And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why do you speak unto them in parables?
Read Chapter 13
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
And his disciples came. How great was the concern of the apostles for the welfare of their countrymen. They did not say to Jesus, Why speakest thou thus to us; but, why speakest thou to them in parables? (St. Thomas Aquinas)
The question may be raised as to how the disciples came up to Jesus when he was sitting in the boat. Perhaps we should understand by this that they had gotten into the boat with him a short while before and were now standing there asking him to interpret the parable. .
We have good cause to admire the disciples. Longing as they do to learn, they know when they ought to ask. They do not ask in the presence of the crowd. Matthew shows this by saying, “And they came.” But to show that this is not a conjecture, Mark has expressed it more distinctly by saying that “they came to him privately.” This is what his brothers and his mother should have done. It would have been better if his family had not called him out and made a scene. But mark the disciples’ gentle affection, how they have much regard for the others and how they seek the other’s good first and then their own. “For why,” they ask, “do you speak to them in parables?” They did not say, “Why do you speak to us in parables?” On other occasions as well we can see their kindness in their human relationships, as when they said, “Send the multitude away” and “Do you know that they were offended ?” The Gospel of Matthew, Homily
We have good cause to admire the disciples, how, longing as they do to learn, they know when they ought to ask. For they do it not before all: and this Matthew shows by saying, And they came. And, as to this assertion not being conjecture, Mark has expressed it more distinctly, by saying, that they came to Him privately. Mark 4:10 This then His brethren and His mother should also have done, and not have called Him out, and made a display.
But mark their kindly affection also, how they have much regard for the others, and seek their good first, and then their own. For why, it is said, do You speak unto them in parables? They did not say, why do you speak unto us in parables? Yea, and on other occasions also their kindliness towards men appears in many ways; as when they say, Send the multitude away; Luke 9:12 and, Do you know that they were offended? Matthew 15:12
But this parable He speaks, as anointing His disciples, and to teach them, that even though the lost be more than such as receive the word yet they are not to despond. For this was the ease even with their Lord, and He who fully foreknew that these things should be, did not desist from sowing.
