Matthew 13:16 But blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear.

Today we celbrate Palm Sunday when Jesus entered Jerusalem to the cheers of the crowd.  But the week that followed proved that many were deaf and blind to what was before them.  I do not have difficulty believing in the miraculous or any of the events recorded in the Bible.  What I find so difficult to comprehend is how the leaders could see the miracles performed in front of their very eyes and not respond with joy and wonder.   They had their Messiah right in front of them and missed Him.  They were made deaf and blind by their own hearts.

Years ago a friend of ours named Paul bought a home that had been through a fire.  He was good at construction and was able to do most of the work himself.  The plumbing had to be redone for most of the house so he had a plumber friend come and handle all of that.  When the plumber was about finished he came to check out his work.  Paul was amazed by what happened.

As they were walking down the stairs into the large basement, the plumber stopped.  He asked Paul, “Do you hear that?”  They were both quiet and Paul didn’t hear anything.  The plumber said it’s over there and pointed toward a corner of the basement.  Paul asked him what was over there.  His friend said, “A leak” – as he motioned with his finger the timing of the drips.

Sure enough, when they got to the corner, behind a bunch of stuff, there was the leak.  Drops of water were falling to the floor at a frequency just like the plumber had indicated.  Paul asked him why he (the plumber) could hear them while Paul couldn’t.  The plumber responded, “This is my business.  I have my ears trained to hear such sounds.”

Historically, a major problem with God’s people is that through their attitudes and actions they have allowed their hearts to become calloused.  This resulted in spiritual deafness and blindness and not loving God.  Isaiah described it as “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.”  The frightening fact is that the same thing can happen to us.

Do you hear the Holy Spirit speak to you?  Are you learning the ways of Scripture?  Are you training your ears to recognize to His quiet whisper and His nudgings as He leads us to repentance and to choose rightly!  On this Palm Sunday let’s recommit ourselves to our Lord and seek to truly have eyes that see and ears that hear.