Do I See and Hear?

In John’s gospel, we can read the account where the people question Jesus about who He really is (John 10:22-39). He explains how His sheep hear His voice and follow Him. Jesus was pointing out to them how they don’t really listen to what He has to say and that those who don’t listen cannot be part of his Kingdom.

Jesus then goes on to tell the crowd that if they cannot listen to what He says, they should look at what He is doing. Jesus was pointing to the works that His Father was doing through Him. It is here in verse 30 that Jesus speaks very plainly to them, saying, “I and my father are one.”

The people then picked up stones to stone Him, and Jesus tries telling them yet again how He only does what His Father tells Him to do, and to look closely at His works to see for themselves that what He does is of the Father.

We too can sometimes be the same as the people of Jesus’ day. We may hear of what Jesus is saying and doing, and see what Jesus is doing in people’s lives, but still we cannot come to that place of believing in Him.

Jesus, in this passage, tells them they are blind and deaf to seeing who He really is and what He can do. Sometimes I think we can be the same.

We can hear God’s message and see what He is doing, but for some reason we don’t really believe it. The people of Jesus’ day had stony hearts, hearts that would not allow them to see and hear who Jesus really was. This stopped them from believing in Him and receiving what He had to offer.

I wonder if we too can be the same in that, through pain and the circumstances of life, we become blind and deaf to allowing God to heal and restore our lives. Jesus’ heart is that we both see Him and hear His voice, so that we can receive all He has for our lives, just as many did 2000 years ago.