When I am convinced that I am right, who can convince me that I am wrong? It is very difficult for me to hear what the other person is saying or to see what he is trying to tell me. Even when I am wrong, it is still very painful to hear from others about the wrong I have done or that I have made a mistake. Often these words truly apply to me: “There is no one is so blind as those who would not see nor one so deaf as those who would not hear.”
When Jesus came preaching, he did not teach some sophisticated and complicated philosophy nor lectured on some complex theories. He told people stories. He talked about the everyday life of ordinary people. He talked about the concerns and problems they encounter in the course of any ordinary day. He laughed with them in their joy and happiness and he wept with them when they were in tears. He shared their table and told them his parables often around the dinner table. And the truths he told them were there already right before their eyes. For those who listened with faith and humility in their hearts, his words were liberating and life-changing. For those who thought they knew better or who had anger in the hearts, his words were blasphemy or total rubbish.
I pray that I will ears to hear and eyes to see what the Lord is telling me. I pray for humility and faith to hear and see him in the ordinary events of my everyday life. Just another ordinary day? It is probably the Lord trying to get my attention.
When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.
Luke 4:24-30