“For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”
For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them. The Isaiah quotation identifies the source of the hearing and seeing problem as the people's own choice: they have closed their eyes. The closing is not arbitrary divine action but the judgment that falls on those who deliberately resist the prophetic word. The healing that would follow genuine turning is the healing Jesus has been performing — and which the Pharisees attributed to Satan.
Church Fathers on Matthew 13:15
The disciples understanding that the things which were spoken by the Lord to the people were obscure, desired to hint to Him that He should not speak in parables to them. 'And his disciples came to him, and said, Why speakest thou to them in parables?'
Wherein it is worthy admiration, that the disciples who desire to learn of Him, know when they ought to ask Him, for they do not this before the multitude. This Matthew declares, when he says, 'And they came to him;' and Mark more expressly says, that 'they came to him when he was alone.' [Mark 4:10]
We must enquire how they could come to Him at that time when Jesus was sitting in the ship; we may understand that they had at the first entered into the ship, and standing there, made this enquiry of Him.