“Let anyone who has ears listen.” Matthew 13:9
One afternoon as I shuffled into the house from a tough day at work, my daughter Missy decided that it was time for a talk with her daddy. At three years old, she had a lot of things to tell me—primarily her reflections, observations, and thorough analysis of the day’s activities.
I sat down and Missy sat on my lap, facing me. She began her recitation of the previous eight hours. At first, I was interested. But frankly, as the monologue wore on, I got distracted and started looking around the room. OK, I admit I was a little bored. After all, I had had my own busy day. A blow-by-blow newsreel of today’s thrilling activities from a three-year-old wasn’t exactly a spellbinding experience.
Missy stopped talking. She knew I wasn’t listening. So she reached up with her hands, gripping my cheeks in her fists, and turned my face toward her face. In the no-nonsense, I’m-not-kidding-at-all voice that we had come to expect from her, Missy spoke. “Daddy,” she said, “look at me when I’m talking to you.”
Jesus had something to say to a large crowd of people. In fact, the crowd was so big that He had to board a small boat. Pushing out into the water just a bit, He spoke to the people gathered on the shore, stadium-like. He told them about a farmer who was spreading seed. In those days, of course, there was no equipment. The man had a large cloth bag hanging over his shoulder filled with seed. He would reach into the bag, grab large handfuls of seed, then scatter them—not a very exacting way to plant. The wind and the birds were not the farmer’s friends.
Using a setting every person there clearly understood, Jesus was telling them about the words He had been speaking—words scattered like seeds. The four places these powerful little seeds landed represented the different kinds of people who heard Jesus’s words. In fact, let’s pretend Jesus is scattering these words on you and me.
“Some of My words are landing on deaf ears,” He might say to us. “You’re so self-sufficient—so sure of yourself—that you’re like the hard path. These words don’t have a chance to take root in your hard heart.”
“Some of My words are received enthusiastically,” He would continue. “You’re excited. You’re motivated. But you treat everything enthusiastically. You get all fired up about your new Jeep and the Cubs’ two-game winning streak. My words are no different to you from these temporary and frivolous things. Soon you’ll be on to the next thing.”
“Some of you hear My words, and you obey them,” Jesus would continue. “But you’re so busy—so covered over with heavy responsibilities and relentless distractions. You sincerely intend to be a follower, a real disciple, but frankly, your calendar doesn’t have room for Me.”
And some of Jesus’s words would fall on good soil—the humble hearts of men who knew He was speaking the truth. As a result, their lives and their families would never be the same.
After this story, Jesus verbally took the people’s cheeks in His hands, turning their faces toward His, and said, “Let anyone who has ears listen” (v. 9). “Please look at Me when I’m talking to you,” the Savior said.
Missy would have been so pleased.