Blessed by Hearing and Doing
Luke 11:27 As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!”
Luke 11:28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
Luke 11:29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.
Luke 11:30 For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
Luke 11:31 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
Luke 11:32 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
These interactions go together. At first, there is a lady praising and flattering Jesus’ ancestry. She means well. She’s excited, bless her heart. But Jesus is clear that the Kingdom of Heaven doesn’t come by ancestry or lineage or the blessedness of your parents. Blessed are those that hear the word of God and keep it.
That little nugget of truth is a helpful reminder for us. Whenever I hear somebody say at a funeral “I’m gonna stay on the straight and narrow so I can see my ______ again.” I like to gently say, “I think they’d like you to seek after the Lord Jesus who they now see, rather than seek after them.”
Jesus elaborates on His own importance and centrality as He compares people to the Ninevites and the Queen of Sheba. Those were people that heard the wisdom of God and believed it. They didn’t need a sign or a show.
Sometimes you get to experience this in the NextGen rooms. With the whole ORANGE concept, we are counting on parents to tell their kids about Jesus and to teach them about faith in Christ. At the same time, Sunday school can be pretty thorough and cover a lot of things that don’t come up in daily life!
When a kid hears for the first time that Jesus healed a man born blind, or that we have the power to forgive those that sin against us, there is nothing better than watching their face as they believe it at face value without 17 convincing proofs.
That’s what Jesus is saying is really blessed. If you hear what He has to say and believe it, you’ll do it out of who you are deep down. It’s not about following rules and coloring in the lines. It’s about seeing how right Jesus is and coloring with the skill of His life living through you.
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