Jesus didn’t come with 10 commandments, he taught with parables. These are not illustrations to help the teaching he had given, they are far more than that.
“The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”
The parables of Jesus were given to create a search from within the hearer and a longing for more. Through them they are the beginning of the desire for the Spirit which is needed in all followers of Christ. Jesus quotes from Isaiah 6 where the prophet is starting out on his ministry to a people who are blind and not searching for God. The search is important. It is not about following rules. It is about the desire and passion of the heart not to lock them out of the kingdom but to entice them into it. If God simply told the people the secrets and then they rejected them then their judgment would be even greater. So in His love He dangles imagery in order for them to search. They can at least say ‘we didn’t respond because we didn’t understand’ rather than ‘we understood but we didn’t want you’.
He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.” (Matthew 13 v 11-13)
The parable is the key and once the person begins to ask questions and as they ponder and think through the parable then the key is being turned in the door.
Therefore the key (the parable) opens the door to the secret or also known as the mystery. The secret/mystery is the revelation from God; you would only have known this because God had revealed it to you.
For example in the parable he has just given, the key is: what is the seed? Search for that, find that and it unlocks the whole secret/mystery of the kingdom.
The gospel is an invitation for a pilgrimage.
Rule-keepers are one thing but pilgrims are better.
Missions Paul 