In the first verses of Matthew 13 we saw how the Lord illustrates through His actions that He would hide His words from Israel and that the Kingdom would not be revealed. Christ would be hidden among the nations (Col. 1:27).
3 And He spoke to them many things in parables…
parables
The Greek word translated as parable is parabole (G3850). We recognize our word parable in that, which means comparison or likeness. The Greek word is made up of the word parts next to + throw. A parable is something that is placed next to something else, to make a comparison.
3 (…) and He said: Observe: the sower went out to sow.
4 And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured it.
5 And other fell on rocky places, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth.
6 But when the sun rose, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered.
7 And other fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked it.
8 And other fell on good ground, and it yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
9 He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
end of speech
We must realize what is happening here. Jesus tells a story about a sower to the people on land from a ship at sea. But that is all, because after this He stops. This was all the crowd heard. Only from verse 18 does the Lord explain the parable, but that is only to His disciples, the crowd did not receive this explanation.
parables are not explanation
In parables, nothing is explained, otherwise the Lord would not have to explain them to His disciples. Parables are not explanation, but require explanation!
In the parables, the secrets of the Kingdom are hidden, we will see in the following verses (:11).
salvation to the nations
Eventually, a few decades later, salvation was definitively sent to the nations (Acts 28:28). In Matthew 13 we already see that the Kingdom would not be revealed to Israel, but would be hidden from them and this is illustrated by Jesus’ actions and by speaking in parables.