Let Him Hear

            Imagine for a moment that you’re a 1st century Jew in Roman Palestine. You have heard about an impressive young rabbi from the unlikely town of Nazareth. You’ve even met fellow Jews who have witnessed his miracles or heard him teach in their local synagogues. When you learn that he is coming to teach nearby, you decide to go see him for yourself. As you arrive at the edge of the Sea of Galilee, you join the massive crowd that presses around Jesus. You watch as he climbs into a boat and begins to teach.

To your surprise, however, everything Jesus speaks is in riddles. You start to get excited about his repeated talk about “the kingdom of heaven,” but there is no follow-up declaration of war against the Roman oppressors. There is no impassioned political speech. There are no recruiters working the crowd to construct a rebel army. Instead, Jesus simply gives parables! He speaks about a strange farmer who indiscriminately throws his seeds everywhere, even in places where he knows it won’t grow. He speaks about a treasure hidden in a field, which is found by a man who sells everything he has to buy that field to obtain the treasure. He speaks of a tiny mustard seed which grows up to become a large shade tree for nearby birds. As Jesus unfolds parable after parable, you never hear him offer any explanation for these cryptic teachings. As he wraps up and begins to dismiss the crowd, he simply looks around and says: “He who has ears, let him hear.” As the crowd begins to dissolve, you can’t help scratching your head at what you’ve heard. You now have a choice to make: either approach Jesus and ask for understanding or simply walk away like most of the others are doing.

This was the choice of many Jews that Jesus interacted with, since he always spoke to large crowds in parables only (Matthew 13.34). Privately he explained their meanings to his disciples and told them that the “secrets of the kingdom” were exclusively given to them and not to everyone else (Matthew 13.11). Why would Jesus purposefully withhold those explanations from the many and give them to the few? The answer is simple: the disciples were the only ones who pursued him with questions! All of the others were uninterested in further inquiry because “seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” (Matthew 13.13).

As we read the parables or any other part of God’s word, we are faced with the same choice. Will we pay close attention and then ask questions from the text? Will we continually return to those words to dig out more treasure to enjoy and share with others? Or will we casually walk away from Jesus, too preoccupied by our own desires to care deeply about what he taught? He who has ears, let him hear.

~Nathan Combs