A man is watching television. His wife is trying to engage him in conversation:
“Dear, the plumber didn’t come to fix the leak behind the water heater today.”
Husband: “Uh-huh.”
Wife: “The pipe burst today and flooded the basement.”
Husband: “Quiet. It’s third down and goal to go.”
Wife: “Some of the wiring got wet and almost electrocuted Fluffy.”
Husband: “Darn it! Touchdown.”
Wife: “The vet says he’ll be better in a week.”
Husband: “Can you get me a Coke?”
Wife: “The plumber told me that he was happy that our pipe broke because now he can afford to go on vacation.”
Husband: “Aren’t you listening? I said I could use a Coke!”
Wife: “And Stanley, I’m leaving you. The plumber and I are flying to Acapulco in the morning.”
Husband: “Can’t you please stop all that yakking and get me a Coke? The trouble around here is that nobody ever listens to me.” (1)
Poor guy, nobody was listening.
It was six days before the celebration of the Passover. Passover was a massive celebration in Jerusalem. Josephus, the notable Jewish historian, estimated that over two million people were attracted to the great Passover Feast. Devout Jews from all around the Mediterranean came to offer their sacrifices to God and to pay their half shekel temple tax.
We’re told that 256,500 lambs were slain at one such Passover and that each lamb represented at least ten worshippers, so you can see what a crowd was present. Among those who came for the celebration were Romans, Persians, Syrian, Egyptians, and Greeks.
As our lesson opens Jesus is in Bethany, where Mary and Martha and Lazarus lived. Bethany was a small village about one and a half miles from Jerusalem. This was some time after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. In gratitude, Mary and Martha were throwing a dinner in Jesus’ honor. Lazarus, of course, was there, alive and in the flesh, as we say.
A large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because they wanted to see him, but also to see Lazarus. Lazarus had become somewhat of a celebrity. We can imagine the tabloid headlines: “Bethany Resident First Man to Be Raised from the Dead.” We’ve noted that since the beginning of his ministry Jesus had a rock star kind of following. The raising of Lazarus did nothing to discourage that. As one of the Pharisees said to a colleague, “Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
Among those who came to see Jesus were some Greeks. They approached Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee. Philip’s surname was Greek and his home village was known as a place where there were numerous Greek descendents. Maybe the visiting Greeks thought Philip would be more open to their inquiries than the other disciples. “Sir,” they said to him, “we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went to tell Andrew; and together they told Jesus.
Jesus was not impressed. He replied as he often did with a somewhat cryptic message about his coming death. He concludes his response to them by saying, “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!”
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
Seemingly this was an audible voice, a voice which could be heard by anyone listening. But notice this: John tells us that the crowd that was there and heard the voice coming down out of heaven dismissed it as thunder; others said an angel had spoken to Jesus. In response to their reaction, Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine . . .”
That’s interesting, don’t you think? God spoke from the heavens, but the people who heard the sound of God speaking simply dismissed it as thunder.
When I read about this reaction, I thought of that phrase that the television show Seinfeld introduced to the world, the expression, “yada, yada, yada.” Yada, yada, yada is used by the person who doesn’t want to go into boring, inconsequential details. “I saw him looking at me, yada, yada, yada . . .” The phrase “blah, blah, blah” fills the same purpose in today’s vernacular.
To the crowd that day when God spoke, it meant nothing to them. It was “yada yada yada . . . blah, blah, blah.” It was only the sound of thunder.
Dr. James B. Lemler was preaching one time about the Trinity. He told about a couple of parents who had gone home from his church and during Sunday lunch were talking about his sermon. In the midst of their conversation, their second-grade daughter sitting at the table chimed in. “Oh, Father Lemler’s sermons, they’re always the same,” she said, “You know . . . blah, blah, blah, . . . love . . . blah, blah, blah . . . love.”
Dr. Lemler said he was amused and thought to himself, “Hey, this little girl really got it . . . the message, the repetition, the core, the redundancy.
“And so it is with the Holy Trinity,” says, Dr. Lemler, “. . . Over and over again . . . blah, blah, blah, love . . . blah, blah, blah, love . . .”
“God the Creator . . . I love you and give you life.
“God the Redeemer . . . I love you and embrace you in that love forever.
“God the Spirit . . . I love you and warm your heart and your soul with my love.
“Blah, blah, blah love . . .” (2)
I wish that is what the people heard that day when the voice spoke from heaven, “Yada, yada, yada love . . . .” But Mark described it like this: “The crowd that was there and heard the voice said it had thundered . . . ”
Here’s the truth of the matter: Many people are so disconnected from God, that if God were to speak to them, they would not hear His voice. All they would hear would be thunder. Jesus said to those who heard only thunder, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine,” but they did not hear.
There is a rather obscure definition of sin in the Bible. It comes from a Hebrew word that means “a failure to listen.” When we fail to listen, we are cut off from whoever is speaking to us. (3)
In George Bernard Shaw’s play St. Joan, which is about Joan of Arc, Joan tells of hearing God’s messages. She is talking to King Charles. Charles doesn’t appreciate this crazy lady in armor who insists on leading armies. He’s threatened by her. He says, “Oh, your voices, your voices, always your voices. Why don’t the voices come to me? I am king, not you.”
Joan replies, “They do come to you, but you do not hear them. You have not sat in the field in the evening listening for them. When the Angelus rings . . . you cross yourself and have done with it. But, if you prayed from your heart and listened to the trilling of the bells in the air after they stop ringing, you would hear the voices as well as I do.” (4)
Joan heard the voice of God; the king, if he heard anything at all, heard only thunder. Why? Because she was listening for that voice. Some people are so disconnected from God that they never hear God’s voice.
Other people are so preoccupied with their own pursuits that they’re unaware when God speaks.
There is a time-honored story about an old farmer who was persuaded by his nephew to visit the big city. The young man proudly took the farmer on a tour of the large metropolis.
At one point as they walked down the street the old man suddenly stopped and asked, “Did you hear that?”
The young man looked at the milling pedestrians and the traffic and replied, “Hear what?”
“A cricket,” the old man said as he walked toward a little tuft of grass growing out of a crack next to a tall building. Sure enough, there tucked in the crack was a cricket.
The young man was amazed. “How could you pick up the sound of a cricket in all this noise?” he asked.
The old farmer didn’t say a word and just reached into his pocket, pulled out a couple of coins and dropped them on the sidewalk. Immediately a number of people began to reach for their pockets or look down at the sidewalk.
The old man observed, “We hear what our ears are trained to hear.”
Psychologist Ellen Langer says that many people are so preoccupied with their daily tasks that they rarely listen to those around them. It’s like that little game that children play:
What do we call a tree that has acorns? Oak.
What do we call a funny story? Joke.
What do we call the sound made by a frog? Croak.
What do we call the white of an egg?
How many of you said, in your mind “yolk”? The correct answer, of course, is “the white.” But nearly everyone gets it wrong. They’ve become accustomed to words ending in the “oke” sound, and so they answer, “The yolk.” (5)
How well do you listen to those around you? How well do you listen to God?
Author Mark Buchanan tells about a scene from the movie Ray which was based on the life of musician Ray Charles. Ray Charles went blind at age seven. He lived his childhood in poverty, in a one room shack at the edge of a sharecropper’s field.
In this scene from the movie, we see Ray as a child run into his house and trip over a chair. He starts to wail for his mother. She stands at the stove, right in front of him, and instinctively reaches out to lift him. Then she stops . . . backs up . . . stands still . . . watches.
“Young Ray stops crying. He listens. He hears, behind him, the water on the wood stove whistling to a boil. He hears, outside, the wind pass like a hand through cornstalks. He hears the thud of horse hooves on the road, the creak and clatter of the wagon they pull. Then he hears, in front of him, the thin faint scratch of a grasshopper walking the worn floorboards of his mama’s cottage. He inches over and, attentive now to every sigh and twitch, gathers the tiny insect in his hand. He holds it in his open palm. ‘I hear you, too, Mama,’ he says. She weeps with pride and sorrow and wonder.”
Later he explains to someone, “I hear like you see.” (6)
Ray Charles trained himself to listen. That would be wise for those of us who have our sight. Listen to your colleagues. Listen to your loved ones. Listen to God.
It is important to know that God does speak to those who listen. Not audibly, perhaps. We worry when somebody says they hear voices, as we should. The voice of God will be an inward voice, a silent voice, a voice within the mind. God may speak through a friend. God may speak through a strong emotion.
Someone says, “I felt God telling me that I should support that mission project.” And I am confident God did. The greatest untapped source of power in this world is the unheeded voice of God in human affairs.
Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine . . .”
Many of us were moved a few years back when the story came out about how the D.C. snipers were apprehended. Do you remember in October 2002 when those tragic shootings were being perpetrated in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia? Ten people were killed and three others were critically injured. Many citizens assisted police in solving this heinous crime. Among these was trucker Ron Lantz, a resident of Ludlow, KY.
Lanz was listening to a radio show when he heard a description of a car being sought by officials in connection with the sniper case. A short time later he noticed a car that matched the description, a Chevrolet Caprice, at a Maryland rest stop and called 9-1-1. He was one of several who called police that night, and not the first.
However, he did play an important part in capturing the two suspects. After calling 9-1-1, Lantz and another driver blocked the exits to the rest area, effectively trapping the suspects until police could arrive.
Here is what is special about Lantz’ story, as verified by several trusted sources. About a week before he helped make this capture, Lantz was driving down the Interstate when he heard another report about the snipers. He decided somebody needed to pray about this situation. He got on his C-B radio and sent out a call to any other truckers who were nearby to join him at a certain rest area for a time of prayer about this situation. It was getting dark when Lanz pulled his rig into the rest area. There were about 50 other rigs already there. They all got out of their cabs and stood in a circle, holding hands, 60 or 70 of them, including some wives and children.
“Let’s pray,” Ron Lantz said. And for almost one hour they did just that. They prayed that these killings would come to an end. And one week later Ron Lantz spotted a Chevrolet Caprice at a Maryland rest stop.
Are the two related? Some will say, “Coincidence.” Yada, yada, yada. Blah, blah, blah. All they will hear is thunder. And perhaps they are right. Perhaps it was coincidence. But I know this, if you are not daily communicating with God, making known your requests and listening for God’s reply, you are missing out on the greatest resources life has to offer, the leading of God in an uncertain world.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta put it this way: “We need to find God and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature trees, flowers, grass thrive in silence; see the stars, the moon and sun, how they move in silence . . . The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life. We need silence to be able to touch souls. The essential thing is not what we say, but what God says to us and through us.” (7)
God spoke but all most people heard was thunder. How about you? Do you hear God’s voice today?
1. John C. Maxwell, Be a People Person (USA: Victor Books, 1989).
2. http://day1.org/1094-blah_blah_blah_blah_love.
3. Dr. Vance L. Shepperson & Dr. Bethyl Joy Shepperson, Tracks in the Sand (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1992), p. 85.
4. Bruce Larson, My Creator, My Friend (Waco: Word Books Publisher,1986).
5. Richard C. Whiteley, The Customer-Driven Company (New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1991).
6. Hidden In Plain Sight (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2002), pp. 30-31.
7. Cited by Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God.