Say What?

Listening is hard work. So much so, that sometimes we need to be reminded that God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason, to remind us of the value of listening for understanding.

It’s true, active listening takes a lot of work. Think about it. How often do we really listen to one another?

Listening without interrupting. Giving our full attention to another without being distracted by thinking about what we are going to say next. Listening without wishing that the person would “just stop already” so we can share our own thoughts and opinions.

Yes, active listening is hard work because it challenges us to “see” and “hear” what’s being said –and to perceive what’s not being said.

Why should we be surprised then to discover that in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus frequently begins to teach followers by challenging them to Listen?

In the text from Matthew 13:10-17 we learn that Jesus is not concerned about his disciples’ ability to understand what he is saying. Apparently the disciples can, for the most part, understand what Jesus is saying about the mystery of God’s kingdom.

Yet, the same cannot be said about the curious onlookers who have gathered at the Lakeside to hear and see what this wonder-working preacher, healer, and teacher might have to say. Unlike the disciples, the people in in the crowd are confused. They see but do not see and they hear but do not hear.

To compound matters, a lot of the confusion appears to be deliberate. Instead of speaking to the would-be followers in a straightforward manner, Jesus prefers to teach with parables. In fact, Jesus uses these short, descriptive narratives drawn from everyday life –  Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Mustard Seed, and the Parable of the Weeds among the Wheat — to engage hearers’ imaginations with the surprising, gracious, and completely incomprehensible nature of God’s activity in the world.

And though Jesus liked to communicate important ideas by sometimes choosing to speak sideways about what God’s was up to in the world, the crowds who follow him always seem to struggle to “see” and “hear;” to enter into the divine mystery unfolding before their very eyes in the One sent to reconcile the world to God.

In fact, the people’s confusion prompted the disciples to come to Jesus asking, “Why in the world are you talking to them in parables? Nobody has any idea what you are talking about. What gives?

The disciples come to Jesus because they are worried that Jesus is wasting a golden opportunity; a concern that Jesus addresses by telling the disciples, “The reason that I speak to them in parables is that “seeing they do not perceive, and that hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand (v. 13).”

In short, Jesus knows exactly what he is doing. He is intentionally speaking in ways so that the people who listen will not understand, and look but never perceive. The text is acknowledging what has already been revealed earlier in Matthew’s gospel. Some people, like Jesus’ disciples, will be receptive to God’s Word, while many others, will not listen, see, or understand.

By deliberately speaking sideways, by obscuring the good news of what God in Christ is up to in the world in parables, Jesus makes listeners acutely aware of their present inability to profit from his teaching. The people’s “hearts, ears, and eyes” are insensitive, because the people make them so (v. 15); an orientation of the heart stubbornly grounded in a reluctance to “turn” toward God, the source of life, healing, and forgiveness.

Let’s be honest. Not much has changed in the course of two thousand years. We, too, find it hard to “see” the Living Christ in our midst. We, too, struggle to trust in God’s life-giving and healing Word of promise. We, too, find ourselves challenged to respond in love to our neighbors near and far. It’s easy to do. Our hearts have grown calloused.

After all, we live in a culture of toxic chatter and worldly messages that do their best to bend us inwards toward ourselves and away from God and our neighbor. Bombarding 24/7 us with seductive lies and slick marketing campaigns that deceive and delude us into believing that happiness and wholeness can be found in the false idols of this world: more money, more promotions, higher social status, the latest generation I-Phones or X-Box — Worldly messages that encourage us to fill the deepest longings of the human heart with the things and bling of this world which do not, which cannot, give life.

Yes, like the multitudes of people who followed Jesus long ago, we, too, struggle to understand. We, too, doubt. We, too, do our best to hold God’s Word at arms’ length. Yet, our God, a hidden and revealed God, loves us anyway. Our God, a covenant God who refuses to forsake or abandon us, comes to us in our own human brokenness, sin, pain, and doubt, offering undeserved and unmerited grace, mercy, and love. Though we may find ourselves struggling to see through the scales in our eyes and o hear God’s liberating and redeeming Word of promise amidst the clamor and noise of this world’s distractions, our God comes to us time and time again. The living Christ comes to you now in the gathering of the faithful, saints and sinners  all, in the Word proclaimed; when the Holy Spirit persuades sin the hearing of the good news of Jesus Christ’s saving, redeeming, and reconciling activity for you,  for me, for the world.

Though Jesus spoke in confusing parables, Matthew’s Gospel also makes it clear that because of Jesus’ crucifixion and death, a liberating and saving death upon a cursed tree of shame, the Hidden God is revealed. Matthew’s Gospel even employs dramatic flair worthy of a blockbuster Hollywood movie to show that God has been loosed upon the world.

The veil of the Temple curtain is torn from top to bottom. The earth shook, the tombs were opened, and the bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were  raised and appeared to many in the city of Jerusalem.

Then, at of the moment of  Jesus’ death on the cross, and only then, do the people see and perceive, hear and listen, and understand; recognition uttered by a Roman centurion, “Truly this man was God’s Son.”

See.

Hear.

Listen.

Behold the cross upon which hung the savior of the world!