And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.” Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said. (Mark 15:34-36)
Funny how we hear what we want to hear so we can do what we want to do when we want to do it and the way we go about it. And we tune out what we don’t want to take in so we can avoid having to think and behave outside our comfort zone. Another word for it is confirmation bias, where we filter out facts that challenge our beliefs and accept only things that comfort us.
With my selective-hearing superpower I can always hear the faint crinkle of a snack wrapper from the other side of the house, but “take out the garbage” gets all garbled. Somebody said, “My ears are open, but my brain has already selected ‘not applicable’ for anything that involves effort on my part.” I imagine this is likely the source of a lot of bizarre conspiracy theories and aberrant behaviors.
Remember the time when a rumor got started when Jesus said “If I want him [John] to live until I come again, what’s that to you? You—follow me.”? What they heard was John’s never gonna die! He did.
In the passage above, those standing near while Jesus was dying, both misheard and misunderstood what he said. So they ran off to get him a drink and sat around waiting for Elijah to come and take him off the cross. He didn’t.
They could have had in mind the Malachi prophecy of Elijah (or an Elijah-like prophet––the baptizer, John) preceding the Messiah. It’s not likely that the Aramaic threw them off, since it was the common language of the region at the time. I’d chalk it up more to wishful thinking. If they were disciples, they’d have been confused about this whole scene with the One in whom all their hopes were placed, and now he’s dying right before their eyes. “Eloi, Eloi” could well have sounded to their ears predisposed by fear and adrenalin like “Elijah, Elijah, help!”
If that’s what you heard, then I must’ve heard it too!
So, what are you waiting for. Go get him some wine. Elijah’s coming!
Ever wonder how much we mishear, misunderstand, or misapply God’s words? Is it our lazy practice of spot-reading Scripture or does it have to do with listening more carefully to other voices than his? Either we’re not paying attention or we just don’t want to be accountable for what he plainly says.
It’s hard to tell who these hard-of-hearing folks were. Maybe the kind of people who show up at executions for entertainment? Or were they actual disciples of Jesus on site in hopes of an eleventh-hour rescue of some sort? Either way, they would’ve been disappointed with the immediate outcome.
One of our U.S. presidents once said, “Being President is like being the groundskeeper in a cemetery: there are a lot of people under you, but none of them are listening.” I wonder if Jesus felt (and feels) that way sometimes. Maybe that’s what prompted him to remind his disciples (and us) to “consider carefully how you listen” (Luke 8:18) and “Listen and understand!” (Matthew 15:10)
Some of what Jesus said was hard to hear, and not because he mumbled. Remember how they recoiled when he told them to eat his flesh and drink his blood? “This is a hard teaching,” they said. “Who can accept it?” (John 6:60) Yeah, it’s hard! Hard to hear and even harder to do.
And then there’s the time when he told them he was about to be crucified and “they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.” (Mark 9:32) Can’t you just see them with confused expressions, elbowing each other, “Don’t you dare ask him about that dying stuff. I for one, don’t want to know. And neither do you!”
When at the foot of the cross they heard or wanted to hear something different from what he wanted them to hear, they arrived at a pretty bizarre conclusion. Somebody give him some wine and let’s wait for Elijah to come and take him down!
Reminds me of some of the whacky stuff people believe and do based on their bad or selective hearing. Have you heard of snake charmer worship? What about those groups that sold everything and climbed a mountain to wait for Jesus to come? (He didn’t.) Or the southern slavers who worshipped God in church on Sunday morning and beat and raped their slaves by supper time.? Did you know that after assassinating Lincoln, John Wilks Booth wrote in his diary, “God made me the instrument of his punishment!”? (He [God] didn’t.)
The outcome may not always be as severe as slavery or murder, but this stuff is still going on, even among some of the most educated and sincere believers who hear what they want to hear, believe what they prefer to believe, and behave the way they choose to behave. Bad hearing, bad believing, and bad behaving, these things run in packs. It’s not only possible, but, given our tendency toward self-centeredness, it’s inevitable that we’ll all get it wrong sometimes. Some of these times have innocuous consequences and others more egregious.
I think a lot of today’s cultural toxicity comes from tuning out God in order to get our own way. For instance, breaking and entering government buildings to cause havoc while carrying “Jesus Saves” signs. Hating and denigrating our enemies who disagree with us politically. Stalking, handcuffing, torturing, and jailing immigrants who have no criminal record, most of whom are contributing members of our society. Raping the planet of its natural resources for the short-term benefit of a few at the cost of the many. It’s all gonna burn anyway, so what does it matter?
After all, Jesus told us to do it to others before they get a chance to do it to us. Right?
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
