HEALING FOLLOWS HEARING

God speaks to our hearts for the sake of our healing.  To do that, he must dig deep beneath the surface. Sometimes it’s painful because the soil has become hard and needs to be plowed up before the message can take root. God is speaking, but we may be hard of hearing.  Like the farmer in Jesus’ famous parable, God is constantly sowing the seed of his message in the hearts of humanity. But as Jesus said, “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand”.  (Matt. 13:13)

This is why Jesus uses parables.  They sneak past the critical mind.  Like medicine hidden in applesauce, these sneaky stories find their way past our minds and into our hearts.  They subvert our religious preconceptions and surprise us with the irrational generosity of a good God. Jesus teaches in parables because he deeply desires our healing.  He quotes Isaiah’s assessment of the people in his day that . . .

“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.”  Matt. 13:14-15

Healing is the end game

That’s his ultimate goal.  He wants us to turn to him for healing.  But things get in the way.  Even if the ground of our hearts is softened, the birds may still snatch away the seed or the weeds may come and choke it out.  If we want the fruitful healing the gospel can produce in our hearts, we need to submit to the ground tilling, weed pulling, bird chasing farmer who loves us.  Sunday, I want to take you to him and show you how to submit yourself to his healing work.  Come with open ears and heart!

//TODD RODARMEL  todd@mvc.life