We are born with our ears tuned to hear our own voices. We like hearing ourselves. What’s worse is that everyone around us is doing the same thing! So we cheer each other on. That’s right! You should be heard! Don’t let anyone tell you differently! That’s your truth! Say it! That means we have a double problem: We have our own words clogging our ears, and then we have the loud applause of the people around us encouraging us not to listen to God’s voice.

Jesus takes a simple story of a farmer and seeds and magically turns it into an opportunity to challenge his followers. What is Jesus specifically pointing out? If you carefully read the three retellings of the parable, you will note the same words at the conclusion of each one: Let anyone who has ears to hear listen. Let’s take some time to unpack Jesus’s power-packed statement.

The point Jesus is making seems to be clear. We need to listen. Does that sound unremarkable? Maybe a little too basic? I mean, haven’t we been taught since preschool that we should listen?

Yep. But do you? Do I?

Our Desire to Be Heard

Our modern-day culture has an undisputed preoccupation: being heard. We want to talk. We want to be heard. We even have a shiny new tool to do this that no culture has had before—social media (cue the confetti cannons and celebrate!). This world-changing tool seems to have been created for this very purpose: Hey, world, listen to me. I want to be heard!

Let’s personalize this. Be honest. You and I want to be heard. We want to be understood. We want our opinion known. Listen to me!

Yikes. Sounds a little narcissistic, doesn’t it? Have you thought about what narcissism is? It is an inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love. Whoa. Narcissism used to be considered an accusation—even a psychological disorder. In today’s culture, how-ever, this type of narcissism is the order of the day. It is the air we breathe. We like to talk. But listen? Not so much. It is an epidemic, and we’ve all caught it.

But this isn’t just a problem in modern culture. Social media didn’t start this fire. It’s just the new, improved tool I have at my fingertips (or thumbs!). It is a human nature problem. And it goes way further back than your social media feed. How far back?

Let’s Go Back to the Beginning

Maybe you have heard the adage we have two ears and one mouth. So we should listen twice as much as we speak! It is often attributed to the Greek Stoic philosopher, Epictetus. I think he was onto something.

But we have to go further back. Before ancient philosophers, before Jesus spoke his parables . . . keep going back. All the way to the beginning of time!

The Bible starts with a beautiful story—a true story—of a loving Creator giving his children life and breath and everything else. He gave them a world of beauty and abundance and peace. It was incredible. You can read about it in Genesis 1–2.

There was just one rule to be followed—one solitary tree in a massive world of gorgeous life-giving trees was off-limits. Enjoy all the rolling acres of every tree imaginable, but leave that one tree alone. Now that doesn’t seem very restrictive, does it? Here is precisely what God said: “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:16–17).

Pretty clear, isn’t it? That should be easy to take in and remember. Even a preschooler can follow that one rule.

But with one turn of the page, you find the rest of the story (in Genesis chapter 3). The first people—our people—went straight for that one tree. What? How many beautiful, fruit-bearing trees did they pass by to get to that tree—the one they were to stay away from?

You have to wonder what they were telling themselves as they made a dash for that tree. What was so compelling about it? As they passed one beautiful tree after another, did they pause and reconsider? How did they manage to suppress God’s clear words? Whatever they were telling themselves, it was their own voices, not God’s voice, that won out.

Their bold ingratitude collided with their pride and created the perfect storm—one that would have cataclysmic consequences. At that point, they were only tuned in to hear their own voices (and the seductive voice of the serpent). The voice of their loving Creator Father who had been so good and generous to them seemed to get quieter and quieter and finally couldn’t be heard at all.

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