“Gross is the heart of this people, they will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted, and I heal them.”
Jesus is quoting to the people a passage from Isaiah [6:10] in which God is lamenting the hardness of the hearts of the people, despite all the good He has done for them. Jesus had healed the sick and the lame; restored sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf; raised the dead; and taught them by word and example to love God and to love their neighbor as themselves. They marveled at the wonders he had done, but they wondered about that love your neighbor thing. They were intrigued when Jesus did things for people who were complete strangers to him without seeking or accepting a reward from them. But they did not seem to grasp that he expected them to do for others, neighbors and enemies alike, what he had done for them, and to use all that God had given to them for themselves and for others. The people in the time of Jesus were apparently no different than the people in the time of Isaiah. Are we any different today? We are supposed to be. The Good News compels us to get to know and imitate Jesus.
