His Ears

Part 3 in a series on Jesus’ Body

A discussion of the various parts of Jesus’ body must surely include His ears, right? For one of the lovely qualities of our Jesus is His listening … both to His Father, and to His people.

In a beautiful messianic passage, recorded by Isaiah, Jesus speaks of the opening of His ear to the Father:

“He awakens Me morning by morning,

He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.

The Lord GOD has opened My ear;”

Isaiah 50:4-5

Each day the Father would awaken His Son and open His ear to listen – to hear the Father’s words by reading and/or meditating on the Scriptures, and perhaps as the Father sometimes spoke to Him in other ways as well. And what a reminder this is of the value and weight of the heavenly Father’s words! And what a reminder that we need open ears, too; that we need to hear from God, day by day. And what a call this is for you to ask God to do for you what He did for Jesus – “morning by morning … awaken[ing your] ear to listen as a disciple.” Ask God to do so, and then open His word and listen. And as God gives you an ear like Jesus, the word of God will mold you into Jesus’ likeness in many other ways as well!

And then we also note that Jesus’ ears are not only tuned in to the voice of His Father, but to the cries of His people as well! I love the example of this which is given to us in Luke 18:35-43. Blind Bartimaeus is “sitting by the road begging.” And “a crowd [is] going by” (making the kind of noise, v.36, that you’d expect a crowd to make). And Bartimaeus hears that Jesus is in the crowd, and begins calling out to Him for help: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Will his voice be drowned out by the din of the crowd? Will Jesus perhaps not hear poor Bartimaeus, for all the other noises bouncing off His eardrums? Or will He, perhaps, even join some others in the crowd in telling Bartimaeus to pipe down? Not a chance! The Son of David does hear (and care about!) the blind man’s cry! And, oh, what a reminder this is of Christ’s dealings with you as well, believer! No matter how much clatter may be ringing out around you, and no matter how unconcerned others may be about your pleas, Jesus hears (and takes deep interest in!) the cries of each and every one of His people! His ears are open to us!