Commandments For Abundant Life --Part 8: Do I have “ears to hear and eyes to see”

Would I be among those with "eyes to see" and "ears to hear" to whom Jesus taught his inner teachings? 

Jesus shared profound spiritual knowledge only with his disciples - disciples which he recruited and personally taught on a daily basis for three years.  The Gospels tell us that to the crowds Jesus spoke exclusively in parables, "Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable." Matthew 13:34

It is clear in the following passage from the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus did not share all of his teachings with the crowds.  It was only with his disciples that Jesus shared his most profound teachings, teachings which Jesus referred to as the "knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven".

The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?  He replied, ‘The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.   Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance.  Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.  This is why I speak to them in parables: Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.  In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.  For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.  But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.  For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. Matthew 13:11-17

To the crowds Jesus often said, “He who has ears, let him hear”.  Jesus knew the hearts of the people in the crowds, and he knew the majority did not have “ears to hear”.  He knew their hearts were hardened or their pride made them believe that they already knew all that they needed to know.  He knew that their fear of change caused them to close their ears, their eyes and their hearts to anything requiring a change in their lives.

We are preparing to look deeply into a portion of the “knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven” contained in the Beatitudes, the prologue to the Sermon on the Mount.  In our present state of mind and heart, would we be among the Disciples with eyes open and ears receptive to that sacred knowledge, or would we be among the majority of the crowds whose “… heart has become calloused; (and who) hardly hear with their ears, and (who) have closed their eyes” (Matthew 13:15)? 

REALITY CHECK #1

Would you be among those with “eyes to see” and “ears to hear”?

I’m with you.  Of course we would!  What a stupid question.  But before we blurt out our answer, lets think about it a minute, because we might have some work to do before we could honestly answer with an absolute, 100% unqualified, “YES”.

It is hard now for us to believe that the people who saw and heard Jesus in the flesh either rejected his teachings or were deaf and blind to the life transforming message Jesus tried to communicate to them.  But let’s try to put ourselves in their place.  Imagine you are a devout Jew two thousand years ago.  You are on your way to the market to purchase some items for your evening meal and you see a stranger speaking from a large rock.  A crowd has gathered and a bearded thirty-something man is speaking loudly and passionately.  He is saying something about the “kingdom of God being at hand”.  He doesn’t speak as your rabbi does but with an uncommon authority, confidence, and fervor.  He has no Torah, no script, yet he speaks both eloquently and convincingly.  He is charismatic, and engaging.  He seems to know all the scriptures from memory and he uses them effectively, combining scriptures and wonderful parables in a way you have never heard before.  He has a certain aura about him, a magnetic quality. You are intrigued, so you shuffle closer to him and listen.  But after a few minutes, some of the things he is saying raises an eyebrow and you find yourself scowling.  His ideas are interesting and they even seem to resonate with something deep within you, but what he’s saying just can’t be right.  It’s so different from the beliefs in your Jewish faith.  How could this young upstart be right?  He must be wrong.  After all, the traditional Jewish teachings that have been an integral part of your life since birth are 1400 years old.  Your grandfather, your father, your mother, your whole family believes that the traditional beliefs and practices of Judaism are the only way to God.  So as eloquent and engaging as this young man is, he must be wrong.  You have been taught demons exist and they are very clever.  You think to yourself, “Perhaps this fellow has a demon,” and you walk on to the market.

So to be fair to the Jewish people at Jesus’ time, it’s easy to see how their ears and eyes and hearts may not have been completely open to the very different teachings that Jesus offered.  Yet some people were open and receptive to the “good news of the kingdom” that Jesus taught.  The Disciples were open to the different message that Jesus offered.  We can only speculate why.  We know they were simple men - common people.  Perhaps they had faithfully lived good lives as devout Jews, and then like many of us in this age, came to realize feelings of unfulfillment; a yearning for something more.  Perhaps they had a distinct and gnawing sense that there was more to life, more to spirituality – not that Judaism was wrong but that there were more lessons to learn, more teachings that built upon the solid foundation of Judaism.

If we are perfectly honest with ourselves, we must admit that  we don’t know the secrets to the abundant life just yet.  If we did know them, we would be enjoying a more fulfilling, abundant, and joyful life right now.  This admission logically infers the very real possibility that change must be involved if we are to anchor ourselves on the path to the abundant life that we seek.  For as the old saying goes, “If you do what you always did, you get what you always got”.

The problem is that we human beings do not like change.  It’s been that way throughout recorded history.  The prophets of the Old Testament communicated the need for change and all of them were persecuted and many were killed. (Matthew 23:34).  John the Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth, and more recently Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr were killed for the same reason, because they either preached change or represented change

It seems that the majority of us humans have a built-in, automatic defense mechanism to change.  First we will try to discredit the messenger.  The religious leaders of Jesus day certainly tried to discredit him, even accusing him of being possessed by the devil (Mark 3:22).  Next we will try to deny the need for change.  A clever and very effective ploy that we also like to use is to convince ourselves that the need for change doesn’t really apply to us, or that we are already complying with the need for change (even if we may only be brushing the surface).  If that doesn’t work, we’ll resist change by twisting the meaning of the change in a way that will justify no change required on our part.  Finally, if all of our other ploys to avoid change fail, we tend to just procrastinate and delay implementing any changes – in some cases procrastinating forever.

REALITY CHECK #2

Would you be among those with “eyes to see” and “ears to hear” …

…Even if it means you will need to change?

The teachings of Jesus - especially the teachings from the Sermon on the Mount require change.  Jesus’ teachings were radically different from what the Jews had been taught all their lives.  As we know, Jesus was a spiritual revolutionary.  Take for example the Old Testament concept of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”.  Jesus taught that instead, we should avoid resisting evil and turn the other cheek. Matthew 5:38-39. 

Jesus made it abundantly clear that change is necessary when he said, “Unless you CHANGE and become as little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” Matthew 18:3

Could Jesus have been any more direct perhaps even stern in communicating the need for change when he said unless we change and become as little children we will “NEVER” enter the kingdom of heaven.  That statement should really get our attention and make us sit up straight in our chairs and ask ourselves four essential questions:

1. What have we done to understand what it really means to become “as little children”?
2. In what ways have we consciously changed to become “as little children”?
3. What changes remain to be implemented in our effort to become “as little children”?
4. When are we planning to implement those changes?

How likely would it be that we have changed and become as little children if we have never consciously gone through such a self-assessment process and acted on it?  So what might be the characteristics of little children that would be important for a spiritual seeker to emulate?  Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that children are curious. They ask a lot of questions, most of them beginning with the word “why”.  “Why is the sky blue, daddy?”.  They are persistent.  They keep asking questions until their minds are satisfied.  They’re not embarrassed to ask questions.  They’re not thwarted by self-conscious thoughts like, “Daddy will think I’m dumb if I ask that”.  They just ask it.  In their complete innocence, their ears their eyes, and their hearts are totally open.  They haven’t built up any attachments to beliefs that limit them from being open to something new.  They take in everything around them like sponges, including all the answers we give them.  Children are curious, innocent, and open to new ideas.  Children haven’t had time to develop egos and false pride and they are fearless.  They don’t summarily reject information even when it may be different from what they have heard before.  If it doesn’t make sense they just keep asking questions.  They take it all in and then test it through their observations of others, their personal experiences, or a trusted source of truth – like their parents.  They keep the stuff that works and discard the rest.  How many of us can say that without making any conscious changes, that our eyes, our ears, and our hearts are open like a child’s? 

The need for personal change can be found in multiple scriptural passages.  Jesus frequently used the word “repent”.  “From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near’.”  Matthew 4:17.  We may want to believe we satisfy this directive to repent because we really are sorry when we sin.  But what does just being sorry do?  Being sorry doesn’t change a person.  The definition of the Greek word for “repent”, (antipho) requires a change of heart as well as abhorring the sin.  Surely this was Jesus’ intention for commanding believers to “repent”.  Surely, Jesus was telling us that we need to do more than just be sorry.  He was telling us to change by rising above the cause – the source of the sin within our minds and hearts

Witness how emphatic, how direct Jesus communicated the need for change when he said,"I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."  John 3:3 How can we be “born again” without changing?  Doesn’t  the phrase “born again” convey the idea of major, utter, and complete change?  Between the lines doesn’t it really say you can’t be a house divided with feelings of resentment, pride, fear, and strong attachments to the pleasures and the things of this world and at the same time dwell in the kingdom of God with feelings of joy, peace, and love?.  So to be born again, perhaps it’s not enough to just accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  Surely, that act is a necessary starting point.  But surely in addition, we must also change and systematically eliminate the causes of resentments, pride, fear, etc. in our hearts and minds – basically allowing the lower self which is attached to the things of the world to “die” so that we can be “born again”, becoming whole and pure again – just as whole and pure as we were at the moment we were created by God in his image and likeness..

How do we ensure we have “eyes to see” and “ears to hear”?  Is it possible that Jesus gave us the answer when he so sternly told us we needed to become as little children and when he told us that we need to be, willing to change our minds and hearts and be “born again”?  It seems logical that a spiritual teacher with a revolutionary, life-transforming message would require his students to have at a minimum at least two basic traits:

• An openness to the possibility of a better way of life,
• A willingness to change where the “better way of life” requires change.

Now lets return to our REALITY SELF CHECK.

REALITY SELF-CHECK #3

·      Would you be among those with “eyes to see” and “ears to hear”?

·      Are you open to the possibility of the existence of a path to a better way of life?

·      Are you willing to change if the path to a “better way of life” requires change?

If in a spirit of total honesty you find it difficult to respond with a 100% unqualified “YES” to both questions, don’t panic -- you are not alone.  The vast majority of humanity is in the same boat, particularly when it comes to changing anything in our lives, especially when the change means that we must surrender something to which we have become emotionally attached, or when the change means we must invest time or effort.  There seem to be two main reasons.  First, we are creatures of habit and creatures of comfort, and we don’t like it when our routines or our comfort is messed with –these things give our lives stability and predictability, and so most of us are very attached to our comfortable habits and familiar routines.  Second, most of us are inclined to turn our heads away from ideas and directions that are not aligned with our current beliefs and understanding.  Unfortunately, this human tendency causes us to close our eyes and ears to anything new.  As a result, it seems that when faced with anything that may require any kind of change, the human tendency is to simply think of one of several excuses for dismissing the new concept.  Thoughts such as:

• Unfamiliar -“I’ve never heard this before, so it must be wrong.”
• Different - “This is different from what I already understand so it must be wrong.”
• Value Not Immediately Apparent - “Ah, this can’t make a difference.”
• Confusion -“I can’t understand this new concept at first glance, and I don’t want to spend the time to think about it - so it must be wrong or of little importance to me.”
• Over-generalized Rejection –“I disagree with one or two points of this, so all of it must be wrong.”

What can we do to be more receptive to the truth of Christ?

The prophets of the Old Testament were persecuted and murdered because people could not accept change in their belief systems.  Jesus was crucified because people could not accept change in their belief system.  What can we learn from the past to avoid repeating the same mistakes? 

I’m sure it’s fair to say that all of us could stand to be more receptive than we currently are to the truth of Christ, the Living Truth.  Even if we were to be very generous with ourselves and feel that we are more like the Disciples than the average person in the crowds to whom Jesus spoke only in parables, we must admit we could be more open, more like little children.  If we are totally, brutally honest with ourselves, most of us must admit that at best, our eyes and our ears are only partially open.  So what is it within us that has so far limited our ability to hear and to see the truth - the Christ truth that will set us free?  Well for starters, could there be any two bigger barriers to being open to new truth than Pride and Fear?