Daniel Patte points out in his “structural commentary” on Matthew that there is a narrative logic to Matthew 8-13. Jesus comes healing, casting out demons, cleansing the unclean, raising the dead, all the while proclaiming the reign of God that these miracles incarnate. In chapter 10, He sends the Twelve to carry on the same mission to Israel. He warns them, though, that they will face persecution and opposition, as He has done already, and the opposition intensifies in chapters 11-12.

By the time Jesus begins speaking in parables in chapters 13, the Jewish leaders, along with some of the cities of Israel, have rejected Him and His mission. This deepens our grasp of Jesus’ rationale for speaking in parables: “while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor understand” (13:13). Parables are an act of judgment, but not a random one. In the preceding chapters, Matthew shows why Jesus resorts to the secretive genre of parables.