In the passage in Mark 4:11,12 Jesus meant apparently that he made the difference between his teaching of disciples and of the ordinary people because of the spiritual insight of the former. It was of no use to give the latter the direct teaching that he gave the disciples. But he taught them by illustrations to which they would listen and which would remain in their minds. They would thus learn more than they knew at the time. The meaning of the stories was not clear to them then, and they probably thought there was no particular moral to them, but the influence of the teaching would be felt afterwards. Sometimes a child may play at a game that may teach him geography or history and his teacher is aware that the child has learned more than he has any idea of. The child may be interested in a fable and see nothing in it applicable to himself, but in future years the moral meaning of the fable may be perceptible to him.
