Ears Becoming Eyes
Scripture Reading: Galatians 3:1
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
It is Monday morning and pastors are beginning the work of preparation for next Sunday. Everyone has their method of sermon preparation, but every preacher worth being called a preacher prepares. He studies the text, interprets it, seeks to apply it to his own life, and thinks deeply about how it should be preached and applied to the people he shepherds. So, pray for him this week.
Paul gives us a helpful description of his preaching to the churches of Galatia in this verse. His preaching wasn’t just heard, it was seen. It was before the eyes that Jesus Christ was portrayed as crucified. This is an interesting phrase Paul uses here. It has the meaning of something being placarded publicly. Think of a person going around nailing up advertisements or notices on telephone poles. Or imagine a man 30 feet up in the air, standing on a scaffold, rolling out an advertisement on a billboard. These are messages that are meant to be seen and understood. They are meant to be concise and clear. When you see one of these messages, it is designed in a way that you should immediately know what is being asked of you.
Paul is saying that he preached Christ crucified in a clear, concise, unambiguous way. He turned their ears into eyes and their hearing into seeing.
That’s not as easy as it sounds. Men who spend their lives studying theology, reading books, and listening to lectures on the deep things of God might struggle to make the complex simple and communicate the great things of God in a way that those who hear him understand what he is talking about.
This is not to suggest that a preacher should never stretch his people or teach things difficult to understand. He should. But he should always strive to put things on a shelf where people can reach them. Paul was astonished that the people of Galatia were led astray from the gospel because he had made it so clear to them. When he preached Christ, it was as if Jesus was seen as crucified right there among them.
Pray for your pastor as he prepares to preach. Ask God to give him wisdom to make the gospel of Christ crucified clear and accessible. Pray that he can turn the ears of the congregation into eyes that will see the crucified Savior.
