阅读经文 

我们的生活充满令我们分心的事，但我们往往却喜欢这样。我们当中很多人喜欢听到背景音乐或无害的杂音，因为它们能帮助我们免于受到那些令我们分心之事的干扰！我们的环境充塞着那么多的噪音，以致有时我们难以听得到真正需要听到的声音，也难以知道要专注在哪些事情上。

耶稣擅于讲故事，祂讲的故事取材于当时的生活和文化，祂的故事充满了人们容易明白但又寓意深刻的真理。但是，除非你能够用心去听，不然它们只不过是故事而已。

我们若没有从神而来的洞察力去领悟，耶稣的比喻只不过是平淡的故事，祂行的神迹只不过是令人称奇的见闻，祂被钉十架只不过是一场纯粹的悲剧，而祂的复活也只不过是一件莫衷一是，任人解读的事件。

在这个企图分散我们对真理的注意力的世界，作为一个要取得众人注意力的领袖，耶稣凭着神的儿子的权柄敦促我们要留心聆听。祂呼召我们，要透视笼罩着生命的浮云和过滤噪音，好叫我们能够听到好牧人在教导我们认识自我和我们的生命。

“你们听啊！”

Our lives are filled with distractions, and often we like it that way. Many of us also like background or white noise that can help to distract us from distractions! With all the noise that fills our environments, it can be hard to hear what we need to hear, and difficult to learn what we should focus on.

Jesus was a brilliant storyteller. He told stories from the life and culture of the time, and he filled them with meanings that were at once simple and profound. But unless you were able to truly listen, they were just stories.

Apart from God’s giving us the insight to understand, the result will be that Jesus’ parables are just stories, his miracles are just amazing, his crucifixion is just tragedy, and his resurrection is just whatever you make of it.

As a leader calls people to attention, Jesus, with the authority of the Son of God, urges us to listen in a world that seeks to distract us from the truth. He calls us to see through the obscuring fog of life, to filter out the noise in order to hear the voice of the good shepherd as he teaches us about ourselves and our lives.

“Listen!”