The challenge of really listening and really hearing

This month, we’ve been looking at the things Jesus said across the the first four books of the New Testament that all focus on the life of Jesus here on earth. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but there has been a framework that I’ve been working within. The order of these articles has not been random. The first week, we considered the announcement of the kingdom of God. Last week, we looked at the teachings of Jesus about how we should live and behave. This week, we’re going to focus on the parables of Jesus.

Parables are stories that are more than just stories. They’re stories about everyday situations that illustrate a moral and spiritual truth. They sit within a specific context. Jesus looked around him and told these stories about scenes from everyday life that the people listening to him would be familiar with. Parables are somewhat like fables, but fables are about animals, like ‘The Hare and the Tortoise’ and parables all contain people.

Jesus is trying to explain about the kingdom of God: something brand new that cannot be seen or touched. His stories help ordinary people of his day get their head around some mind-blowing truths. When we look at these stories today, we have to have some understanding of the context that was so very different to the world in which we live now in order to fully understand all that Jesus is trying to convey. In fact, the people at the time often didn’t fully understand what Jesus was getting at. That’s the beauty of a story like this. Every time you reflect on it, you seen something new.

The disciples came to him and asked, ‘Why do you speak to the people in parables?’

He replied, Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.  Matthew 13:10-11

Not everyone who hears will get it. For them, the illustration Jesus gives will simply be a story. These stories of Jesus contain secrets about the kingdom of heaven but only those with eyes that see and ears that hear will grasp the truths hidden within them. Not physically hear and see, you understand, but spiritually hear and see with the heart and soul. Jesus often reminds the people of this when he’s telling these stories ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.’

With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.  Mark 4: 33-34

So let’s start today with the parable of the sower. We may not have sowers walking the fields with a bag of seed, scattering it around them as they go any more, but chances we’ve held a seed in our hand at some point and carefully pushed it into some prepared soil and waited expectantly for it to grow (with varying results). We understand the principles of planting seed: the potential for new life and growth and beauty and provision of food to eat!

This parable appears in Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8.

Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: ‘Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.’

Then Jesus said, ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.’  Mark 4:1-9

This is a pretty straightforward illustration, isn’t it? In Mark’s account, Jesus is recorded as saying ‘Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?’ (v13)

However good the seed is, there’s no guarantee that it will grow into something amazing. The quality of the ground is all-important.

However good Jesus’ message is, it doesn’t mean it will automatically transform a life. It depends on how receptive the person is to hear and respond.

Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.  Matthew 13:18-23

This is a great place to start in looking at Jesus’ parable as this illustration is all about really listening and really hearing.

Really listening and really hearing is one of the greatest challenges of my life. I might look like I’m listening but I’m probably not. I’m so distracted (often by my phone) that I don’t really listen to my husband or kids. I’m so preoccupied with my own thoughts and anxieties that I miss what they’re really trying to say. I don’t have time to have meaningful conversations with the people I bump into through the day. The one time I really listen to what people have to say is when I’m interviewing them for an article. Then I listen and they often comment that they feel they’ve been heard and understood – and I know that that quality of listening is often not there in the rest of my interactions. I don’t often take the time to listen to my own body and what it’s telling me that it needs right now. And I rush around so much that I can get to the end of the day and wonder what God was trying to tell me that day that I didn’t allow the time and space to notice and take in.

I don’t think I’m alone. I know I’m not alone, because I often feel that I am not being listened to. I have not been heard.

We’re all so busy. There are so many distractions. There’s so many people and things clamouring for our attention. Full on listening takes time and space and attention.

And if we’re not that good at listening to the people around us, who are actually there speaking into our physical ears, then how much harder will it be to listen to what God is speaking into our spiritual ears?

I need to learn how to listen. Maybe you do too. There’s a lot out there about developing listening skills and active listening. Listening takes practice. It’s something I intend to work on.

As you read through the parable of the sower, I wonder if you can identify what kind of soil you often are. Are you easily distracted? Do you forget what you’ve heard pretty much as soon as you’ve heard it? Or do you really listen and allow God’s wisdom to take root in your life?

If this idea of seeds has grabbed you today, you might want to look at these other parables about seeds.

• The Parable of the Growing Seed:  Mark 4:26-29
• The Parable of the Weeds: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
• The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast: Matthew 13:31-33 Mark 4:30-32 Luke 13:18-21