Evangelism Tip #8 Lean Into Disagreement

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking a pause to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, as a result, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord on your own as well. Don’t hesitate to leave a comment or question, as long as it is offered in respect and humility.

Today's devotional is taken from Chan, S. How to Talk About Jesus (Without Being THAT Guy): Personal Evangelism In A Skeptical World, Zondervan Reflective, 2020. Evangelism Tip 8

What The Text Brought To Mind:  Growing up, there was never such a good night that didn’t have some form of debate or in-depth discussion. I remember on holidays we will sit around the kitchen table and talk about all sorts of things, and as my sister and I grew in years, often we would debate about faith, politics, and philosophy with our parents. Debate, was, in a way, my family's way of showing affection. If we could be vulnerable enough to speak to the things we disagreed on, but remain a loving family, it spoke testaments about the bonds between us. I to this day value people in the world who can challenge my perceptions and make me wonder.

In our current age, I feel there is less welcome to being challenged, everyone wants their personal truths to be upheld and supported at all costs, with very little willingness to be challenged or debated with. This is a real shame because we cannot grow unless our subjective understandings are challenged from time to time. For example, a child might think there is a monster under their bed, and that can be in their minds very true for them, but if their parents do not challenge that, and even call them down to the floor to shine a light under the bed, the child will never grow out of their fear. A parent does not debate with their child about the reality of monsters because they want to win the argument, rather their motivation is to liberate their child from fear, anxiety, and false information. However, before a parent can ever convince their child of anything, they must first sit in a moment of disagreement, even holding off their own adult understanding at first, to give their child comfort and calm before explanation. 

However, there is a limitation on how long a parent can entertain the false assumptions of a child because the parent knows, the truth is the only thing that will set their child free from fear, so they ought to patiently wade into the disagreement over the existence of monsters under beds.

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, throughout your ministry you encountered much debate, and it was by the wisdom of God, you found the words needed to move the world in ways that reshaped everything. We ask that you send the Spirit to stir in us patience, confidence, and humility to make us willing to lean into disagreement, showing care and genuine love for those we minister to. Amen.

Scripture: Matt 12:1-16

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

He went on from there and entered their synagogue. And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him. He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.

Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known.

Reflection: Often when Jesus was being challenged by people it was over Jesus’ work within the boundaries of the Law, particularly doing ministry on the Sabbath. In response, Jesus would lean into the disagreement, but in it, he would show clarity of what the pursuit of both his actions and the argument was all about. In Matthew 12 when the Pharisees challenge him on the healing of the man with the withered hand, Jesus speaks to the value of the human being taking priority over the lawful boundary, or maybe more precisely, human care was more lawful than the laws governing work and healing on Sabbath. By framing his position well, Jesus makes it clear to the Pharisees that they are both concerned about proper execution of the Law, and that Jesus was not trying to dismantle the Law, but rather fulfilling it to its greatest purpose. The Pharisees, at that point, have to decide to either welcome that clarity found in disagreement or to reject this disagreement because it is an assault on themselves. Unfortunately, in this case, they do the latter. Chan’s chapter speaks to this rejection because often people, like the Pharisees, will become very defensive of their world views. But not all people are as hardened against truth as the Pharisees in Matt. 12. Nicodemus for example, in a similar fashion, encounters Jesus with debate over the nature of Baptism, but because Nicodemus is a seeker of truth and a servant to God and Jesus responds with a very clear example of how he is too, by the end Nicodemus would find himself stepping out into the light to anoint the body of Christ when it came down from the cross and was prepared for the tomb.

Now, Jesus would know which of the people he debated with would be open and which ones would not be open, so Jesus has an advantage in debate, which we do not. We cannot know the hearts of other people without them offering it first to us, so we must ease ourselves into these conversations, we must take on a vulnerability within the debate to share our pursuit of God with them and connect with them through the debate. It is possible, we may find that the people wish to conspire against us as the Pharisees did with Jesus, but if we don’t take the chance we will never know if they too will have a heart for truth like Nicodemus.

Now within this chapter of Chan’s, Chan reviews some common scenarios of disagreement which occur, and he gives a basic Christian apologetic for these points. I think it is wise for those who wish to do evangelism to study, at minimum, a basic level of Christian apologetics and Biblical study. It is great to trust in Jesus, but when you speak to people about Jesus, you might need to explain why you trust in Jesus. That ‘why’ component is super important because if you are unsure and/or not able to articulate why you trust in Jesus, when you make a truth claim on moral law or the meta-narrative of the Bible, (to make a case for God or Christianity), you will only be able to hang the authority of your claim on yourself, and not Jesus.  

This is what Jesus does so perfectly throughout all his encounters with people who do not trust him, whether or not, in the end, they begin to trust him, Jesus always is willing to lean into that disagreement to make the truth known. Jesus is always able to connect what they are speaking about to the wider history, knowledge, and wisdom of the faith. And ultimately, Jesus’ leaning into the disagreement brings the people he is engaging with to face the truth. Truth lovingly convicts and, in that conviction, there is room for the grace and mercy of God to work.

The challenge for the Month: Look up authors of Christian apologetics, see what topics of debate they are wrestling with, and begin to grow your base of understanding.

Prayer for your Month: Lord, help us to prepare to be wise and knowledgeable disciples. No disciple knows all things, only You God, have that reality, but make us prepared with the knowledge we will need with the humility, patience, and genuine care to use that knowledge, and to welcome your wisdom to call the lost sheep home, to usher people to seek you to heal the hearts of the broken, and call the sinners to repentance. Amen. 

Final Thought and Picture: There might be no greater example of the power of disagreement than what disagreement can do for or to marriage. My wife and I disagree all the time, however, we both have a strong dedication to the sanctity of marriage, and in that, we agree our personal opinions on things do not outweigh the commitments we have made to each other before God. Because of this, all our disagreements become stepping stones for us to become a stronger couple. This doesn’t mean we do all things perfectly, but because we know each other’s hearts, we are able to not let disagreement get the better of us.

Chan so far in his book, speaks about how important it is to connect with people who we are evangelising to. The more groundwork we have laid, the stronger a connection we will have with someone, and the more they see our hearts as compassionate and loving. I strong foundation whether that be a marriage or a friend you wish to share Jesus with will be able to endure more stress, therefore the disagreements experienced won’t be deal breakers. 

If we don’t do the groundwork, then disagreement can be the barrier that shuts people and relationships down, nullifying any efforts of sharing an understanding of who Jesus is. If you have ever seen a marriage, where disagreement eroded all the joy and hope between two people, you know how destructive that can be. So do the groundwork, and make people know that your love and compassion for them won't leave if you disagree, if anything it will make your love and compassion for them stronger. And if they ask 'why' tell them you love like that because Jesus taught us to care and love everyone.