Gross is the heart of this people,
they will hardly hear with their ears,
they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
We all have this tendency within us. The truth invariably includes a call to repentance. It is always a call to surrender, to let go a little more of our control of our lives. And this is hard to hear. The truth of the call is clear. Yet we are reluctant to change. We have ears but don't hear and we close our eyes. Even so, Jesus desires his people to "understand with their hearts and be converted" so that he can heal us.
When we do not have, when what we do have is being taken, it is because we do not ask (cf. Jam. 4:2) not because God is reluctant to give. He wants everyone to have so that he can give still more that we might become rich. After all, that is why he became poor for our sake (cf. 2 Cor. 8:9).
The parables allow us to take in the truth gradually. They allow eyes accustomed to darkness to gradually see the light. When we see the light too quickly we do tend to close our eyes. When the truth is shouted too loudly we do tend to close our ears. The parables contain what Jesus wants to tell us, but let us grow in it over time, as our hearts mature.
On the other hand, as time passes and we don't change we do tend to close our eyes and ears so that we don't have to deal with that fact of our lack of progress. We are OK with miraculous change, but this gradual growth is hard to accept. It feels as though nothing is happening. We question whether change is even possible. We begin to rely on ourselves when the LORD doesn't work fast enough for our liking. And the parts of us that we just can't fix we begin to ignore. Yet the LORD himself is the source of living water. If we look elsewhere, to the partial truths that the world offers, to the partial truths we manufacture, we only find broken cisterns. We will never be satisfied. We will never be sated. Like the woman at the well we will always thirst again (cf. Joh. 4:13). Only the words of Jesus are Spirit and life (cf. Joh. 6:63).
Jesus wants us to have the devotion of our youth, the devotion we have before time makes us grow cold. He wants us to love him like a bride even now. He has delivered us from deserts in the past. Let us not mistake the even the goodly fruits of the garden land as substitutes for our relationship with him. As time passes, let us continue to keep our eyes and ears open to the living waters we find in his words.
For with you is the fountain of life,
and in your light we see light.
Keep up your mercy toward your friends,
your just defense of the upright of heart.
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