Seeing and Hearing

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

SEEING AND HEARING

Matt 13:10-17

10 The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?"

11 He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 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. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 15 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.'  

16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 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.

NIV

This is a lot to take in, but we think it wise not to split this up for Jesus is making one point here. There were people then, just as there are people now, who just did not understand what Jesus was teaching. It is not that people do not have eyes and ears, but they do have a calloused heart which causes them not to see with their eyes or hear with their ears. They have closed themselves off from the truth to believe in a lie by those who refuse to acknowledge God. However, we, like the disciples have been given the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. The wonderful blessing is that Jesus made it clear because we have been given this knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, we will continue to be given more and more knowledge and given this knowledge in abundance. That almost seems there is no need to study the scriptures, but only listen to Jesus. Well, for us the scriptures are Jesus, and as we study them, we gain more and more knowledge about the kingdom of heaven. Of course, Jesus is telling his disciples about those who lived with the hope of the coming Messiah, but they lived and died before Jesus came to earth. The disciples are in both the physical and spiritual presence of Jesus. We are not able yet to be in the physical presence of Jesus, but one day we will. However, we are most certainly in the spiritual presence of our Lord. He has promised us that He would never leave nor forsake us, but that He would be with us forever. Jesus has revealed all we need to know about the kingdom of heaven. We just need to see it, although we might have to search for it within the scriptures. This means we cannot be a lazy, Sunday morning Christian,  but that we should be engaged within the word of God continually, seeing the revelation Jesus has given to us. Let us pray our ears are always open and our eyes are clear and our heart is soft and supple, gracefully bending to the will of God, so that we may see abundantly, all the secrets of the kingdom of heaven.