The Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost
HEAR AND UNDERSTAND
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen! In the opening Words of today’s Gospel, our Lord Jesus says to you, to
me, and to all people everywhere, “Hear Me, all of you, and understand.”
Dear Christian friends,
When Jesus our Lord says to you, “hear,” and when He says to me, “understand,”
He is speaking commands to us. Jesus’ commands are NOT LIKE any of the other
commands that other people in your life might speak to you! For example,
• You children: suppose mom or dad, grandma or grandpa, should point
their finger at your face and say to you, “Go clean your room” or “do not talk
with your mouth full.” These are commands. When parents or grandparents speak
such words to you, they are telling you something you must do. They know you
are able to do it. They expect you to obey.
Jesus’ commands are NOT LIKE the commands your parents or grandparents speak.
When Jesus says to you, “Hear… and understand,” this is way better than when
mom says, “Clean your room.” Parents expect you to obey their commands. Jesus
knows that you have NO ABILITY to obey His commands.
• You adults: When your employer says to you, “I want you to do thus-and
such,” he is not making a suggestion. When the Internal Revenue Service says,
“This is how much you owe,” it is not asking for a donation. When a police
officer says, “Move your car over there,” you know where you must move your
car. These are all commands. These all make demands and place requirements upon
you. These all require your energy, your action, your input, your response.
Jesus’ commands are NOT LIKE the commands your employer or government might
speak to you. Jesus’ commands do not require your energy, your action, your
input, or your response. When the taxman or the boss gives you a command, he is
telling you what you must do for him. Jesus does not do that. When Jesus
commands, “Hear… and understand,” He knows you and I have NO ABILITY to “hear…
and understand.” Jesus does not command things you must do for Him. Jesus’
commands are miracles that He performs for you.
When Jesus your Lord commands you, “hear,” He is performing a miracle for you.
Jesus knows that you have no ability to hear, unless He performs for you the
miracle of opening your ears!
Again, when Jesus me Lord commands me, “understand,” He is performing a miracle
for me. I have no understanding. I have only darkness, only density, only
concrete and granite. I have NO ROOM in my heart and mind for hearing and
understanding the Words of Jesus. There is NO SPACE for the Words of Jesus
inside me because I filled to overflowing with “evil thoughts, sexual
immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality,
envy, slander, pride, foolishness.” (I would like to deny that these things are
in me, but Jesus knows all things, even the hearts of men. I am so filled with
deceit that I deceive even myself and I am such a fool that I will believe even
my own lies.)
Because the cup of my sinful nature is continually overflowing; because my
hostility toward God is unceasing (Romans 8:7); because my understanding is so
darkened (Ephesians 4:18) and my neck so stiff (Acts 6:51), there is no chance
that I will obey the commands of my Lord. Police officer, yes! Jesus, no! Not
even God’s seemingly simple commands—commands like, “Hear Me… and
understand”—not even God’s simplest commands will get any response from me!
“Nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” (Romans 7:18). Not only do I
lack the desire to obey Jesus’ commands, but I also lack the ability.
Jesus knows that I lack both ability and desire to obey His commands. Jesus
knows that you have no capacity to “hear… and understand.” Jesus is fully aware
that the only things that come out of you and out of me are those things which
“defile a person.” You heard Jesus say it in today’s Gospel.
That is why Jesus’ commands are NOT LIKE any of the other commands that other
people in your life might speak to you! That is why Jesus’ commands DO NOT
REQUIRE your energy, your action, your input, or your response. That is why
Jesus’ commands are miracles that He performs for you. Jesus’ commands shine
light in the darkness, even while the darkness continually desires to overcome
and extinguish the light (John 1:5).
In the opening Words of today’s Gospel, our Lord Jesus says to you, to me, and
to all people everywhere, “Hear Me, all of you, and understand.” When Jesus our
Lord commands you, “hear,”—when He commands me, “understand,”—these commands
are not even a tiny bit different than when Jesus:
• commanded the dead man Lazarus to come forth from his tomb (John11:43);
• “rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’” (Mark 4:39);
• said to the legion of demons in the country of the Gerasenes, “Come out
of the man” (Mark 5:8)
When Jesus says, “Walk,” paralyzed people walk (Mark 2:1-12). When Jesus says,
“Be opened,” the ears of the deaf are unplugged, the mouths of the mute begin
to speak (Mark 7:35) the eyes of the blind are open and see (Mark 10:46-52).
When Jesus says to you, “Your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5), your sins are
forgiven indeed! When Jesus says to your dead loved ones, “Rise,” NO ONE will
roll over and go back to sleep. What will happen? At the voice and command of
Jesus,
Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake
and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth
to the dead (Isaiah 26:19).
So it is when Jesus says to you and to me, “hear… and understand.” When Jesus
commands us to hear, He also grasps our ears with His fingers, as it were, and
He pulls our ears open so that we may hear. Jesus opens our ears for hearing in
the same way that a man might hold open a feed sack so you can throw the
kittens in. When Jesus says “hear,” He performs the miracle of unplugging our
ears and keeping them unplugged, thus fulfilling that promise He spoke through
His prophet Isaiah, saying, “The deaf shall hear the words of a book” (Isaiah
29:18).
The same is true when Jesus says to you and to me, “Understand.” When Jesus
speaks this Word to us, He is not commanding us to use our brainpower. Jesus
requires no comprehension from us. Rather, when Jesus commands us to
understand, understanding forms within us by the power of His Word. When Jesus
tells us to understand, He is also throwing our own sense of comprehension or
understanding right out the window for us. That is why it is written in the
Book of Proverbs, “Do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).
It is a good and blessed thing for us that Jesus would say to us, “Hear… and
understand,” all while performing a miracle for us in the very speaking of
these Words. The benefits of such good, gracious, miraculous speaking from our
God can hardly be overestimated. The benefits of God speaking to us in this
manner can certainly never be praised highly enough.
• Life, assurance, and peace hang upon “every Word that comes from the
mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). God has sworn to you that your life comes as a
gift to you through all the Words “that come from the mouth of the LORD”
(Deuteronomy 8:3). The phrase “every Word” includes even God’s commands!
• When Jesus commands you, “Hear”—and you actually are willing
hear—praise God for the miracle that is taking place in your life! Praise God
that you can listen to His Word without running away and cursing Him. God has
made your hearing possible for you by giving you the miracle of hearing—which
is just another word for faith.
• When Jesus commands you, “Understand”—and you actually understand what
He says—do not credit your intellect with this ability. Praise God, who has
given you His gift and miracle of understanding! Rejoice that your salvation
and life have nothing to do with how smart you might be. Salvation and life are
now yours because Jesus created salvation and life for you on His cross. In
addition to this, you now understand that salvation and life have come to you
because Jesus continually sustains within you His gift and miracle of your
understanding.
• When Jesus says to each of us, “hear… and understand,” He is giving us
the ability to admit things we would otherwise refuse to admit. For example,
Jesus’ miracle of understanding allows each of us to agree wholeheartedly with
what He went on to say in today’s Gospel, that “what comes out of a person is
what defiles him.” It is entirely for our blessing and benefit that Jesus would
make us to understand we have nothing within ourselves except “evil thoughts,
sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit,
sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.” This miracle of understanding
ourselves will have a good effect upon us, because it fixes our eyes on
Jesus—the one who saves us even from ourselves.
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