Monday in Advent 2: The kingdom is for those who have ears to hear

Opening Sentence

In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Isaiah 40:3

On Jordan's Banks the Baptist's Cry



Commemoration: Clement of Alexandria

O Lord, who called your servant Clement of Alexandria from the errors of ancient philosophy that he might learn and teach the saving Gospel of Christ: Turn your Church from the conceits of worldly wisdom and, by the Spirit of truth, guide it into all truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Texts: Psalm 24-26 (M); Psalm 27-29 (E); Isaiah 19:18-26, Mark 4:21-34 (M); Isaiah 21:1-17, Revelation 12 (E)

It takes discernment to understand the parables with which Jesus describes the kingdom of God. That is why he says, "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." The parables are not secret messages with hidden meanings. Their message and meaning are obvious to those with ears to hear. That is, for those who are citizens of the true Israel, the parables make perfect sense, but to those who have been masquerading as Israel, namely the religious establishment for whom God and the covenant had become private possessions, the meaning was indiscernible due to their spiritual blindness and deafness.

Depending on one's perspective, the parables are either the beginning of something new or the end of something old. For those with ears to hear, the seed of the kingdom of God was being planted. In Jesus, the glorious reign of God was being inaugurated. It would take root and grow from humble beginnings to bring renewal and restoration to the whole created order. For those who were set in their ways and valued things as they were, however, the parables were messages of doom and destruction. The world they so valued, the world in which they were first and everyone else was last, was coming to an end. The last were about to become first, and the first were about to become last.

In utilizing parables to communicate the Gospel of the kingdom, Jesus was not so much describing what that kingdom would be like when it finally came in all its fullness. Rather, he was announcing its arrival in language that could only be understood and received by those who had truly been longing for it. To those with ears to hear, the parables were a message of hope and a promise of better things to come. For those invested in the kingdom of this world, they were a stinging rebuke which portended the ultimate dismantling of their world of privilege, power, and self-congratulation.

The kingdom of God is for those who have ears to hear the clear and life-changing message of Jesus above all the self-exalting voices of this world.

(JAG)

O Come, O Come Emmanuel