With the exception of last week’s unanticipated break since the first post in our Ears to ‘Hear’ series, we’ve been considering that familiar admonition that Jesus often used to conclude some of His most significant teachings. We can imagine Him pausing slightly, looking intently at His audience, and then with purposeful clarity, saying, “He that has ears to hear, let him hear.” 

The Admonition Applies ~
Our assumption is that all of us want to be among those who have their ears prepared and equipped to hear what the greatest Teacher who ever lived has to say. And we’ve mentioned before that our Divinely anointed Rabbi speaks in ways that don’t always involve or employ verbal expression. Throughout history, God has made it clear that there are languages that transcend human speech, and His messages are often delivered in terms that would make spoken words little more than insufficient, needless addendums. But in that realm as well, Jesus’ admonition would certainly apply. His desire for us is that our ears be attuned to hear His voice – no matter when or how He chooses to speak.

If I might say it with appropriate reverence, Jesus was an “outdoor” kind of guy. He worked outdoors. He delivered His most famous messages outdoors. He had no covered vehicle to travel in and was thus outdoors for all the miles He traveled. Many of the miracles He performed were done in an outdoor setting, and as we’ve often pointed out, most of Jesus’ teaching took place outside. Given His outdoor context, it’s not surprising that many of the illustrations He chose to use as visual aids to define the values and principles of His Kingdom were actually things going on around Him. Jesus excelled at using commonplace activities, ordinary biological processes, familiar chores, and everyday events to make profound concepts understandable. But using the “natural” world as a mechanism through which to project Divine revelation didn’t originate with Jesus. 

Another Outdoor Guy ~
King David, for instance, was an outdoor guy as well, and he recognized that the Living God’s capacity to communicate with us wasn’t limited to spoken words. He saw nature itself as one of God’s special ways of communing with us. It’s clear from his writing that David often heard the voice of God in the panorama of the world around him, and we can feel that special kind of communion as he sang out the words of Psalm 19:

The heavens declare the glory of God;And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world. (Psalm 19:1–4 NKJV)

But God’s Master Teacher Son maximized the potential of using everyday life and the world around Him as a teaching tool. He used commonplace scenes to communicate some of the most profound values and principles that characterize His Kingdom. On one occasion, for instance, He wrapped His message in an activity that every one in the multitude listening instantly recognized, and one that many had  participated in themselves. Jesus set the stage for His description of a profoundly important component of His Kingdom with this simple statement.

Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. (Mark 4:3 NKJV)

A Lot to Absorb in One Setting ~
It’s hard to imagine an opening statement simpler or more concise than that, but everyone in Jesus’ audience could see in his or her mind exactly what that scene looked like. Even though they understood that Jesus wasn’t just giving a lecture on the risks and benefits of farming procedures, there was a lot included in the rather brief session and not all of them, including His special 12, grasped the lesson at the time. But regardless, Jesus’ seminar was completed at the end of that session. 

It’s been said that in order for students to really internalize an idea, or grasp a concept, they need to hear it over and over. And that makes it especially challenging for Jesus since He was always on the move, and so many wouldn’t have had an opportunity to hear Him teach any lesson more than once. But . . . maybe His plan was to employ repetition another way. By presenting His lessons in the context of everyday life, they’d get to hear them over and over. 

The Lesson Gets Repeated ~
For example, every person hearing that parable of the sower would find himself or herself witnessing someone sowing seed again and again. It was a natural process that went on all the time in their world. What if from that day onward, their natural response to seeing someone sowing seed in a field would be for their mind to go back to that day by the Sea of Galilee and hear again the voice of that miracle-working Rabbi from Nazareth? 

• • What if every time that scene played out, His words were repeated and they considered once again what those words really meant? 
  • How many times might they have heard Him in the years that followed?

This technique Jesus used holds a priceless key to having ears to hear because the world around us now is just as relevant a teaching tool for us as it was for those in Galilee, and He continues to use it.  Consider just a few examples that are as potentially effective now as they were in Galilee over 2,000 years ago:

• • People in every culture and generation worry about life’s vital necessities. To stimulate trust in God and encourage our faith in Him to provide, Jesus pointed to the things people could see every day:
    • • Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? (Luke 12:24 NKJV)
      • Consider the lilies, [or colorful wildflowers] how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (Luke 12:27 NKJV)

• • To illustrate that His Kingdom doesn’t depend on injecting massive, overwhelming forces to affect change, Jesus showed how just a small amount of a powerful ingredient (good or bad) when placed into close contact with a larger group, can produce incredible results. His example was a natural process that was part of their everyday lives. He said:
    • • The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened. (Matthew 13:33 NKJV)

• • To remind His followers that the size of the seed (or the physical effort we exert) does not necessarily reflect the potential that lies within it, Jesus pointed to the mustard plant, which, to this day continues to permeate the landscape in Israel:
    • • Then He said, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.” (Luke 13:18–19 NKJV)

The Lessons Continue ~
Even in our modern-day world, we see flowers nearly every day. We may not see ravens, but we do see birds coming and going all the time. We may not all knead the dough and bake the bread, but most of us eat leavened products and understand the process. We may not be farmers, but we know about seeds and sowing – and we get the picture. 

Most of those natural lessons that Jesus talked about are still going on around us in one way or another, and the question isn’t whether we still see them. The question is whether we’ve developed ears to hear God’s voice when we encounter them. He purposely chose many of these mechanisms to tell us about who He is, what He does, and what His Kingdom is like. God is seeking to commune with us, to speak to us through the “natural” world He’s shared all around us. Our “natural” response then, should be to actively look for Him – with the objective of hearing from Him. Our Living, Loving God wants to commune with us everywhere. What a privilege it is to recognize that … and to understand the priceless gift He’s provided as we endeavor to know Him more deeply through attuning our ears to listen for what He wants to teach us next … wherever we may be.

“TWEETABLES” ~ Click to tweet and share from the quotes below.  Each one links directly back to this article through Twitter . . .

• • • King David recognized that the Living God’s capacity to communicate with us wasn’t limited to spoken words. He saw nature itself as one of God’s special ways of communing with us. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
    • It’s clear from his writing that David often heard the voice of God in the panorama of the world around him, and we can feel that special kind of communion as he sang out the words of Psalm 19: “The heavens declare the glory of God . . .” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet) 
    • God’s Master Teacher Son maximized the potential of using everyday life and the world around Him as a teaching tool. He used commonplace scenes to communicate some of the most profound values and principles that characterize His Kingdom.  @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet) 
    • God is seeking to commune with us, to speak to us through the “natural” world He’s shared all around us. Our “natural” response then, should be to actively look for Him – with the objective of hearing from Him. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet) 
    • Our Living God wants to commune with us … everywhere. What a privilege to recognize that and to understand the priceless gift He provided as we endeavor to know Him more deeply by attuning our ears to listen for what He wants to teach us next. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet) 

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