape that disclosure takes.
Then the scene shifts. Jesus sends the crowds away and goes into the house, and the disciples come to him with a plain request: explain the parable of the darnel weeds. They did not pretend to understand, and they did not walk off offended. They asked. Notice the setting. They had to leave the crowd and come inside to receive the explanation. That suggests deliberate, unhurried attention rather than a quick read on the way out the door. The faithful response to hard teaching is not to treat it as a locked door but to bring confusion to the text and to prayer, expecting the one who spoke in parables still teaches his people.
This is ordinary discipleship, not secret knowledge. Read the parables as Scripture meant to be understood, and do what the disciples do here: come and ask. Set aside time to sit with a passage instead of skimming it, and put your questions into words before God. Let the grace of a God who reveals hidden things be the ground of that obedience, not a fear that you must decode everything correctly. At the same time, do not turn this into a promise that every question gets answered now. The text promises disclosure in God's time, not instant clarity on our schedule.
Biblical fidelity check
Reading Matthew 13:34–35 carefully means noticing the narrator's summary rather than a parable's details. Matthew says Jesus habitually taught the crowds in comparisons drawn from ordinary life, then reads that practice through an Old Testament line about a teacher opening his mouth to utter long-hidden things. Two risks follow. First, treating the summary as a rule for every sentence Jesus ever spoke overreads it. Second, quoting the psalm line as if it named parables when it does not. The quotation is Matthew's way of saying an older text finds its intended meaning in what God is now doing.
The real disagreement concerns what parables do. Some readers stress concealment, since Jesus elsewhere in this chapter says seeing they do not see, and they hear verse 35 as judgment as well as revelation. Others stress disclosure, because hidden things are uttered and the crowds kept coming. Related questions remain: whether the psalm is directly predictive or supplies a pattern Jesus fulfilled, and whether private explanations privilege leaders or belong to anyone who asks. The text neither says parables confused without reason nor that every hearer understood. Central across these views: Jesus reveals God's hidden kingdom purposes, and the parables are his appointed means.
Related studies for Matthew 13:34-35
To go further, compare this citation with the psalm it comes from and with the parable of the sower that precedes it Matthew 19:9: What the Exception Clause Means, then trace how Matthew uses fulfillment quotations elsewhere Matthew 2:23 Explained: Why Jesus Was Called a Nazarene. Reading the explanation in 13:36–43 alongside the mustard seed and yeast parables Matthew 27:9-10: Why Matthew Says Jeremiah Not Zechariah shows how the hidden kingdom works in the open Matthew 7:21-23: Not Everyone Who Says Lord, Lord.
Frequently asked questions
Why did Jesus speak in parables to the crowds?
Matthew 13:34–35 gives the reason in terms of Scripture: Jesus taught the crowds in parables so that what was spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled. The quoted line describes a speaker who opens his mouth in parables and brings out things hidden from the foundation of the world, and Matthew presents Jesus as that figure. So the parables were not an offhand preference or a way to entertain a crowd; they were the deliberate shape of his public teaching. At the same time, the parables carry real content about the kingdom, as the seed and yeast images show, and Jesus later explains that content to his disciples.
What does it mean that Jesus uttered things hidden from the foundation of the world?
It means the truth Jesus was announcing had been God's purpose long before anyone heard it, not a new idea invented on the spot. The phrase pushes the hiddenness back to the world's founding, so the kingdom Jesus describes was planned and kept before human history began. The parables are the moment that long-kept purpose starts being spoken in the open, in picture form, to ordinary listeners. This is a claim about revelation: God is disclosing, not merely repeating, what had been concealed. It does not mean the truth is reserved for an elite few who decode secrets, since the disciples simply ask and receive an explanation.
Why did Jesus explain the parables only to his disciples in private?
Matthew 13:36 shows the pattern plainly: Jesus sent the crowds away, went into the house, and the disciples came to him asking for the explanation of the darnel weeds parable. He then gave it to them, identifying the sower as the Son of Man and unfolding the rest. The private explanation fits the passage's concern with revelation, since those who ask receive understanding while the crowd receives the parable itself. It also shows that the disciples did not understand automatically; they had to come and ask. The point is not that God hides truth from sincere seekers, but that understanding is given to those who draw near to Jesus and ask him.
