The disciples noticed that Jesus was telling the crowds stories without explaining them. Mark says they asked "when he was alone" (Mark 4:10), and Luke records them asking, "What might this parable be?" (Luke 8:9). Gill points out that "indeed the parable was not understood by the disciples themselves." So the question was more than curiosity about method. Gill says they asked for the sake of the multitude and also for their own, "hoping to be favoured with the meaning of it."

Jesus answered plainly: "Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given" (Matthew 13:11). He added that "whosoever hath, to him shall be given" (Matthew 13:12), and that He spoke in parables "because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand" (Matthew 13:13). He said this fulfilled "the prophecy of Esaias" (Matthew 13:14-15). Then He turned to the disciples: "But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear" (Matthew 13:16), and He explained the parable of the sower to them (Matthew 13:18-23).

A parable is a short story from everyday life, like sowing seed or baking bread, that carries a spiritual meaning. The word "mysteries" in Jesus' answer does not mean puzzles no one can solve. Barnes explains that in the Bible a mystery is something that had been concealed and not before made known, even if it is plain once revealed. He gives examples such as the gospel going to the Gentiles and the Messiah's death.

"Esaias" is the Greek form of the name Isaiah. Jesus quoted Isaiah 6:9-10, the words God gave Isaiah when He sent him to a people who would hear but not understand. Barnes adds that the Pharisees and the Jews generally "were not prepared to receive the system, and would not have believed it," so Jesus purposely used a kind of teaching they did not understand, while taking particular pains to instruct His apostles, who were to carry the gospel around the globe.

Jesus' answer shows two sides of the same teaching. The same parable that hid truth from the crowd opened it to the disciples. Matthew Henry puts it this way: the things of God "were made more plain and easy to those willing to be taught, and at the same time more difficult and obscure to those who were willingly ignorant." In Matthew's quotation of Isaiah, the people's condition is something they had a hand in: "their eyes they have closed" (Matthew 13:15).

The gift came from Him: "it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 13:11). The disciples did not understand either, but they came to Jesus and asked, and Mark records that "when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples" (Mark 4:34).