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Week 4: Listening to the Son
Sin-clogged ears
Week 4, Day 3
My hearing was excellent. Or so I thought. While in college, I had my ears checked and the audiologist informed me that my hearing was not as stellar as I had projected. She further clarified that part of my problem was the wax buildup clogging my ear canal. Not knowing that my ears were clogged, my pride mirrored the waxy hindrance to my listening. I was so confident that my hearing was just fine that I was not open to hearing that there was any problem. The Pharisees and teachers of the law had a similar problem. And the strongest admonition or tongue-lashing that Jesus issued was to the sin-clogged ears of this group of people. Christ’s language in Matthew 23 is clear and uncompromising in His disdain for their hypocritical actions and attitudes (v. 27-28, ESV). 27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
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Week 4: Listening to the Son
Only Speak What the Father Has Told Me / You Have Heard that It is Said...
Week 4, Day 2
Jesus had a lot to say. But He knew what to say, when to say it, how to say it, and when to keep silent. What wisdom! John 12:49 (ESV) 49 For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. How was Jesus able to speak only His Father’s words and
remain clear in what the Father intended for His people to hear?
The Son of God made it a priority to set aside time in communication with His Father. In Luke 6:12, we see that Jesus “went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God.” All. Night. The Son of God, who was one with the Father, spent all night in communication with Him. How does that reflect the importance of spending time talking and listening to the Father?
Like the teachers of the law, many of us fall into the trap of not listening—or sticking stubbornly to what we thought we heard the first time. They had lost the spirit of all God had taught them through the commandments. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus rectifies the errant teaching and clarifies the truth of God’s message to His people. “You have heard that it is said, but I tell you...” There were a number of things that the Israelites had gotten all wrong. And before we quickly condemn them, we must recognize our confusion at some of God’s teaching as well. We listen through the filter of past understanding or current circumstances and muddy the waters of His clear message.