Scripture Reading: Luke 18:35-42
Jesus Heals a Blind Beggar Near Jericho
35 As he approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36 When he heard a crowd going by, he asked what was happening. 37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” 38 Then he shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 39 Those who were in front sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he shouted even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 40 Jesus stood still and ordered the man to be brought to him, and when he came near, he asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me see again.” 42 Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.”
Sermon: “Listen”
“You and I live in a world where hardly anybody really listens to each other.” Let me repeat that (in case someone was having trouble listening…J) REPEAT
This is a quote from the book B.L.E.S.S., 5 everyday ways to love your neighbor and change the world. (p. 57)
The authors list 5 ways we can be a blessing to our neighbors, and each way starts with a different letter that spells out the acronym, B.L.E.S.S. Last week we looked at the way that started with the letter “B,” “Begin with prayer. Today we look at the way that starts with the letter “L”.
And that way is, in a word, “Listen.” Listening to other people is a way we can be a blessing to them. Which sounds so simple, but actually is harder to do that we may think. Hence the author’s statement I quoted a minute ago, “You and I live in a world where hardly anybody really listens to each other.”
I bet you can think of any number of examples that support this statement, can’t you? The first example that comes to my mind is the number of people I pass on my morning walk or bike ride who do not respond when I cheerfully say, “Good morning!” My first reaction is always to feel a little offended—like they have purposely chosen to ignore my words. But then I realize that they’ve got ear-buds in—or they’re looking at their phone or they’re concentrating on their dog or perhaps they just haven’t had their coffee yet… There are any number of reasons why they simply don’t hear me…
And if I were being honest—which is what you would expect of a pastor, I realize-- I confess that sometimes I, too, have earbuds in for my walk or I go out pre-caffeine and may miss what’s going on around me. God knows how many people have said “Good morning” to me that I haven’t listened to!
All that to say, not listening is a human foible that all of us fall into from time to time, and perhaps more so with the advent of technology that gives us 24/7 access to so many avenues of information—so many that we may be too overwhelmed to really listen to any one of them!
But, the good news is that listening is a skill we can all “develop and get better at.” (B.L.E.S.S., p. 56)
Today’s Scripture can help us develop our listening skills. It’s kind of like a case study in listening—with examples both of how to do it--and how not to do it.
In our reading, Jesus and the disciples are on the move. They are walking to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Passover, and they are on the road approaching Jericho, a city that was about 15 miles away from their destination. As they travel, Jesus knows that approaching Jerusalem means that he is approaching the end of his life and ministry, a fact that the disciples have NOT yet come to comprehend, despite Jesus’ 3 attempts to explain it to them. All that to say, I think we can assume that Jesus has A LOT on his mind as he’s walking along and may be using the travel time as an opportunity to prepare himself mentally, emotionally and spiritually for the suffering he will face.
In contrast, the disciples walking with him are probably in a completely different head space. As they near the end of their long journey, like any of us traveling for a holiday, they probably just want to get to Jerusalem as quickly as possible in order to start their vacation, their celebration of the Passover Holiday.
So, to the disciples—the ones verse 39 refers to as those “in the front” of the crowd—to the disciples, the blind man who is shouting for mercy from Jesus—is an unwelcome distraction. To the disciples, hearing the man shout is like hitting traffic, an obstruction in the roadway-- when you’re only a few miles away from your destination and you just want to get there. The man and his heartfelt cries are nothing more than an annoyance they don’t even listen to, never mind consider stopping to deal with. I think that if the disciples had had smart phones and they heard the man shouting, they quickly would have asked Siri to find an alternate route. But they don’t have smartphones—so they go old school and shout back, sternly ordering the man to be quiet as they walk on by.
But that’s not what Jesus does. Verse 40 says when he heard the man’s shouts, “Jesus stood still.” Jesus stood still. It may sound obvious, but that’s the first step in listening. When you hear a heart-felt cry, stop whatever it is you are doing—be still and focus your attention on the person who is speaking.
Jesus then ordered the man to be brought to him. I’m not saying that we should do that—the second step of good listening is not ordering people around. Commentators tell us that ordering the man to be brought to him was probably a reference to a parable that Jesus had recently told—where the head of a household orders people on the margins of society—the lame and the blind, people who are poor and disabled—to be brought in to enjoy a great feast. (Luke 14) The point of the parable being that God’s kingdom includes everyone, even—or especially-- those whom society tends to overlook and exclude.
But Back to this scripture. When Jesus heard a heart-felt cry, he stopped and he paid attention to the one speaking. Then he did something very profound. He asked the man a question, verse 41, “What do you want me to do for you?” This is a pretty amazing question, considering who’s asking it. We might expect that Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, would already know what the man wants and just give it to him. But that’s not the way Jesus interacts with people. He engages them—heart, mind, body and soul. He invites them into relationship. He looks them in the eye and asks what they want and need. Maybe it’s because the human part of Jesus really didn’t know what the man needed.
Or maybe it’s because Jesus never forced his will on others. Jesus always respected people enough to let them choose what they wanted to do. When he called Levi the tax collector to be a disciple, Jesus issued a simple invitation: Follow me. When the rich, young ruler was having trouble leaving his possessions behind, Jesus didn’t demand he hand them over—or send the disciples to his house to clear it out--he let the rich man make the decision to walk away. Jesus didn’t even stop Judas—the one who handed him over to the authorities—from making his destructive choice, despite the very dire consequences.
My point? Jesus modeled for us what listening involves. Listening always involves an intentional choice to stop what we’re doing, be still and focus on another person. Listening involves asking the other person what they need, not arrogantly assuming that we know what they are going to say or that we know better than they do what’s best for them. In short, listening involves entering into relationship with others and hearing their pains and their joys—helping them get what they want and need--not forcing them to do what we think they should do.
The authors of this book say that listening is one of the ways we can love our neighbors and be a blessing to them. They quote pastoral counselor David Augsburger who said, “Being heard is as close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable.” REPEAT. (B.L.E.S.S., p. 56)
I was thinking about this as I listened to the news this week about people’s reactions to the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe v. Wade. I hope that people will consider joining me via Zoom on Wednesday night to talk about our reactions to the decision and which Scriptures might have bearing on the topic of abortion. I’m not going to talk about that right now.
But what I do want to talk about in regard to that decision is how we listen to each other. Years ago, there was a woman in one of the congregations I served who defined herself as “pro-life” in terms of abortion and everything else. Yet, contrary to some stereotypes, she was incredibly respectful to people who interpreted the Scriptures different from the way she did—she understood that abortion was a complex issue, and while she was glad to share what she believed and why, she never tried to force her opinion on others. Rather, in both her job and her volunteer work, she listened to what others needed, and she dedicated herself to caring for people whom others cast aside. She’s one of the most loving people I have ever met.
I contrast that with another voice I heard on the radio this week who also defined himself as “pro-life,” a former politician from Mississippi reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision. When a reporter asked him what he would say to a woman who was pro-choice, he responded that he would tell her “to get down on her knees and pray to God to open her heart” so that her mind would change. (NPR, Friday afternoon, June 24th.) My first reaction to this comment was, “Thank God I live in Massachusetts!” My second reaction—okay, maybe it was my third or fourth-- was a prayer, “O God, help me to follow Jesus and always ask people what they need, rather than assuming that I already know.”
Whether we define ourselves as pro-life or pro-choice, the important thing is to listen and talk respectfully to each other, explain our reasoning, share our data and try to understand others’ point of view. And we have an opportunity to do that around this issue, if we wish, on Wednesday night.
“Being heard is as close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable.” Let us follow the example of Jesus and truly listen to what people are telling us they need.