As we age, I am finding that my wife and I are wearing out the word, “What?”  (as in “what did you say?”)   We need either hearing aids or speaking aids.  Not sure where the fault lies.

This reminds me, however, of an event that took place recently.

A group was gathered near Zilker park at a Thai food truck.  It was a cool clear Austin evening – a great time to share a relaxing meal together after a grueling week of school.

The tranquility was shattered by an ear-splitting car collision in the intersection nearby.   The offending pick-up caused the sedan to careen off towards the food truck.   Some ran for safety -others did not.

Eleven diners were mowed down.  Two sustained life-threatening injuries.  But why didn’t they all react and move out of the path of the car?  

Sadly, it was because among them were students at the nearby school for the deaf.  They just didn’t hear it. 

———

Bad things can happen when we fail to hear!

Back in 30 AD or so, the nation of Israel was a mess.  Politically: it was enslaved and ruled by the iron fist of the Roman Empire.  Economically: Rome drained the wealth of the nation.   Spiritually it was a heartless, cheerless cesspool of legalism.  The nation desperately prayed for better days. 

God answered!   He sent them Jesus, who was to redeem them from their sin and then restore the nation and righteously rule the Kingdom from the throne that David once occupied.

He came preaching this message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near!”  – Matthew 4:17

Everything the nation had ever hoped for – prayed for – hinged on their repentance.  They were exhorted to turn away from their self-indulgent sin and turn to Jesus the Messiah

But they had a hearing problem.  After a long season of preaching His message of repentance Jesus said, “For the heart of this people has become dull; they are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes, so that they would not see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” –   Matthew 13:15

He would have healed the nation in every way but they were deliberately deaf to His message.

At a later time, Jesus was trudging downhill from the Mount of Olives, He was headed to Jerusalem which was sprawled out before Him. 

There on that dirt road, surrounded by a throng of followers – Jesus wept. 

Luke 19:41-44 reads, “Now when Jesus approached and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you had only known on this day, even you, the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. They will demolish you—you and your children within your walls—and they will not leave within you one stone on top of another because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”  

He wept because He knew that Rome would soon level the city and intensify the suffering of the Israeli people and their children.  This was because the nation had rejected Him and His offer to intervene and bring healing. 

Rome eventually leveled the land just as Jesus had predicted.  Was it His fault?  No, He tried to intervene.  He wanted better things for them.  It was the nation’s choice to make. 

I am thinking that decades ago, Jesus possibly looked upon the USA and wept once again.  Because the nation of which it was said, “God shed His grace on thee” – that nation had become deaf to His message.   

And every day the people and the children of our nation are suffering the terrible aftermath of it. 

Jesus, I weep with you

A PRAYER: Jesus I weep with You

This has been Jim Johnson and pickleheavenpress.com

May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you and this nation as well.

Scripture references are from the NET Bible®