 |
| By Domenico Fetti - Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid ([1]- Oil on panel, 61 x 44.5 cm) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
“Whoever Has Ears…” by Melanie Rigney
We recognize, O LORD, our wickedness, the guilt of our fathers; that we have sinned against you. For your name's sake spurn us not, disgrace not the throne of your glory; remember your covenant with us, and break it not. (Jeremiah 14:20-21)
For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us. (Psalm 79:9)
“The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his Kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear." (Matthew 13:41-43)
Piety
Lord, turn me away from the false siren song of the evil one and toward Your goodness.
Study
“Whoever has ears ought to hear,” Jesus tells the disciples after explaining, in painstaking detail, the parable of the weeds. Good sower = Jesus; good seed = God’s children; weeds = evil one’s children, and so on.
Check, check, and check. Honestly, it makes you wonder if the disciples could have found their way home without Jesus.
On second thought, there’s no need to wonder. The disciples could not find their way home without Him. They were like sheep without a shepherd. He understood that, and that’s why He was so patient with questions that would have frustrated even Captain Obvious.
While Jesus’s use of parables may be clear to us from the distance of a couple of thousand years and a whole lot of hearing the Word proclaimed and studied, we are in precisely the same place as the sometimes-clueless disciples.
We can’t find our way home without Him either. May we open our ears to His direction.
Action
The Lord is speaking. Are you listening? Spend fifteen minutes doing so today. Don’t ask Him to explain a thing. Just listen.
No comments:
Post a Comment