DISCERNING A SAFE AUDIENCE
The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ). When He comes He will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he." John 4:25-26
This is one of the rare times in the Gospel that Jesus revealed Himself as the Messiah. Usually, He disclosed Himself as the Son of Man. Why? Because of the nature of the audience. In Galilee and in Judea, that revelation would have direct and instant political implications. The Jews, who had been waiting for a Messiah to deliver them from the oppression of the Roman empire, would hear the message the way they wanted to hear it. They would not understand that Jesus didn't come to physically deliver them from Rome in order to set up his kingly rule. He made many references to the fact that He came to die, to be offered up for the sins of the world, but they chose not to hear it because of their desperate desire for deliverance. If He prematurely revealed himself as the Messiah, he would have incited a political revolt and that would have been disastrous.
To this woman, outside the geographical lines of Galilee, the revelation was safe. Different audience. Different implications.
In my spiritual immaturity, I can choose to believe that one spiritual truth is timely and necessary for all people. That is a mistake. What may be fertile ground inside one listener is rocky soil in the next. This has been borne out in traveling over these many years. Controversial issues within the Scriptures are able to be handled by more mature Christians, but to a group of children still being nurtured by the milk of the Word, it will be a stumbling block. Only the Holy Spirit can show me ahead of time what the 'timely message' needs to be for a certain audience.
Within our families, there is a specific word for a specific time. Just because there may be a need for a certain truth to be known and embraced within a family doesn't mean that everyone is ready to hear it. If I have the need to be the truth teller, because teaching is one of my spiritual gifts for instance, but then use the gift without the wisdom born of prayer, I will see God's truth spurned. I will personally get burned in the process. There will be a revolt that feels the size of the one Jesus avoided in Jerusalem. Sitting on the truth until God shows me it's time to speak can be one of the most difficult things I am called to do. Today, who is ready for a certain truth? Who isn't? Only God knows. Only prayer will guide me.
I set a watch on my tongue and my need to speak the truth out of line. My only need today is to listen to You, Lord, and speak what You tell me to speak. Thank you for guiding me. Amen
