Ears
Read Matthew 13:1-23.
They say that a joke you have to explain isn't a very good one. Or maybe the problem is with the hearer and not the teller (or the joke). Nevertheless, wherever the "fault" rests, it is true: something is lost when you have to explain what you're talking about.
If you've been around the church at all, you've probably heard many sermons on today's reading. It's a favorite passage for preachers because it breaks down so well, and it applies so easily. Path soil, rocky soil, shallow soil, thorny soil, good soil...which soil are you? Sermon is done. The problem is...Jesus wasn't done there. He ends with what appears to be a "formula" ending: "Whoever has ears, let him hear" (13:9).
I wonder if anyone happened to look around, to see if there might have been people in the crowd who didn't have ears. Nope, pretty much everyone there had ears and they seemed to be working okay. They could hear Jesus speaking just fine. And yet, they knew he didn't mean just "hear" as in physical hearing. What he said was sort of a prophetic formula; it was a way of saying, "You need to really pay attention here. There is something important that is being said."
But the disciples didn't get it. We don't know exactly how long they had been with Jesus at this point (the chronology, as I've said, is hard to nail down), but they've been with him long enough that they've heard him teach and preach, they know a little about what he's about, and they are convinced he is from God. They know the Scriptures; they've heard stories like this before when they read what we know as the Old Testament. But they don't get it.
And yet they don't want to admit they don't get it. So they ask Jesus what he's talking about in a roundabout way: "Why do you speak to the people in parables?" (13:10). Notice that—the people. Those folks out there who don't understand. We get it, of course, Jesus, but just in case we need to explain it to THEM, what the heck were you talking about?
A joke that has to be explained loses its punch. A story that has to be explained loses its power.
And yet, Jesus condescends this time to explain the parable. Five soils equal five different responses to the Gospel, to Jesus' message, to Jesus himself. But even those types of soil are not the point. Remember, as I said on Sunday, parables are stories with one point. They are not allegories (though some have allegorical format, like this one does). They are "stories with a punch." And Jesus' "punch" in this story is this: you have to respond to the Gospel. Your response may be one of these types, or something else, but the Gospel demands a response. What will be yours?
So even the comment about ears is, actually, part of the parable, part of the point. If you have ears, if you really can hear what Jesus is saying, then listen and respond. Don't just treat this as a nice story or even an outline for a good sermon. Listen, respond, do something with the "seed" that has been planted in your life.
May the one who has ears today, hear.
They say that a joke you have to explain isn't a very good one. Or maybe the problem is with the hearer and not the teller (or the joke). Nevertheless, wherever the "fault" rests, it is true: something is lost when you have to explain what you're talking about.
If you've been around the church at all, you've probably heard many sermons on today's reading. It's a favorite passage for preachers because it breaks down so well, and it applies so easily. Path soil, rocky soil, shallow soil, thorny soil, good soil...which soil are you? Sermon is done. The problem is...Jesus wasn't done there. He ends with what appears to be a "formula" ending: "Whoever has ears, let him hear" (13:9).
I wonder if anyone happened to look around, to see if there might have been people in the crowd who didn't have ears. Nope, pretty much everyone there had ears and they seemed to be working okay. They could hear Jesus speaking just fine. And yet, they knew he didn't mean just "hear" as in physical hearing. What he said was sort of a prophetic formula; it was a way of saying, "You need to really pay attention here. There is something important that is being said."
But the disciples didn't get it. We don't know exactly how long they had been with Jesus at this point (the chronology, as I've said, is hard to nail down), but they've been with him long enough that they've heard him teach and preach, they know a little about what he's about, and they are convinced he is from God. They know the Scriptures; they've heard stories like this before when they read what we know as the Old Testament. But they don't get it.
And yet they don't want to admit they don't get it. So they ask Jesus what he's talking about in a roundabout way: "Why do you speak to the people in parables?" (13:10). Notice that—the people. Those folks out there who don't understand. We get it, of course, Jesus, but just in case we need to explain it to THEM, what the heck were you talking about?
A joke that has to be explained loses its punch. A story that has to be explained loses its power.
And yet, Jesus condescends this time to explain the parable. Five soils equal five different responses to the Gospel, to Jesus' message, to Jesus himself. But even those types of soil are not the point. Remember, as I said on Sunday, parables are stories with one point. They are not allegories (though some have allegorical format, like this one does). They are "stories with a punch." And Jesus' "punch" in this story is this: you have to respond to the Gospel. Your response may be one of these types, or something else, but the Gospel demands a response. What will be yours?
So even the comment about ears is, actually, part of the parable, part of the point. If you have ears, if you really can hear what Jesus is saying, then listen and respond. Don't just treat this as a nice story or even an outline for a good sermon. Listen, respond, do something with the "seed" that has been planted in your life.
May the one who has ears today, hear.
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