Images and comparisons do not, by nature, cause things to be hidden. In fact, they clarify what has been said. But when they become the only thing and develop into closed instruction in stories of images (“parables”), the communication between speaker and listeners acquires a peculiar character. It is as though the speaker adopts a certain distance from the listeners and goads or challenges them to bridge that distance themselves by thoughtful listening! The listener has to do much more himself to unveil the concealed meaning. Thus there is a certain parallelism between this moment and Jesus’ new style of speaking. People that are not prepared to listen, force Jesus to observe a spatial distance (in the boat). And Jesus himself introduces a spiritual distance by speaking more distantly (in images). People hear his voice and his instruction, but it comes from further away. Now they have not only to cock their ears to catch the voice from the boat, but they have also to switch on their intellect and heart to understand the message from the withdrawn images.1
2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: