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John Andrews 0:00
David, I'm going to read from Mark chapter four, I'll jump in at verse three gorgeous introduction by Jesus, he says, Listen, a farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seeds, some fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up, some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil it sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow, but when the sun came up the plants were scorched, and they weathered, because they had no route. Other seed fail among the thorns, which grew up and shut the plants so that they did not fare green. Still other seed fell on good soil, it came up and grew and produced a crop multiplying 3060 or even 100 times, that Jesus said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
David Harvey 0:53
Phenomenal, phenomenal text John I love that. And what's interesting about this parable, right at the very start, is that then there's a little conversation between between Jesus and and his disciples, right. And then, and then he comes back and offers the explanation to the parable elsewhere, and so I just want to jump in and read that explanation so this note, picks up in verse 13 of my Mark chapter four, and he said to them, Do you not understand this parable. Then how will you understand all the parables, the sources the word. There are ones on the path where this word is sowing, and when they hear Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is shown in them. These are the ones sown in the rocky ground, when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy, but they have no root and endure only for a while. Then, when trouble or persecution arises on the counter of the word, immediately they fall away, and others are those sore suing amongst the thorns. These are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and chalk the word and it yields nothing. And these are the ones soon on good soil, they hear the word and accepted and bear fruit 3060 and 100 fold. So that's a text John for today.
The.
So this is a, I would at some level, this is a text I mean I love this and if you've If you've spent any time in in church or listen to sermons, you've probably encountered somebody preaching this sermon and that's something for him right.
John Andrews 2:31
Yeah, yeah, totally, and it helps of course the Jesus gives us a nice explanation on this so it's sort of, it almost enables us to sort of get into the thinking of Jesus and some of the stuff because the parables themselves have have caused people, some consternation and, and, you know I've been around church long enough to know we've had some weird, and a times slightly wacky interpretations of parables, sort of, because perhaps some people have read more into them, than Jesus, maybe intended by them and of course it's one of the great challenges we face in trying to interpret the words of Jesus in the first century into a 21st century world.
David Harvey 3:16
Yeah and I think that and that seems to be a challenge of Jesus's time as well is that there's a wrestle over interpretation for, for what a parable actually actually does Jesus opens the parable, and that there's two things that strike me like the few verses before it, you get the sense of Jesus takes everybody down to the beach, and, you know, any and he gets in this boat and he's talking to them. Imagine the senior gathered round to hear this great teacher and and you're, you know, I've tried to think of situations where I've gone and you've been in situations that this is where where you go and hear somebody teach that you're really excited to hear, teach, right, so, so I've had the privilege in my life of going to hear, Tom Wright teach and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, teach, and I'm like, I'm so excited before it starts because I'm like this is gonna be brilliant right so you gather over the beach the year Jesus and he starts with, I mean I'm being liberal with my translation here, John, but he starts with. Alright, there was a farmer. And there's a part of me wonders. Is that what you expected Jesus to open with Were you expecting some brilliant philosophy, and he opens with.
So there's this farmer.
He planted some seed, and you realize oh this is actually the story that he's telling. But I wondered what he the thing that jumped out to me and this is something I think I'm really hoping will will resonate throughout all of the episodes that we put together is even as I sit down to study something, You know, to do a talk with you, you know today, you see little nuances that you've not noticed before and I find myself reflecting a lot on the opening words. Listen, right in like this Greek word there's behind it is almost here. And of course, like what does that resonate with you as soon as you see those words, I think that something comes out to your mind right.
John Andrews 5:11
Yeah, well of course, I think we get this lovely little phrase that Jesus keeps repeating, He who has ears, let them hear which is a very strange phrase but for me it has an unmissable nuance back to the idea of Shema lit this beautiful, beautiful Hebrew word, which of course is at the center. The beginning is the very essence of the Shema Hear O Israel The Lord our God the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and that is a beautiful word because at one level, it can mean here of course just like hearing stuff but really the new ones of the word is to hear and obey. How do I know I've heard something, because I do what I've heard, so you know, other parents raise three kids, and I've had numerous experiences of my children, listening but not hearing, right. So, you know, go and tidy your room, they, they have listened to the words that have come out of my mouth but they have not Shemar. They have not heard what I've said because it hasn't sunk in
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to there being enough to go and do that. And of course Jesus picks up another gorgeous parable elsewhere where he, he talks about a father with two sons and he says, the father went to his first son and said, Go out into the field and work for me. and the boy said, I will not, but later on he did. And then, you know, he says that the second so I've gotten to things when he said, Of course I will, but he doesn't, Jesus, essentially asked the question, which one. No, no, in the context of course of that it's not just which one obeyed and in a Hebraic world and I think Jesus would be totally rooted in, and his audience would totally understand. I think it's the one who heard. So He who has ears to hear that in here, and it's, it's not a shock then and he begins probably one of his most famous parables maybe his framing parable, with the word. Hey, listen up here. This, of course, as we follow his trajectory in the parables, it's not just here, so that you can memorize it for a test, it is here on put into practice on, and I love, I love the fact that I think his disciples pick this up because they then come to him and say look, what does this mean, because if we're being called to hear it. If we're being called to understand it, you better explain it to us because we're a wee bit unsure of what you actually mean so for me that's a beautiful echo right through all of this parables, I think it's a very repeated idea.
David Harvey 7:53
It's interesting isn't it because your hero Israel's like let me just sort of live in some imaginative space for a moment, but, but if that idea of, of here right resonates with the listener. So, you've come to hear this Rabbi speak, and he begins with listening Shema, right, and so you know immediately, you know, unconsciously, you're probably dropping this like you, as you say the Shema, is what he said several times a day, it's the you know, it's the catch phrase of following God in Israel at Jesus's time I would think maybe we'll see it. So it's interesting that Jesus frames it with so hero Israel and then you get into in the, in the Jewish context you get this very clear, succinct statement about the nature of our God, right, that Jesus says, okay, here so you kind of get that resonance and then at the end he says, and if you've got ears here. But then the piece in between is a little obtuse, is like, and I wonder how much and is there a kind of nuance there have going maybe understanding that the Lord is our God and He is one is a little obtuse to some of us maybe it's not as clear as we think it is. But this story that he then rolls out, it kind of throws you a little bit because you're expecting a piece of clarity. Hey, I'm going to I'm going to tell you something though. So listen, pay attention, you know, going back to the example of parenting, you know, if we were to say listen I have to tell you something really important. And then you start rolling out a parable, there's a level of which I think particularly within the Western mindset where we want. We want kind of propositional clarity, right so so I'd like a philosophical theory please Jesus I'd like you know I'd like is something that just makes sense to me straight away instead. Jesus goes, Lucky listen.
So this is
far more. And so there's, it's a really interesting mode of communication that that sense of kind of reaching into the into the parable,
but so let's talk about
the parable itself though in that sense, like what, you know, what jumps out to you straight away.
John Andrews 10:05
Well, I mean, I think, I think for me the, the sort of, the beautiful thing that stands out is Jesus. So this would be for me would be a bit of a subtext, rather than maybe the obvious but it's the fact that Jesus seems to be setting up an understanding that he's got supreme confidence in this seed. and, and he seems to be. He seems to be at rest with the fact the seed won't always achieve everything. It's been said don't to do that actually some of that seed is going to be, I mean, you know, potentially, if you look at it in farming terms so that seeds going to get wasted. Some of that seeds gonna get destroyed. Some of that seed will struggle, and then some of that seeds going to produce what it produces no when you think about that in farming terms we're all cool with that. But that's that back of course because Jesus is leaning into it, this is not just a story about a farmer and see this is, he's talking here, as he explains this, the word of God. And I'm going okay Jesus seems to be not only explaining that there's going to be various reactions to the impact of the words he's no saying hey everyone listen. And he actually, he's explaining the reactions of the audience that he's, he's going to be communicating with, but he seems to Bri, completely secure in that he's, he's not frantically distracted by the stuff the scene doesn't succeed in, he seems to be supremely confident and secure in what the seed will produce, and of course, if we read this parable in isolation, I think you know you're just hearing a story but if you set the parable in the context of who Jesus is what he's there to achieve the sort of pushback he's gonna get the sort of arguments, he's going to end up and the fact that some people will love him and some people will hate him the fact that some people will get him and lots won't get him. Actually this is almost a commentary, not just on the Word of God in general, but it's a sort of a, it's almost reflection on this sort of stuff is, is, is, as it were going to be my experience I'm going to see this, these scenarios, repeated over and over and over again on Jet A jet and jet he continues to cast the seat. He continues to get the seat so I love that as someone committed to the Word of God as someone committed to try and communicate the Word of God, the people that really really encourages me, it's not my job to make the seed work. Right, it's my job to scatter the seed
to cost the seed, and there is a sense in which there will be a dynamic range of reactions to that incredible seed, and that's sort of above my paygrade that's outside of my remit. If I become too consumed with that, then I may in fact become distracted from not only scattering the seat but may undermine my confidence in the seat itself and I think, I think that strikes me, I know everyone will see the parable slightly differently but that strikes me as a scatterer of seed, because that's my world I've
David Harvey 13:41
struck when you're talking there about the kind of metaphor of seed, you know, so, so when you were speaking there I'm thinking across to First Corinthians were Paul's like, you know, you know, some water some plants, some harvest your seeds a really interesting, interesting, kind of metaphor throughout, throughout the New Testament, But then I found myself thinking, you know, that the other seed metaphor that's quite strong in the New Testament, is that Jesus is the seed. So you know you get Paul in Galatians talks about how, you know Jesus is the is the seed that scripture prophecies about Jesus Himself. When talking about His death and resurrection says unless a seed, you know goes into the ground and dies. And so then I'm struck just to do that very thing of just less later interpretations on top of a parable, I I'm struck by the fact that in, in his explanation of the parable, exactly as you said he now says, this is about the word, and of course the word that he uses there's the Lagace right which in there in John's Gospel that I realize we're in Mark's gospel here but it just strikes me as interest in John's Gospel log us is a reference to Jesus himself, you know, so there's a sense within it like as I read in this job, there's a sense in which, you know, is Jesus the seat, and now we've got Jesus being scattered, you know, I mean, identity, I imagine, you know, we're all comfortable this idea of this kind of interplay between the notion of Word of God, and word of words of God at some sort of level that we wrestle with as Bible readers don't mean that the Word of God is Jesus and also that we have these words which we also call the Word of God, but it just strikes me as interesting to then take your reading just then, and sort of, then read it back again as physically Jesus is scattered, Jesus is planted. You know, in these in these places, and, and Jesus himself get differing responses from people. I don't know if that that makes Yeah,
John Andrews 15:52
I mean it does, It does make sense. I mean, I suppose, you know, when I come to parables, I try to start with. Is there a meaning given to us, we must start there, and allow that to be our guiding light, as we seek to bring meaning so in its strictest sense I'm supremely confident and comfortable with the idea that this, this seed is, is the word of God as maybe we would understand it today in our conversation, but I think the new once, is there I think the fact that this is one of Jesus's opening parables. The fact that it's a framing parable in many ways it's a monster parable, it is so dynamic. It's simple, really, at one level and it is absolutely profound at another level, and the nuance there, that, that if, if we were just willing, if you've got to go with a strict interpretation the seed is the Word of God declared, okay, cool, but that, absolutely. That's what he says, If you're going to then hold the tension of the new ones of the word himself within that then the Gospels will show us over and over again moments where, like, God and flash hits the path, you know, it's like boom, it's just like bone to straight off somebody's eyes like Okay, move on everyone, and other times where he gets various reactions, or reactions that seem to struggle at first, but find a way through the fruitfulness, you know I think of nicotine is one of my favorite is sort of conversations in John's gospel, you know, when he goes, we know, we know you are a man come from God because no one could do the things you're doing this guide center, and getting walks away clearly from that conversation John three there's no conclusion legacy, nicotine, this is scratching his head. Jesus has hit it with a number of things that have absolutely frazzled his brain. So he's heard Jesus but he hasn't heard of it, but clearly a process then begins where the seed that has been sown in him through the encounter with the log loss in John's gospel, starts to germinate and this month, and of course, John tells us twice more that nicotine is pops up, adding pumps up pretty significantly. And sort of pretty heroic sort of way later on. So it's clear that that seed wormed its way into nicotine Miss didn't immediately produce, but then eventually produced an incredible harvest, and David, I hope when we get to have and there is a Netflix library, or there's room for conversation with people like Nick edemas because, because I want to know, I want to know what happened next to someone like nicotine that you know after, after we see that, that sort of resurrection moment. What happened next, what didn't nicotine was school, what did he do what did he become, because I think that's the ongoing story of this seed, the seed produces 3060 100 It's reproducing itself then. And also, as you get this idea of continual reproduction, and with that, of course, potential harvest. So it's a beautiful, beautiful idea and I think if you're prepared to hold that as attention. It's a nuance worth holding on to. I wouldn't want that to eclipse the simple meaning of the parable, but I think there's a layer there that Stephanie worth nudging into
David Harvey 19:16
thinking in the context, you're used to growing up hearing the words. Listen here, right, so you get that Shema. And then what follows the Shema is some information about God, and then and so there's a little bit of He just likes that you know I love looking for the nuances of what else might be
original listener have heard in this potentially, and you know, this idea that Jesus, and, and what we say about Jesus are closer connected than we sometimes think they are you know I love that notion, but I love this idea that, listen and then he tells us something hidden, you know, but of course you know, it's interesting as you see that, that at some level, Jesus is. Jesus is unpacking a problem that's present so if someone's goes back and reads the chapter leading up to this parable, you know, You've got people saying that Jesus has got demons, you got people saying he's a child of Beelzebufo you know, his own brother and mother appear and it definitely feels like, you know there's a level at which they've kind of come to get him, and, and Jesus is, You know, really basically not willing to go along with that. So there's almost this question in the Gospel hanging out at that point. This unsaid question, why doesn't everybody respond the same way to Jesus, you know, or to GE or to the Word of God, you know, let's just keep that, that sort of says it why doesn't that happen because there's always this assumption of well if this is, if this is the truth that has come amongst us why doesn't everybody see it the same. So I'm integral, but you've I sometimes read the parable that way of almost. It's an apology, at some level it's Jesus bringing his defenses well actually there's a reason as to why. There's a reason as to why the same word of God encounters people but gets differing results
John Andrews 21:07
that I think the trajectory you've created there, from what happens before mark four. And then what happens after mark four you know you've got three dynamic encounters in Mark chapter five. You know that the demon possessed man sometimes referred to as Legion. And of course we know that's a Gentile context. So, so you've got the pigs, you've got decapolis, you've got that. It's so, so it isn't that amazing that Jesus talks about the seed being rejected or accepted on the very next story out of the chapter is a Gentile who, in a Gentile context, clearly receives the seat is delivered by the word of God and delivered. And then of course, beautifully, as only the Gospels monies to do you're then jumping into the story of essentially Jairus his daughter, so now we've gone from the Gentile, up to his neck and demons and pigs everywhere. Tonight, a synagogue, a serious synagogue person, a ruler, Amman highly esteemed whose beautiful little daughter is dying. And then on the way to that you've got a woman so broken that she's just under the radar. And she says, If I can just touch him. That's enough, so you're getting you're getting one man confronted with the word, and he responds. Another man reaching out to the word, and in this lovely lady sandwiched in between just so desperate that she goes, if I can just get away with touching him, that'll be enough, and I can move on. So, so the trajectory of Mark's gospel with with chapter three, chapter
five and then of course, tragically, on ironically chapter six, where he's the Prophet without honor in his own time. You know he's literally goes back to, to Nazareth, and given a hard time they took offense at Him. So, so actually, again, and this is maybe something really important for anyone listening in on this David is it. I think sometimes what we're guilty of doing is taking these beautiful stories, or just sucking them out of their context into this vacuum based thing oh let's, let's come up with a good sermon, sorting, and that's, and that's okay, there's, there's great room for that but of course what we've then done is with pork this plant out of its soil, and maybe reduced the power of its impact because we're just seeing farmer seeds so yeah well that's four different reactions is that, but then if you look at chapter three chapter five in the chapter six, there is something dynamic being said here, that's maybe got a, a profoundly deeper layer, a subtextual layer, or even an obvious there that we're missing because we're not hearing properly where we're hearing with the ears because we're conditioned to hear that parable in a certain way, but having grown up in the church. I'm having to constantly on listen. Really listen because I've heard certain things, so many times that I get familiar with it, and I jumped to conclusions that aren't there. And I think if you, if you hear that parable again in its trajectory in its flow, wow, I think it starts to rock to a different level.
Unknown Speaker 24:19
Oh yeah,
David Harvey 24:20
it's just exciting because you then can, there's all sorts of kind of fun stuff going in at this and you know I love I love looking for the sort of fun connections where you're like, you know, I come from this perspective, that everybody in the Bible is, let me rephrase that. I come from this perspective where many of the biblical characters are geniuses, right, and, and one group of geniuses that I think we don't always give the credit to is the gospel writers themselves right the way they've shaped stories together, so, so, you know, listen our store goes out to sow some seeds. And there's a whole pile of things that you said in there that I want to jump in on but let me just tell let's go with this one just for a moment the store goes out to sow some seeds and and. And I've never noticed this actually until this reading of the text in preparation for talking with you today and then it really spins off to what you're saying is there if you allow me some artistic license, but a surrogate is out to sow some seeds, and how many seeds does he so we'll take in just that is literal level it looking even particularly you see this in the Greek he sues six seats. So, so he saw it in the English translations tightening this up a little bit for us I think because it almost sounds a bit strange but in its literal reading, it says, it says a seed fell on on the footpath a seed fell in the rocky ground and the seeds
sprung up quickly, you know, but but but when they're to wait and, but then he says but then, then some seed fell in good soil, and one of the seeds produces 30 Fold one of the seeds 60 fold and one of the seeds 100 fold. Now, on one sense, John, I've been really good about this moment to me, because I grew up in Sunday School listening to that and you always come away with Jesus his success rates pretty low. There's like a 75% failure rate. And then it's literally just in reading in breath and the converse with you today. I'm like, well maybe it's a little more 5050 The first thought, but now I'm getting excited because I'm thinking about what you've said is there, and so you get this Mark chapter for this piece on, you know, on parables and there's a kind of longsword, and then you jump into three seeds, if you allow me to be that kind of, you know. And what's fascinating it is and this is I think going to be a key piece to understanding almost all parables, it's not the three seeds you expect, you're suing so you so it's a legacy demoniac, you know, this guy oppressed by this Legion, it seems of of evil, who's a from the wrong part of town as well. He's like, you know, then you've got this woman who would from a purity culture point of view is, is an outsider, you know, and then you've got peek inside her, you know you've got you've got like archetype of, you know, one of the in crowd, and Jesus treats them all the same. And they all respond in differing ways, but but correctly, you know, I know I can't help but think about this beautiful little hint, which I'm convinced is Mark just being clever and fun with us is so Jesus, He goes to the Decapolis, and he encounters this this oppressed man, with this legion of demons and pigs and it's just, it's like a completely non Jewish scene isn't it, that, that you know he's in the wrong part of town is full of demons, and there's pigs everywhere like Like you've said already, but, but then the net result is all the pigs, jump off the cliff. The man is healed the man wants to come with Jesus, he's like, let me let me come with you. And, and Jesus says, No,
don't come with me now just I'm telling this with the story of the sore planted in my mind, you know, so I'm not going to just rip up this one seed again that sprouted or leave it in the ground, say no you go and tell everybody what God has done. And so Jesus gets kicked out the people say you need to leave, you get out of here because you're causing this chaos, two chapters later. In Mark's gospel it's just little throwaway that Jesus comes back to the capitalist and there's people they're interested in what he has to say. So now you get and again I'm being really playful here, you know, but you get this, you know, Mark chapter for some seed produces 30 Some seeds 60 Some seeds 100 And then you get this story. I want to plant a seed, and oh, let me come with you. No, no, that's not how you. That's not how you do see you'll leave it in the ground, and see what happens and then two chapters again later. You start to see that this seed produced something,
John Andrews 29:03
I think it's absolutely brilliant and for our listeners, you know, to hear if we jumped to the end of chapter six, which you're leaning into, you know, when they had crossed over they landed again Astrid an anchor there that says, As soon as they got out of the boat people recognize Jesus now that's the $64 million moment because the last time they said get last night, this, listen to this first 55 They run through the whole region, and carried the sick on match to wherever he heard he was on wherever he went into villages, towns and countryside they pleased the sick and the marketplaces. They beg. So end of chapter, the story in chapter five, they're begging him to go. At the end of chapter six, they begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak at all who touched away, boom, and you're, I think, I think, would you have just highlighted is absolutely gold and that is the beauty of not align these magnificent stories to vacuum eggs we mustn't do that we've. Many of us have been trained in churches where we have vacuum maize tax, we've separated them from, you know that's used the analogy of the seed was separated from their native soil as Shillington says, We've plucked the moat, instead of letting them breathe, and of course, as you've just illustrated Jesus goes to the man, no, no, you stay here. Now, you know for us that freaks us out, no discipleship program no follow up. You just stay here and grow just made him grow. And then, and then at the end of that people are running to Jesus, and begging him to you they're sick, boom, I mean that there is the parable of the sower, right there. I've worked for us it's magnificent.
David Harvey 30:52
And of course, it makes me then want to jump in and just point out, you do that, like, in the German Bible, this, this parable isn't called the parable of the sower. In Germany, it's called the parable of soil. And, and I think that's quite, you know, because of course the titles in a in anyone's Bible you pick up you get these nice little headings these headings aren't in the original text that's just the translators trying to help us find the text we're looking for right. But I love the idea of of being the parable of the soil because in terms of the parable itself, that's the only variable, you know, if the source is Jesus, and the seed is the Word of God, or if the story is God, and Jesus is the seed or you know, or, or in some cases, you know, is it possible even Jesus in the story and I'm the seeds that you know this, you know, called the again I'm, I'm leaving into the multiple layers you can have the parable, but the variable. Isn't the variable isn't in the store and it isn't in the seed, the variable is where it lands, and what's going on around, and so you do feel this little kind of sense of the parable leading into, you know, hey Jesus, why is it that
you're not getting consistent results, you know, so not only are you can just inconsistent, some people think you're demon possessed and other people think you've gone a bit mad. You know why you're not getting consistent results surely it's kind of a logical, A plus B equals C and it seems like this parable is Jesus saying, well, not everybody's the same, that not everybody's prepared to listen, you know, there's some of the people even in this particular crowd like you get if you follow my story. You know I think Jesus is standing up to teach, and some of the people in the crowd hate him, you know, they've, they've come they've come to listen to him, you know, purely to disagree with him purely to to say you know we will like this guy we're going to, we're here to try and plot to get rid of him. And so the parable has a little bite to it as well, doesn't it in terms of like you know what, what sort of soil which I think is where that question, if you have ears to hear, then here. It's quite powerful
John Andrews 33:06
it's dynamic, and I think, I think what what what our little conversation illustrates is something that, that, at one level could be taught to a child as an introductory story and they go oh, yeah, I get that, and it just sits where it sits placed in the context of the life and ministry of Jesus and the wider context of the kingdom of God on earth. Wow, it just, it just speaks, and it speaks over and over again and if our listeners can not just hear these great parables, but see the flow see what the gospel writers are, where they're placing them, you know, some of these placings are in my opinion are not coincidental they are deliberate they're skilled insertions, that actually help us go, Ah, all right, okay, that's what it means or that's what it looks like it will give us a whole fresh energy I think the that around some of these for people like us who've been around the church for a long time. It gives a fresh energy to some stories we think we know very well, but we may not be hearing everything that's in there, bless it
David Harvey 34:17
are those who are good listeners. And there's a sound, there's a sense of that that you realize just search stretching around with stuff and just spending some time, I think it's always important John say that you know, I think the Bible invites you to think in the imaginative it invites you to so it's just sit with this text, there's a there's a rabbinic saying that the Bible that the scriptures, your Torah I think the rabbi's would say is like a Ruby. When you hold it up to the sunlight, you see all these different colors I think if we were putting into modern languages say it's a kaleidoscope but then realizing that might not even be that modern language who has a kaleidoscope anymore but, you know, where you look through this Ruby, and you see these colors but then all you need to do is just turn it ever so slightly in the whole picture, the whole picture changes, you know, so,
so think about, you know, so Jesus stands up in front of a group of people for whom many if not all, several times a day, say hero Israel, listen here, and the way that you've talked about here which, which carries the nuance of obey, right. So, so listen Israel obey your gods, the real God, and of course, if you know you bear in mind elsewhere, Jesus is saying what does it really look like to listen to obey to God. Well, it means you love God and you love your neighbor right. So so Jesus comes up and he echoes that command of listen. And then he tells a parable, which essentially says, You're not good listeners. Like he's quite powerful and then just in case you missed it, he gets to the end and goes, by the way you've got ears. So are you do it.
John Andrews 35:56
Remember, Jesus is not just in a first century moment he is part of a long chain of events. A nation that has over and over again and you and I have studied and lent into the Hebrew Bible, what we as Christians would call the Old Testament, and it is a story of pull and push it is a story of moments where God's people get it on moments where it is completely lost in translation, where the prophets have to raise up as the conscience of the Torah, and say to the people do not, do not know this stuff, do you not know this is what God is after. This is what God wants. Even Jesus, you know, when, when speaking to the religious community this day, you know, go, go and read the prophet Hosea, I, this is what I want, you're, you're given me one thing and I want another, and it's easy for us of course to sit here and judge that but that I think that's a human problem I don't think that's that that's the domain of any one group I think humans are, are always. Things are getting lost in translation all the time, and I think if the story of God's people in the Hebrew Scriptures is representative of in some measure the struggles we have them we are always having to lean in and hear again and not assume because we have heard, we are still hearing. And I think you are right to take this parable one step even further, is it possible for me to have a have a soft heart to the Word of God today and then tomorrow, assume because yesterday I had a soft heart. Oh well I'm gonna hear it today. I'm touched by just just something that comes to mind when, when Solomon is about to become keen or it's just been made keen that the king's version. First Kings, God comes from and says what do you want. Ask for whatever you want, and I'll give it to you so you can be king. And Solomon says give me a live show me or give me a listening, hearts. And my goodness, he doesn't he show he starts off really well by listening really well but by the end of his life the wisest man on planet Earth is not listening at all know if Solomon can go from left shoe mayor to hard heart to resistant heart to heart that actually the commentators would say becomes backslidden towards God and leads the nation to the precipice of fracture. Then, my goodness, that can happen to me and you, David, it can happen in Jovis, and that's why we've got to keep listening, keep hearing MATT Maybe what that's why Shemar is an everyday confession, reminding you, okay, hear it again hear it again hear it again here really good, we're gonna keep coming back and keeping our ears open because I know that I have a propensity to think I've heard something but I haven't quite and
David Harvey 39:02
it's keeping that live show me what you can even see you know like, you can, you can enter this applies to me so I fully resonate with what you're saying, you know in this story, you can get up and say Here O Israel The Lord our God the Lord is one. Every day, and then walk out and see somebody, releasing people from demonic demonic oppression. You can, you know, setting your ill people and healing them, raising people from the dead, and go. Definitely he has a demon, right, so, so, you know, and but before we sort of pile on those people which can be a Christian tendency to look at the characters in the Gospels and go look at how slow they all are. I think that comes in question is, we can be that slow, in fact we regularly are that slow, that we, you know all of, if, if the Gospels, which I fundamentally believe they are written for our instruction, these stories of Jesus have a really subtle and sometimes not so subtle undercurrent, which is, we don't want you just to know things about Jesus, these are discipleship documents, they're, they're designed to shape you and form you then. Then, at very low, some level anyway in the parable of the story is telling me, you can, you, you're not guaranteed to be in the 3060 and 100 fold David it. Here you can be rocky grind, too.