Why Are You Talking?

Nov 2

In Mt 11:2-6, John the Baptist asked Jesus if He was the coming Messiah. Jesus responded by describing what He had been doing and referring to Isa 61:1 – a passage widely believed to refer to the Messiah. Yet, since John was in prison, Jesus also spoke to a question which must have been on John’s mind: ‘Am I going to get out of prison? Jesus listened to what wasn’t being said and to the totality of what John seemed to mean. “In good conversation parties don’t speak to the words, but to the meanings of each other” (Ralph Waldo Emerson).

Jesus’ answer was to not quote the part of Isa 61:1 which referred to the release of prisoners. Thus, He hinted to John about his fate, if John, also, would listen to what wasn’t being said. “The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said” (Peter Drucker).

Sometimes, the best way to persuade others is to not be too direct. Jesus spoke in parables (Mt 13:3). On the other hand, Dean Acheson, Secretary of State in 1950, gave a speech which was too clear and informative about the defensive priorities of the United States. This seemed to lead Stalin to the conclusion that South Korea could be invaded with impunity. Sometimes it is better to keep people guessing by being somewhat vague. For example, Isa 61:2 actually spoke of two comings of the Messiah but would most naturally be understood as only one arrival of Christ. We are part of a spiritual war where communication often needs to be in code or be ambiguous enough where the enemy could misunderstand it.

Good communicating is a complex skill. We need to discern whether it is time to listen or talk, what an unspoken comment might suggest, how clear to present something, whether our spouse was merely wanting to inform us about a problem or was trying to persuade us to fix it. “The chief ends of conversation are to inform or to be informed, to please or to persuade” (Benjamin Franklin). We all make mistakes in how we communicate but let us keep attempting to do better.

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