Listen.
Awaken your ears and listen.
We tend to understand the word “listen” as an auditory act which connects outside sounds with internal cerebral understanding. The “listen” introduced in this text, though, is so much more. The call “to listen” means not only to hear, but also to accept, to believe, to act accordingly. “To listen” is part of a whole-self transformation: to hear, to obey, to become, to do.
This word, “listen” (in Hebrew, the word is Shema), is also the beginning and the name of one of the most important prayers in Judaism. It begins, "Hear /listen, O Israel, Adonai is our God. Adonai is one." and then is followed with our responsibility to love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, and all our might. The prayer instructs us to not only to write these words on our heart but to teach them, to bind them to ourselves, and to put them on our doorposts. To listen and hear is not simply an act of gathering information, it is meant to move us to acceptance and, in the end, to action.
Although many Christians read this Isaiah passage because they believe it points us toward the suffering servitude of Jesus, it is perhaps just, if not more, important to note this injunction to “listen” as we move into Holy Week. This story of Jesus’ last week, which we will be interacting with, is meant to be heard with this heavier and deeper meaning of “Listen.”
In the Isaiah passage, this active, full-bodied listening leads to Isaiah being able to set his face like flint and endure the hardships to come. Similarly, we hear Jesus, in the Gospel of Luke (9:51), also steadfastly set his face toward Jerusalem. Listening leads to action, action to potential consequence. The consequence, however, is faced resolutely knowing that the action was born from a sense of justice and love.
When we truly hear and listen to God’s word, we are to be moved by it; moved not just emotionally, but also in what we do. Truly listening to and living God’s word calls us into places and situations we may have previously avoided or turned away from. When God’s word enters our heart as well as our ears, we are compelled to respond. As protestant reformer Martin Luther said, “My conscience is captive to the word of God . . .Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me.”
Thus, as we listen, this week especially, to the story of Jesus, let us listen more deeply. Let us ask God to awaken and open our ears more fully so that we might hear not just what happened, but what may happen if we allow it to be so. Let us, through our sacred story, listen for how God is talking to us today. Let us be immersed and changed by this story so that we too may set our face to wherever God is calling us.
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