It started early. Our Lord had only been on the earth for twelve years when Joseph and Mary mistakenly left Him behind in Jerusalem as they made their way back to their home in Nazareth. When they returned to Jerusalem “…they found Him sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions” (Luke 2:46 ESV emphasis added).
It continued throughout a great portion of His earthly ministry. Repeatedly, our Lord taught by listening and asking. Space here does not permit even a mention of each of these instances, much less a discussion of them. Only two such examples will be briefly considered.
On one occasion, Jesus and His work were being severely criticized. The scene is recorded in Matthew 12:22-32, Mark 3:22-30 and Luke 11:14-23. The religious leaders of His day were making the accusation that He was casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub. Although these Scriptures do not say that He heard them, He did know their thoughts. (Since we are not deity, we cannot know each other’s thoughts unless those thoughts are expressed and heard.) As you read about how Jesus handled that accusation, you will find that He asked them a lot of questions. Based on the obvious answers to those questions, He was able to allow them to see that their position was untenable and that they had a much more serious problem than being wrong in their thinking.
It is more than passing interest and importance that the “great confession” made by Peter as recorded in Matthew 16:16 also grew out of a period of time when Jesus did some listening and asking. When we read that wonderful statement that Peter made, we can be sure that we are reading his own carefully considered and firmly believed assessment that, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter was not parroting something that some other individual had “drilled into him.”
It seems to me that we could learn a lot from this as we deal with those today who are outside of Christ. If we “browbeat them into submission,” we may never be sure whether their “faith” is really theirs or not. In time to come, they may also have doubts about that.
How different would it be if we respected them enough and were confident enough in our own faith and knowledge of God’s Word that we would listen to their questions, concerns, positions, etc.? Would they (and we) not be confident that their faith was, in fact, their faith?
Please do not misunderstand what I am trying to communicate. I am not trying to leave the impression that there is no such thing as absolute truth. I do not believe that everything is open to question and that we all can believe different things and, at the same time, all be right. I am do not believe that it is wrong to ever make a definitive statement or take a definite stand.
What I am trying to communicate is that we would be very well advised to use one of the techniques (but not the only one) used by our Savior. We might be surprised by how much we could teach by listening and asking.
