What does our Lord teach us about His own method of communicating the Gospel?
First of all, Christ was involved in dialogue. He was an active listener, and He fully entered into the thought world of the person with whom He was speaking. He also had compassion for people. Compassion also needs to be a hallmark of our witnessing.
Christ's way of communicating was also holistic. He related to people as whole persons. He was concerned about the body AND the soul. To illustrate that, He forgave the sick and healed the sinners. Remember the scene with the paralytic in Mark 2? "Son, your sins are forgiven." Then later on said, "Stand up, take your mat and go to your home." In Jesus there was no discrepancy between work and action.
Christ's method of communicating was situational. He went "on location." He found Matthew in the tax collector's office, the Samaritan woman at the town well, Zachaeus up a tree. He ate and drank with sinners. He went where the people were. He reached out to them in their life situation.
Christ communicated in simple language. Scripture says in Mark 12:37 "The large crowd was listening to Him with delight." Probably because they understood Him.
At the same time He followed the important communication principle of starting with the known and going to the unknown. Jesus would say, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow," and people could understand what He was talking about. Then Christ goes on to talk about worry and the care of God. Or He would say, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers." People knew what He was talking about because people were continually being robbed along that road.
Do people understand you or I when we present the Gospel to them? Do we speak their language?
May you and I, empowered by the Holy Spirit, communicate as Christ did. By being involved in dialogue - By relating to people as whole persons - By being situational and going where people are - By speaking in a simple language that people can uderstand.
