Flashback Episode — Listening to Jesus: Matthew 13:10-17

While Jesus traveled around teaching and preaching, we learn early on that Jesus loved to use illustrations, metaphors, and parables while sharing truth with the crowds. However, part of me wonders if this was unusual for a teacher to do in first century Jewish culture. The reason for this thought is because of a question the disciples ask Jesus about His parables, and because they ask Jesus this question, we are able to see an amazing picture of God within Jesus’ response.

While three of the four gospels describe this event, let’s read it from Matthew’s gospel, chapter 13, using the New Living Translation. Starting in verse 10, immediately following Jesus sharing a parable with the crowd:

¹⁰ His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?”

¹¹ He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. ¹² To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. ¹³ That is why I use these parables,

For they look, but they don’t really see.
    They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.

¹⁴ This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says,

‘When you hear what I say,
    you will not understand.
When you see what I do,
    you will not comprehend.
¹⁵ For the hearts of these people are hardened,
    and their ears cannot hear,
and they have closed their eyes—
    so their eyes cannot see,
and their ears cannot hear,
    and their hearts cannot understand,
and they cannot turn to me
    and let me heal them.’

¹⁶ “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. ¹⁷ I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.

In Jesus’ reply, we find several interesting ideas. First, Jesus responds that His use of parables is to fulfill prophecies and predictions about His life. The Old Testament writers, specifically the prophet Isaiah, had foreshadowed Jesus coming and teaching people who would not understand His message. Isaiah’s prophecy also tells us why. Isaiah says that the hearts of the people are hardened and that they have closed their eyes.

Many of those living in the first century, including most of the religious leaders, fit this description. Whether they were more politically motivated than spiritually loving, or whether they had simply distorted their view of the Messiah that God would send into a picture that Jesus wouldn’t come close to fitting, we find many of those living in the first century rejecting Jesus.

However, while sharing this almost hopeless look at Isaiah’s prophecy being fulfilled around them, Jesus’ message also includes the remedy. It is worth noting that Isaiah’s description of how the religious leaders in the first century could miss the Messiah is a trap that anyone can fall into following Jesus’ time on earth. Yes, even people living today, thousands of years after the first century can miss Jesus by being closed minded, having hard hearts, and by closing their eyes to Him.

What then is the remedy Jesus shares?

The remedy is found in verse 12, where Jesus tells the disciples: “To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.”

In this verse, we find the remedy begins by “listening” to Jesus’ teaching. In the context of this verse, listening means more than simply hearing. Jesus makes this distinction in the following verse where He says, “They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.” (v. 13b)

The challenge for everyone listening to Jesus’ message is to not simply hear it, but to actually apply it. When you “hear” something, you might remember it later if it was interesting in some way, or you could forget it hours, or even days later. In contrast, when you “listen” to something or someone, you have given them your attention and you are truly interested in what they have to say. Listening involves our concentration, and it is the first step in gaining an abundance of knowledge.

The next piece of listening to gain understanding is having our eyes open, and our hearts willing to be drawn to Jesus. When our hearts are hard, the only lasting solution is Jesus. If we listen to Jesus’ teaching with a skeptical mind, unwilling to even try following His recommendations, or even with a critical attitude looking for a way to discredit His message, then we will never truly know Jesus – and His message will not be understood. The religious leaders in the first century fell into this trap.

While many were simply willing to ignore Jesus, most of those who actually listened chose to listen with an agenda. They listened looking for reasons to criticize and discredit Jesus, and focusing on Jesus’ message in this way does not allow your heart to be drawn to Him. Listening in this way actually hardens your heart more.

The contrasting solution is to listen with an open mind and a willing heart. While having a hard heart might make it difficult to want to try Jesus’ way, the only way to fix a heard heart is to move towards Jesus and be open to His fixing, melting, or even replacing your hard heart as the case may be. In my case, I think my heart actually had to be spiritually replaced because of its hardness.

To wrap up Jesus’ solution, we are challenged to expect Jesus’ message to change your life as you focus on Him and His words. Expect to receive more knowledge, understanding, and even love for others as you listen, focus, and apply what Jesus teaches in your life. Expect to understand Jesus’ parables as you read and dwell on each of them and what they teach us about God’s kingdom, and God’s character.

We see this expectation in the last portion of the passage where Jesus tells us that those who see and listen are blessed. He tells those listening that: “blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.” (v. 16-17)

Jesus concludes by drawing our attention to the detail that many of the prophets who came earlier in history would have loved to have lived in the first century, but they didn’t. In the same way, there is part of me who would have loved to have lived in the first century to have met Jesus face to face while He was alive on earth. However, this in itself doesn’t mean that hearing or reading Jesus’ words will increase our knowledge and understanding, even though the prophets from earlier in history believed it would.

Our trust in Jesus and the expectation of more knowledge and understanding comes within His promise that we began with: “To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge.” (v. 12a)

We expect to learn from Jesus because we believe His promise and we listen to and claim His message here as a foundation for everything else we will learn, discover, see, and hear in the Bible. Jesus spoke in parables to make it easy for those who were listening to understand the truth about God, and to make it challenging for those who were simply hearing with closed hearts and minds, and/or with an agenda, to understand His message.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Be sure to focus on Jesus first in your life. Be sure to really listen to Him and His message in a way that prompts and challenges you to apply it into your life. While many of Jesus’ teachings don’t seem to make sense if analyzed on the front end, by testing out Jesus’ teachings in our own life with a desire to see a change, God’s way will not disappoint. I truly believe that you will discover a new picture of God.

Also, as you focus on Jesus in your life, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself. While a pastor or podcaster can give you ideas to think about, only through pray and personal Bible study will you get direct access to the Holy Spirit. While I know the Holy Spirit can teach us through other people, we limit our growth if we rely exclusively on others for God’s truth. This is why I always encourage you to personally study the Bible, because in many ways, regular prayer and Bible study is one of the more challenging habits to form and maintain.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or be tricked into leaving where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!