Ears To Hear (part 1)

The one who has ears had better listen! – Matthew 11:15  (NET)

Jesus’ use of “ears to hear” statements are sprinkled throughout the record of the Gospels.  In terms of Scriptural order, though the Gospels are not ordered chronologically in terms of their development, the first instance is in Matthew, and we hear Jesus saying “The one who has ears had better listen!” (11:15)  He says this while speaking about John the Baptist, and in the wake of saying “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and forceful people lay hold of it” (11:12), He then goes on to reference John as Elijah.  Following the “ears to hear” statement, Jesus continues to speak about John, as well as the Son of Man, and then goes on “to criticize openly the cities in which He had done many of His miracles, because they did not repent” (11:20). 

Perhaps most importantly, Jesus’ words about needing to hear, which are connected with John, are uttered in the context of His already saying, in reference to whether or not He was the “one who is to come” (11:3), “The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news proclaimed to them” (11:5a).  With these words, Jesus is speaking to the expectations of the people concerning the coming of the messiah, when their God would act on Israel’s behalf and bring the age of His kingdom to pass.  Jesus seems to be saying that the long-awaited kingdom has arrived with Him, as evidenced by the seeing, walking, cleansing, hearing, raising, and the Lord’s being set on high as king (the Gospel proclaimed), but that it has arrived in an unexpected way; and that John the Baptist, owing to all appearances, was certainly an unexpected forerunner of that kingdom (he is Elijah, who is to come-11:14b). 

One would have to have ears to hear Jesus talking about the arrival of the long-awaited kingdom of God, because for a variety of reasons (political, religious, social, economic) Jesus could not simply announce that God was now present and working through Him.  A flat announcement could have the effect of either derailing His ministry from the path that He intended, through the stoking of nationalistic and revolutionary tendencies that Jesus clearly wanted to avoid, or it could result in His own untimely death (which He, if He expected that His path would lead to His eventual death, would want to put off until the opportune moment).  The ones with ears to hear would not only need to draw out the kingdom-present implications from what Jesus has said before, but would also need to connect that with the “Son of Man” references that would follow shortly thereafter, along with Jesus’ reference to that Son “eating and drinking” and being “a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” (11:19b)  This, of course, does not necessarily mean that this was true of Jesus (though focusing on this would be missing the point), because it is possible that Jesus was making a reference to the rhetorical polemic that had been used against John and would also be employed against Him, thus subtly identifying Himself with John’s counter-Temple authorities movement, rooted in familiar exodus imagery. 

Going beyond that, Jesus’ listeners would need to stay tuned to what He was saying when He would go on to say that “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father.  No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal Him” (11:27).  With the implicit talk of the advent of God’s kingdom that had come before, coupled with the reference to the Son of Man that He has already made, the astute listener would be able to find Jesus making reference to the ever-so-popular imagery of the seventh chapter of Daniel, in which “one like a son of man…went up to the Ancient of Days and was escorted before Him.  To Him (son of man) was given ruling authority, honor, and sovereignty.  All peoples, nations, and language groups were serving Him.  His authority is eternal and will not pass away.  His kingdom will not be destroyed” (7:13-14).  Jesus was clearly addressing the people in a way that makes it clear that they needed to understand a fact of their present situation.

Those that had ears and were listening, and who were sitting as diligent students, would also hear Jesus speaking about them as He says, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and revealed them to little children” (11:25).  It is interesting that we find there a possible connection between having ears and listening, and being compared to children.  Perhaps this hearkens us to the teacher-student relationship, in which the student (of any age) is forced to come to the proper conclusion through their exercise of God-given reason, while also giving us a fresh sense of what Jesus might very well mean when He says, “Let the little children come to Me and do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  I tell you the truth, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it” (Luke 18:16b-17).