Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn— and I would heal them.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, January 27, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Jesus offers a little bit more of an explanation of his comment in yesterday’s text. And I’m still not quite buying the logic. “I speak in parables because they’re not able to understand the truth and I would heal them so that they can understand but first I’m going to confuse them by saying things they can’t possibly understand.” Are they supposed to suddenly understand when he is crucified and resurrected? Will they have this collective “aha” moment that make everything come clear? Because… well that didn’t happen. Or maybe it did for some of them, but even Jesus’ disciples were utterly confused by his death even after everything he told them to prepare them for it.
That being said, this is actually the state most of us are in most of the time. We’re so overwhelmed by and desensitized to messages due to intensive media saturation, that even if Jesus came and stood among us in the flesh right now and explained in precise language the “secrets of the kingdom” we would probably just stare blankly at him. Or think he’s crazy. We’ve experienced so much pain, witnessed so much injustice, lived with so much fear of the future that our hearts tend to be dull, our hears deaf, and our eyes closed as a basic survival mechanism.
May we take the time to practice surrender, to practice opening ourselves to Jesus’ presence in this painful and broken world, so that when he speaks to us, we might find hope and inspiration in the beautiful things he has to say.
How can I practice openness to Jesus’ words in my life?
![Jonah 1:1-17; 3:1-10 [4:1-11], Jonah and God’s Mercy](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56b39b61ab48de92d991a40a/6bbb490e-4992-4659-a8be-02d8397d68af/24-11-10.jpg)
