Everyone With Ears: Luke 14:25-35

Focus Passage: Luke 14:25-35 (TNIV)

    25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even life itself—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

    28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

    31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

    34 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.
       “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Read Luke 14:25-35 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

There are several ideas we could focus on in this passage, but the one big (though perhaps humorous) idea that I want to focus on is the closing phrase Jesus uses in this passage (and elsewhere in the Bible) which is found at the end of verse 35: “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

This phrase stands out to me because on the surface, it sounds exclusive. Is this teaching for everyone, or everyone except those who are deaf? Is Jesus really being discriminating towards a group of people who are different?

Let’s dig into this idea and see what might happen if a person who was deaf saw a crowd and showed up to see (though they couldn’t hear) Jesus. In many other cases where someone with a similar disability shows up, Jesus stops teaching, heals them, and then continues preaching.

So here, at the end of His message, as the concluding remarks after the climax of His sermon, Jesus makes a sweeping statement to everyone who is within earshot – perhaps even to some people in the crowd who were formerly deaf, but can now hear this teaching as one of the first things ever.

If someone who was deaf hung around Jesus, they would not have been deaf for long. If they instead preferred to be deaf, they probably wouldn’t have been interested in going anywhere near Jesus.

The big idea I see in this passage – and really in this phrase – is: Jesus is never interested in us staying where we are. He is always interested in helping us grow into the people He created us to be!

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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