Who Hath Ears to Hear

Many of the comments people make about Christians lately have me concerned. Exactly how should we respond to them? Or should we even try?
One person recently commented, “Your God was all about war and killing people. Jesus spoke in parables so his followers wouldn’t understand what He said….Why would anybody follow such a God?”
It is true that many of Jesus’ teachings were done in parables….stories containing a lesson. He left it up to the people to discern what exactly the lessons were. In Matthew 13:9 He ended one such parable with the words: Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. 10 And the disciples came and said unto him, Why speakest thou to them in parables? 11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Jesus explained in verse 15: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
For the most part people had forgotten about God. The majority of teachings came from the largest religious groups of the time, the Sadducees and the Pharisees….Jewish groups who were more interested in appearances and enforcing their own rules. Though they disagreed in certain areas, both groups, along with the Roman lawmakers, were determined to prove that Jesus was not who He claimed to be.
Then there were the believers who had held on to the teachings passed down from the days of Moses. Some thirty years earlier, they had welcomed the good news that the promised Savior had been born. Now did He walk among them, healing and forgiving their sins? Many had heard of His coming from John the Baptist and all were curious to see for themselves if Jesus truly was the one John spoke of. Those with ears to hear and eyes to see…. many of them poor and stricken with disease, followed Him daily hoping to experience the wonder of His miracles and prove to themselves that He was for real.
In Mathew 16: 13, Jesus asked His disciples, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? 14 And they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias; and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 15 He said unto them, But who say ye that I am? 16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon, for flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
Though Jesus walked with them, taught them and they saw the miracles He performed in the name of God, His Father, very few truly and wholly believed….only after Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection did even the Disciples fully understand who He was and why He had come. Only after the appearance of the Holy Spirit, was the impact of Jesus’ existence truly understood. Still there were many, as there are today, who simply refuse to believe or have anything to do with Jesus and His teachings. Only through the power of the Holy Spirit can their hearts be touched and their souls be saved.
With the spread of Christianity throughout the world, there have come many divisions…. denominations with different doctrines, while some hold onto different traditions and modes of worship. This is confusing to carnal men and only fuels their determination to prove that our faith is misplaced. They mock us by insisting that we are waiting for something that will never happen. But for those of us with ears to hear we know the truth and are able to wait patiently for Jesus’ return.
While we wait for all His promises to be fulfilled, and are mocked for it, we must not be discouraged from reaching out to the many others who do have ears to hear, eyes to see and hearts to understand. Someday we will all know as surely as Peter did that Jesus was who he claimed to be….The Christ, the Son of the living God!