The Parables of Christ.
I. "Whosoever hath, to him shall be given," etc, Here a universal law is announced as the explanation of the gift to the disciples of understanding mysteries, and of the difference between them and others. Whosoeverhath, whosoeverhath not. Is it not assumed in that universal statement is it not affirmed that every man has received certain things which the Bestower will increase if he hold them fast, but which he may let go and be left utterly bare? And what are these things? If there is the least connection between this verse and that which precedes it, they are mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.These are the treasures not lying far from any man to which these fishermen had not foregone their claim, and which no one can relinquish without abandoning his rights, without renouncing his manhood.
II. For thus He goes on: "Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand." Seeing, hearing, understanding these are admitted powers of human beings. To be without them is a fearful penalty, the exception to a rule. Is it not intimated to us that there is something exactly corresponding to these organs of sense in the spirit of man; that an eye is there which may be opened or may be closed; an ear is there which may be awake to take in a voice that is speaking to it or may be stopped; a capacity for profiting by the vision, for yielding to the voice, which may be continually expanded, or may continually become more contracted? If there is this correspondence between the organs of the spirit and the organs of sense, does not that explain to us the meaning and power of the parables? May not all sensible things, by a necessity of their nature, be testifying to us of that which is nearest to us, of that which it most concerns us to know, of the mysteries of our own life and of God's relation to us? May it not be impossible for us to escape from these witnesses? They may become insignificant to us from our very familiarity with them; nay, we may utterly forget that there is any wonder in them. The universe may become actually "as is a landscape to a dead man's eye;" all the business in which we are ourselves engaged, a routine which must be got through in some way or another, that we may have leisure to eat, drink, and sleep. Can any language describe this state so accurately and vividly as that of our Lord in the text? Seeing we see, and do not perceive; hearing we hear, and do not understand.
F. D. Maurice, Sermons,vol. v., p. 165.