Your Mom is SO Blessed…

As Jesus was saying these things a woman in the crowd cried out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.”

He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” –Luke 11:27-28

What catches my attention here isn’t what Jesus is saying about those who hear the Word and obey it will be blessed. And it isn’t even what the woman says, rather it was that she said anything at all “as Jesus was saying these things.” Some woman just up and interrupts the King in the middle of His teaching. Sure, she was being complementary. She wasn’t heckling him. As far as we know, she wasn’t possessed by any evil spirits. She was just flat out rude, and Jesus rebukes her. He does it subtly and subversively, but He does rebuke her. Previous to her interruption, Jesus had been teaching about demon possession, so for Him to change subjects and talk about listening and obeying means He was most likely responding directly to her…that and His use of the word “rather.”

Jesus effectively tells her, ‘Maybe you should spend less time talking and more time listening.’

We do it too, don’t we? We begin to pray and ask God to speak to us. Maybe He will start to or maybe we do it before He even has a chance to start, but we’ll cut Him off with excuses or move on to our next request. Today, I think Jesus would have us instead hear from Him. In our prayer time today, let’s spend less time speaking and more time listening. Amen.