The Perfect Persuader

Last time, we noted that God himself initiated a relationship to his creation by way of condescension. "Condescension" is a metaphorical term. It means "to come down." But God does not "come down" by occupying a space that he did not otherwise occupy. So what does "condescension" mean when it refers to God?

It means a number of things, but one of its primary meanings includes the fact that God expresses his incomprehensible character in a way that we can understand. We know God because he reveals himself anthropomorphically. That is, he reveals himself persuasively. Since one important aspect of persuasion is connection, in condescension God is connecting himself with his human creatures in ways, or modes, those creatures can understand.

The quintessential "connection" between us and God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ, God does not simply tell us about himself, he becomes one of us in order to show and tell us who he is and who we are. There could be no higher or more majestic picture of persuasion than God's condescension in Jesus Christ.

But it should help us recognize the central importance of persuasion if we see, not only the person of Christ as himself the climactic persuasion of God, but also the teaching of Christ as the most masterful and perfect example of what persuasion is. A couple of examples of this will have to suffice here, but I would encourage readers to re-read the Gospels in light of the persuasive wisdom and power of Christ's teaching. 

Our examples will be taken from Luke's Gospel, chapter 20. In the week before Christ's passion and resurrection, the religious leaders were particularly intent on trapping him, undermining his authority, so that their own authority would be restored among the people.

Luke 20:1-8 (ESV) -- 1 One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up 2 and said to him, "Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority." 3 He answered them, "I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, 4 was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?" 5 And they discussed it with one another, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say, 'Why did you not believe him?' 6 But if we say, 'From man,' all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet." 7 So they answered that they did not know where it came from. 8 And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

There is much that could be gleaned from the brilliance of Jesus in this encounter. We will focus our attention on the persuasive aspects of it.

Jesus is in the temple teaching and "preaching the gospel." At this point in Jesus' ministry, it is impossible to deny that he has accomplished great and miraculous works among them. So, the religious leaders approach him, and they are no doubt convinced that they can undermine all that he has done. They know that Jesus thinks he acts according to the Father's will. All they need him to do is to repeat that in the temple and they, as the religious leaders, will have "good grounds" to repudiate his entire ministry. After all, they are the ones who hold, and who alone can attest to, God's authority.

But Jesus could not be trapped by these leaders. Instead, he trapped the would-be trappers. He would answer their question, but only if they could first answer his -- "Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?" Why this question?

The genius of the question can be seen when we recognize the people and place of this incident. Perhaps a more current analogy would help. Suppose, for example, that you are invited by a the youth group of a liberal church to speak. This is a church that has long ago denied the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. You come to that church and you preach the gospel with all the authority of Scripture itself. After preaching, the youth group rushes to the front of the church, with great appreciation and thanks for your message. They ask everyone in the church to join them in celebration of the truth of Scripture. They even ask you for an encore; they want to hear more.

But the elders of the church, sitting and seething together in the front pew, are incensed. They immediately move to the front of the church, grab the microphone from your hand, instruct the congregation to be seated, and then ask you this question, "By what authority do you dare to preach to this congregation? How dare you presume to tell them that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven!" How might you respond to this question?

One way to respond would be to say, "I preach by the authority of God himself, who has spoken in every word of Scripture." That would be a true response, and there is nothing in that response that would be improper.

But another, perhaps more persuasive, response would be something like this: "I would be happy to discuss by what authority I have spoken in your church, but before I do, I would like to hear you respond to this question, "By what authority do you call yourselves a church of the Lord Jesus Christ?"

Can you see the point? If the elders respond that they call their church a church of the Lord Jesus Christ because of what he has said in Scripture, then they point to the authority of Scripture itself, which, as it happens, serves to approve your own preaching. If they respond by saying that the church's authority is a matter of their own position in the church, then they know that those who heard and believed your message would revolt; the church would be finished.

The elders are trapped by the question; they are forced to deal with their own hypocrisy, and they are faced with the only real option available to them.

Jesus' response shows the subversive beauty of the art of persuasion. As we were saying last time, one of the key elements of persuasion is making a connection between the differing parties involved. But that connection is in order to a purpose. In this example, the connection is established so that when the authority of Scripture is placed squarely into the context of a pretense to authority, the hypocrisy is exposed for what it is. The very existence of the church is on the line. Either repent and be renewed as a church of Jesus Christ, or expose your pretense for what it is. Any church that denies biblical authority, has no right to be called a church any longer.

This was the trap that Jesus set for the religious leaders in the temple. The very fact that they would not answer his question exposed them for the hypocrites they were. It showed the crowd that the leaders had no authority beyond their own petty pretense. They were not, as they claimed to be, representatives of God.

One more example of the Perfect Persuader will have to suffice. In the same chapter, we read:

Luke 20:27-40 (ESV) -- 27 There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, 28 and they asked him a question, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30 And the second 31 and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife." 34 And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him." 39 Then some of the scribes answered, "Teacher, you have spoken well." 40 For they no longer dared to ask him any question.

As with the previous passage, there is so much here that could be pursued with great benefit, but we will have to stick to the salient points of persuasion.

First, Jesus knew, as Luke tells us, that his questioners did not believe in the resurrection. They approach Jesus with what they think is a "trap" for anyone who does believe in a resurrection. They think that they will persuade Jesus of their view by trapping him with his own view. They should have known better.

Here is a group of religious leaders, prominent in the community, who not only deny the resurrection, they deny the existence of angels and demons, and they have no time for the prophets and psalms of the Old Testament. They stake their reputation on the first five books of Moses.

Contrary to popular opinion, the first concern of the Sadducees was not about marriage. They used a marriage illustration to show how ludicrous a belief in the resurrection was. But the illustration had its focus in one of their "favored" books of the Bible, Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 25:5-6 it says: "If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel."

The Sadducees were convinced, since there was no resurrection, that the only way to "live forever" was by way of progeny. The problem they present to Jesus was not, centrally, a problem of marriage, but the problem of progeny. Here was a woman, in their example, who, despite having the fullest opportunity to conceive, had never had children. The first man's name was "blotted out of Israel" because of this woman's infertility. How, the Sadducees are asking, will a "resurrection" rectify this situation? Out of the fullness of opportunities -- seven husbands -- which one will be assigned to carry on the name with a woman who is wholly infertile? How can there be children, in other words, when this woman has no chance of child-bearing?

Again, Jesus is a Perfect Persuader. He points them to the resurrection, not as a continuation of the earthly family of Israel, but to the resurrection as itself containing the "sons of God." Those in the resurrection are sons of God because they are sons of the resurrection. In other words, Jesus is saying to the Sadducees, "Are you troubled by the continuation of Israel in the face of infertility? You should recognize that those in the resurrection are not in need of child-bearing because they themselves are sons of God! Like the angels, there is no need for procreation, because life itself will continue forever." Masterful persuasion.

Jesus' final point to the Sadducees puts them in a very difficult spot. He quotes from another "favorite" book of theirs -- Exodus 3 -- and a central book in all of the Old Testament. He quotes from that book, which they claim to believe, to point out to them just exactly how they were supposed to read it. "Speaking of Moses," he, in effect, says to them, "would God have identified himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob if they were dead?" Could your God be the God of that which no longer lives?

Not only so, but, in connection with his first point, it would not have escaped the Sadducees that those three -- Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- each had wives with infertility problems! Not only was God able to overcome those problems with each family, his overcoming of those infertility issues was with a view toward the resurrection, the eternal life, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all their progeny who would believe in him. In this incident, Jesus' persuasion connected with the concerns of the Sadducees, and used their own presumed expertise to show them the error of their thinking. He showed them, as Matthew reports, that they were wrong because they did not know the Scriptures or the power of God (Matt. 22:29).

This is marvelous and magnificent persuasion from our Savior. So much so, Luke tells us, that the religious leaders quit trying to trap him because they "marveled at his answer" (20:26) and "they no longer dared to ask him any questions" (20:40).

Persuasion is not a scientific technique. It is an art that can be practiced in our own thinking, as we meditate on the truth of God, and as we make an effort to "connect" with others to whom we speak. As we practice persuasion, it will help us greatly to meditate on the Perfect Persuader himself and to pray that we too might gain that wisdom that can only come from above.