“No, you are imitating your real father.” They replied, “We aren’t illegitimate children! God himself is our true Father.” Jesus told them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I have come to you from God. I am not here on my own, but he sent me. Why can’t you understand what I am saying? It’s because you can’t even hear me!”
John 8:41-43 NLT
Isn’t it strange that people will only hear what they want to hear? Our brains seem to filter out unpleasant words, or introduce an emphasis that totally changes the meaning of what the speaker intended. We hear what others say through audio filters that are wired into our thoughts and worldviews. Jesus was still speaking in the Temple, and by this time the religious Pharisaical content of the crowd seemed to be asserting themselves, bringing Jesus to the point of having to ask the question “Why can’t you understand what I am saying?” And He concludes, “It’s because you can’t even hear me!”
When it came to things to do with matters religious and with the Mosaical Law, the Pharisees and the religious leaders considered themselves the final arbiters and they, and only they, knew what the Law contained and how it should be interpreted. Then along comes someone who seems to be suggesting something at variance with their beliefs and, on top of that, claiming that God in Heaven is His Father, and they immediately hang a sign “Cannot compute” on their doors of religiosity and attempt to fix the problem by closing it down. It is almost as though the Pharisees engaged in the childish game of placing their fingers in their ears and making a lot of noise, when not wanting to hear something unpleasant.
Jesus had been very patient in setting out who He was and what His message was. It was all very simple – He had a Father in Heaven, God Himself, who had sent Him to Planet Earth to tell the people that if they believed in Him then they will receive eternal life. What is there difficult about that? The Gospel message is extremely simple and easy to hear and understand. So why do more people not believe it and respond to it? Like the Pharisees before Jesus, however, it’s is not so much what is said as the implications about what it would mean to the hearers’ lives and behaviours.
We pilgrims can test this out in our workplaces or queues at a bus stop. If we tell them that there is a God in Heaven who loves them and wants them to believe in Him, the response will be mixed, but largely negative. We will find out that people will hear what we say but will reject its message, because … and then there will follow a shed full of excuses. Jesus told the parable of the Great Feast, which we can read in Matthew 22. He said, “The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come! So he sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!’ But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business. Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them” (Matthew 22:2-6). This parable illustrated what was happening before Jesus that day in the Temple. His invitation to eternal life was largely rejected by the people before Him. We will find the same today, as people we share the Gospel with will reject it because they feel that their day to day business of living is far more important than stopping to hear and understand God’s invitation. Our ears become bunged up with the detritus of living, and sometimes even we pilgrims need to sit, dump out the rubbish blocking our spiritual ears, and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying. Jesus finished the Parable of the Soils with the words, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand” (Matthew 13:9). Good advice that we should follow. Our lives may depend upon it!
Dear Father God. We pray that our ears will be open to hear Your gracious and eternal words. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 