“Are We Listening?”
Luke 9:28-36
“Are you listening?” a mother asks her child.
She knows the child’s hearing is fine, but the kid is playing on their phone or watching t-v and she wonders if the sounds she made were absorbed and attended to by him or her.
So, she says, “Timmy, were you listening?
What did I just say?”
And Timmy looks up with a blank look on his face because even though he does have perfectly good hearing—he was not listening.
He has no idea what she just said.
I can totally relate that.
It is basically impossible for me to listen to what someone is saying while concentrating on something else at the same time.
I don’t know how many times I have been reading a book or looking at something on my computer and my wife will tell me that she has a meeting next Wednesday at 7 p.m. or Owen has basketball practice that night and I need to pick him up and it just does not process in my mind.
I hear words—something--but I’m thinking about something else.
So, subconsciously I’ll say, “Okay,” or “Sure,” without have listened to what she has said.
Then later, when these things become a surprise to me, “I’ll say, ‘You never told me that,” and she will reply, “I told you but you weren’t listening.”
And then she will feel hurt and frustrated.
So, now, I am starting to listen.
But I have to be very intentional about it.
I have to stop whatever it is I am doing and concentrate on what my wife is saying.
I have to think about what she is saying, internalize it, make a mental note.
And when I do this, I realize that I have been sort of self-absorbed in the past when I have not stopped to listen.
It’s selfish of me to continue reading or whatever when someone is talking to me.
On the other hand, it’s an act of kindness and of respect when we listen to others.
Hearing and listening are two related words that are sometimes used interchangeably, but they have two different meanings.
Webster defines hearing as: “The process, function, or power of perceiving sound; specifically: the special sense by which noises and tones are received as stimuli.”
Listening, on the other-hand, means to hear something with thoughtful attention: giving consideration to what is said.
And God wants us to listen.
The story of Jesus’ transfiguration is, admittedly, a strange one.
It comes right on the heels of Jesus telling His disciples that He will soon be killed…eight days on the heels, to be exact.
Jesus takes His inner, inner circle of disciples: Peter, James and John and He on a hike up a really high mountain to pray.
And then, as Jesus is praying there is this other-worldly—sci-fi kind of thing that happens.
Jesus’ face somehow changes, and His clothes become as bright as a flash of lightening.
And two men, Moses and Elijah, who had died some 1,600 years prior to this situation—suddenly appear in what we are told is “glorious splendor” and they start talking with Jesus.
We are told that “they spoke about [Jesus’] departure,” which means His upcoming death and Resurrection.
Now, Peter, James and John had apparently been sleeping through Jesus’ prayer.
Apparently, Jesus prayed for a really, really long time, and if it had been in silence, it would have been very easy for them to fall asleep.
…or if they had only been hearing Jesus pray and not really listening, that would have had the same affect.
But God really gets their attention this time.
Because we are told that “they became fully awake.”
And wouldn’t you?
Ever hear a bump or crash in the night and suddenly you are fully awake…heart racing, mind racing?
I think it was kind of like that—except times ten or times a thousand!
In any event they start watching this Holy Conversation between Moses, Elijah and Jesus.
It’s kind of like having a front row seat to heaven.
It’s like they are looking behind the curtain and seeing into another dimension.
Now, the funny thing about this story is that we aren’t told exactly why this happens.
There is no later explanation by the Gospel writer saying something like, “This occurred so that…”
No.
There is none of that, so we have to kind of do some guess work as to why this is happening.
And I have preached on this passage many times, and I have mostly surmised that Moses and Elijah are giving Jesus a sort of “pep-talk” about what He is facing.
They are assuring Him that He will not be killed in vain.
But I’m not so sure about that.
Now symbolically, Moses represents the Law and Elijah represents the prophets.
They are the ones who have gone ahead of Jesus.
They represent the Old Covenant.
And Jesus is about to inaugurate the New Covenant by the giving of His body and the spilling of His blood for the redemption of the world—for all who will believe.
And that is VERY true and very cool.
But another thing is going on as well.
I believe this situation is happening in order to get the attention of Peter, James and John.
It is happening so they will know, before all this happens, that Jesus is—beyond a shadow of a doubt—the Messiah, the Son of God.
It’s more of a “pep-talk” for them than it is for Jesus.
And then, of course, the Voice of God is for their benefit as well, saying: “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”
“Listen to him.”
And is that not the key?
And this is the key for all of us who seek to follow Christ—we are to listen to Him.
Now, even though the disciples had this experience with Jesus on the Mountain it doesn’t mean that they would suddenly listen to Him well or perfectly or carry out what He told them faithfully all of the time.
In this very same Chapter of Luke—less than 10 verses later—Jesus again predicts His death.
But we are told, “they did not understand what this meant.”
Were they hearing but not listening?
It kind of seems like it, since they immediately started arguing among themselves “as to which of them would be the greatest.”
Jesus is talking about the Cross and His disciples are arguing about power and position.
How often do we do that as well?
How well do we listen to Jesus?
Do we understand what Jesus is about; what Jesus tells us is the meaning of life—the meaning of the Christian life—the path to discipleship, which is marked by true humility, mercy and self-less-love?
Or do we hear but not comprehend?
Do we assent to Jesus’ words but not internalize them?
Yes, we do.
Of that, I am confident that we all do this.
I do this.
Everyone who has ever lived has done this to one degree or another.
Jesus instructs us to “sell all we have and give to the poor,” and we clamor for more and more money and stuff.
Jesus tells us to welcome the stranger and we complain about people crossing our borders.
Jesus instructs us to feed the hungry, and we—so often—just throw our uneaten food in the trashcan.
I do it.
We all do it to some extent.
Jesus tells us to love our enemies and to turn the other cheek but we ball up our fists at the first sign of provocation.
We are told to forgive as we have been forgiven, but we hold grudges against those who have insulted us, wronged us, hurt our feelings.
Jesus tells us to love one another…He says that this is how people will know we are His disciples—if we love one another.
And then, we fight, quarrel, exclude, judge and bully.
Jesus says we are be in the world but not of it and then we go and make a political candidate or party into a litmus test as to whether people are following Christ.
Oh, Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
I have a very hard time listening to You Jesus.
I hear You in my heart and mind.
I have Your Holy Spirit in me to guide and direct, but I treat it so often as noise that I pay no attention to.
I have more important things to concentrate on.
I’ve got my own agenda.
I’ve got to look out for number one and that’s not YOU!!!
I know it is so hard for us to know how to understand all that God is doing and saying.
But the Word that comes to us, leading us on to follow Jesus even when we haven’t a clue what’s going on, is the Word that came from God in the cloud on the strange day on the mountain: “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”
How many broken hearts and broken lives could be avoided if we would just listen to Him?
There are so many of us who regret…terribly regret NOT listening to Jesus.
But do you know anyone who is sorry for having listened to Him?
So, the disciples will neither listen to Jesus nor do what He says—until after the Resurrection…and then, they still don’t always listen.
They will fail to heal a boy with a demon.
They will not understand Jesus’ warning about His betrayal.
They will argue about which one of them is the greatest.
They will not understand Jesus’ prediction of His death and Resurrection.
Peter will deny Jesus during His greatest hour of need.
And all the disciples will stand at a distance when Jesus is crucified.
But you know what the good news is in all of this?
God will win the victory anyway, despite us!!!
And that is because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is about grace.
It’s about the free gift of salvation and faith that comes from God and God alone and not from us.
It’s about mercy and compassion—the mercy and compassion of a God for human beings who so often want nothing to do with God.
It’s about a God Who loves His wayward children and will never, ever give up on us.
But this grace, this mercy, this compassion—although it is free, it is not cheap.
It comes at a great cost.
It cost Jesus His life.
That is how much God loves you; that is how much God loves me.
And that love is what is to wake us up…
…And cause us to go from just hearing to intentionally listening and then seeking to do what Jesus Christ says.
Because we listen to those we love and respect.
And we love when we come to know that Christ first loves us.
God doesn’t tell us to listen to Jesus for no good reason.
And you know what?
The more we listen to Jesus the closer we follow Jesus.
The more we listen to Jesus the more we are transfigured by Jesus.
And transfigured means changed!
This Wednesday is the first day of Lent—it’s Ash Wednesday.
And we will have a special Ash Wednesday Worship Service that night at 6:30 p.m.
Ash Wednesday is set apart as a reminder that we are sinners who fall short of God’s glory and are in need of reconciliation with God.
It’s the whole reason why Jesus came, lived, died and rose again.
Ash Wednesday is also the beginning of the Season of Lent.
And Lent is a 40-day period, a great opportunity to go deeper with God.
It’s a time for personal reflection.
It prepares our hearts for Good Friday and Easter.
It is a time of Listening to Jesus
The voice of God booms out to us: “Listen to Him.”
Are we?
Will we?
