John 12:30-36

John 12:30-36
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

  Kids have a unique ability to hear what they want regardless of what you actually say.  Tell them to clean their room or get ready for bed and you'll often find them still playing a few minutes later, having activated their selective hearing and ignored the pertinent aspects of your orders.
  When it came to the Messiah, people heard the prophecies but then shaped them to fit their expectations.  They so badly wanted the Messiah to lead them to victory over the Romans that they stopped imagining that anything outside their expectations was possible.  When Jesus talked about being lifted up, they imagined it happening in a glorious earthly victory, not an ascent to the cross where he would die for the sins of the world.  People couldn't imagine because they'd been selectively listening for years.
  How do you selectively listen to Scripture?  We all do it.  I decide what I want and then imagine how God has called me to it.  I can find enough Scripture to affirm my decisions, and so contrary information just flows in one ear and out the other.
  So when you come across a verse or a preacher that unsettles you, stop and linger there.  It may be uncomfortable because it doesn't conform to expectations, and that may be a very important message for us to recognize how God may well be doing a new thing.