The Power of Nothing to Say

“Lots of people were pressed against Jesus at that moment, but He immediately felt her touch; He felt healing power flow out of Him. He stopped. Everyone stopped. He looked around. “Who just touched My robe?” His disciples broke the uneasy silence: “Jesus, the crowd is so thick that everyone is touching You. Why do You ask, ‘Who touched Me?’” But Jesus waited. His gaze swept across the crowd to see who had done it. At last, the woman—knowing He was talking about her—pushed forward and dropped to her knees. She was shaking with fear and amazement. “I touched You.” Then she told Him the reason why. Jesus listened to her story. “Daughter, you are well because you dared to believe. Go in peace, and stay well.”—Mark 4:30-34, The Voice

Earlier this spring, I found myself becoming annoyed with someone who I didn’t really know but whose actions and words were like fingernails on a chalkboard. Everyone has these people in their lives, and maybe God has put them there for a good reason: “So, are you going to avoid them? Are you going to let the irritation get to you? Or are you going to try to see them the way I see them? What did Jesus do?”

A few days later while out walking, to my surprise, it was almost as though God lobbed a softball and said, “Here you go.”

Out of the corner of my eye, sitting all alone, there he was—the unknown source of my irritation. I could have walked right by, but for “some reason,” just like Jesus did on that day with the woman with the issue of blood, I stopped and said something lame like “sure is a beautiful day.” He agreed that it was and then, as if a dam inside had been about to burst if only someone cared, out gushed his simple life story that needed no commentary or advice or further probing…

“… Jesus listened to her.”

...Since that sidewalk encounter, everything has changed. For me, anyway. I understood better, I felt compassion rising up and smothering irritation, and I actually looked forward to seeing this fellow whenever the next time would be. I remember his faint smile as I went on my way and “thanks, and you have a good evening too, sir.”

I do not know where this will lead. I pray that it may become an open door someday for conversation about the One who truly heals and cares and loves. But if not, it was a reminder that the most effective evangelism methods are often not the loudest or with just the right words or randomly handing out a tract.

They begin, as Jesus modeled with the woman in this story, with listening before speaking. What the world needs now….

“I’ve never known anyone to find their way into the Kingdom without first being listened to. People don’t want to be indoctrinated. They want to be heard. Evangelism isn’t about getting up on a soapbox and preaching at someone. It’s about sitting down next to that person and turning down the volume.”

—Brad Roth, from “God’s Country: Faith, Hope and the Future of the Rural Church”