Read Matthew 13:1-23

“9 He who has ears, let him hear.”

Whether you’re someone who is simply interested in Jesus or someone who has gone “all-in”, his very blunt, “he who has ears, let him hear”, may even seem a tad insulting. Of course, we would be hanging off every word Jesus says, right? However, the hearing that Jesus is talking about is not simply processing the voice of Jesus in our minds. Rather, it’s the second part of a three-part process that he outlines in the 15th verse of chapter 13. He observes that the Israelites (the ancient people that God chose to work through to bring His purposes into the world), his disciples and now we have all been given the opportunity to ‘see’, ‘hear’ and finally ‘understand’ God and His word. But, we may ask, “If there are three parts, why is Jesus highlighting ‘hearing’”?

Like the wisdom that parents, mentors, coaches and teachers attempt to impart, our lives are full of moments and seasons where we wilfully ignore God’s directives for our lives. The simplest way to ignore God is willful disobedience, “God, I know I’m not meant to steal this money, but I’m stealing it anyway”. The more sophisticated strategy (or so we tell ourselves) is to pretend that we hadn’t even heard God’s directions at all. When God spoke to us his words simply went, “in one ear, and out the other”. We heard nothing. This strategy justifies our disobedience by declaring not simply that “I don’t understand why I shouldn’t lust after another person’s spouse?”, but by declaring to God that, “You never even told me it was wrong to lust!” It’s very similar to the original act of sin recorded in Genesis – we all look for reasons to justify why our rebellion isn’t our fault.

In our grandparents’ era, many children were told, “Children should be seen and not heard”. This was a convenient way of distancing parents and carers from having to engage with the children they were responsible for. If they had to engage with their questions or requests (“hearing” them), then they would have to spend time understanding them and acting in a responsible fashion. It was much simpler to simply see children but ignore everything they had to say and thus avoid the obligation to respond to requests that might inconvenience the life of a preoccupied adult.

There will come a time for all followers of Jesus when it’s much easier to treat Jesus like a 19th-century child. He should be, “seen and not heard”. We might acknowledge his presence, or even that we belong to the same family. However, we avoid fully engaging with his commands lest they call into question our comfortable, preoccupied, self-focused lives. Jesus’ teachings are designed to be much more than meaningless mantras, artwork on our walls or bumper stickers on our cars. He and His teachings are to be seen, heard and understood, so that we might lovingly obey him in all things. It’s this kind of holistic life of faith that Jesus says will yield a “crop” – a fruitful life – that is 30, 60 and 100-fold what is expected from a life lived otherwise. So, go, be fruitful and truly live!