Know Your Audience

May 2

Judges 1-2

Psalm 54

Proverbs 12:19-21

Luke 20:1-26

Know Your Audience

“So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, so that they might catch Him in some statement, in order to deliver Him to the rule and the authority of the governor… And they were unable to catch Him in a word in the presence of the people; and marveling at His answer, they became silent.”  Luke 20:20, 26 LSB

Twice in the passage in Luke today, we find Jesus in interactions with the chief priests, scribes and elders, the religious leaders of Israel.  In the first exchange, they questioned Jesus wanting to know who gave Him the authority to teach as He did.  Jesus’ teaching did not follow their tradition.  Instead of going along with the numerous laws they had added to the Law God gave Moses, He tried to help them understand that God was more concerned with their hearts than with blind adherence to the rules.  They used the rules to manipulate the people and exercise control over their behavior, not to help them grow closer to God and understand His ways.  Jesus had no time for their hypocrisy. They decided to send spies to question Jesus pretending to have sincere questions for Him when they actually were trying to trick Him into saying something they could use against Him.  It’s kind of pitiful that they thought they could put one over on Jesus.  He knew their hearts and He could discern their intentions.  He knew they were not seeking answers to spiritual questions.  Jesus was loving and patient with people who were wanting to understand.  He took the time to answer any questions from those who were seeking God and trying to grow in their faith.  He had no time for the religious leaders who thought they had all the answers but were just blind teachers leading people astray.  He knew His audience. 

This is a good lesson for us as well.  We do not need to waste our time getting into arguments with people who are not really seeking.  Often, people will try to goad us into spiritual arguments.  They are not trying to understand.  They aren’t even really asking questions.  They just want to argue some point that they think they understand.  You are not going to change their mind because they have already made up their mind.  They either want to try to convince you that you are wrong or they want to make you look bad for holding the position you do.  It is tempting to get into an argument, especially on social media, but it rarely, if ever, turns out to be the right thing.  Whenever I have taken the bait, I always regret it, wishing I had just stayed silent.  It’s important to know your audience. You can usually tell if someone is sincerely asking questions wanting to understand spiritual matters or if they just want to argue for the sake of arguing.  If you aren’t sure, the best thing to do is pray and ask God to make it clear to you.  If it is someone that is seeking and wanting to know more about God, Facebook is not the best place to have the dialogue.  It is always better to have those discussions in person. 

May 3