In the book of Matthew, chapter 13, Jesus has just finished telling the people the parable of the sower and at the end of the parable says; “whoever has ears let them hear.”

Just to be very clear here, Jesus was not being literal. We can presume that the people in His presence had the ability to hear! What He is referring to is that there was wisdom in what He had told them, but only those who were truly listening would realise it i.e. not everyone was going to catch it.

After He had said this the disciples come and ask Him why He talks to the people in parables. I guess the question behind the question was; why don’t you just give it to them straight without a story? Jesus goes on to explain that He does it this way because the people don’t have the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven yet. He then goes on to talk about a prophesy Isaiah gave;

In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perlceiving. For this people ’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ Matthew 13:14-16

It’s scary to think that we could hear what God has to say but completely miss it. It’s scary to think that we could see God move but not perceive it. It also explains why so many in the world miss the teachings of Jesus.

This reminds me of the first book in the Narnia series; the Magicians Nephew. When Aslan is creating the world and the children are listening to his voice along with all the other animals,Andrew, Digory’s not so nice uncle, is there but for some reason he is unable to hear Aslan’s voice. When the children ask Aslan why he is unable to when they can, Aslan tells them that when he started singing Uncle Andrew knew it was a song but he disliked the song so much he convinced himself it wasn’t singing at all. He didn’t like the song because it made him think and feel things he didn’t want to think or feel. The more the lion sang the more he tried to convince himself it wasn’t singing and before long he had convinced himself that it wasn’t singing at all. Aslan then says these words

“soon, he couldn’t have heard anything else even it he wanted to”

I think this sums up the experience of anyone who has chosen not to listen to the Fathers voice, whether that’s someone far away from Jesus or a follower who has just gone cold in their faith or an aspect of their faith. I think this is a huge challenge to all of us in whatever aspect of our faith we need to hear it again. Have we lost our hearing when it comes to aspects of our lives when it comes to Jesus, have we stopped listening for whatever reason?

It’s time to open our ears and fully hear what it is the Father is calling us to. I don’t want to meet Him face to face and find our my ears were what stopped me from following Him into all He had for me.