The term apologetics comes
from the Greek word, apologia, which means “speaking in defense”. The most famous Greek apologia was that of
Plato who wrote in defense of his mentor Socrates in the famous, Apology.
Socrates was innocent, and if Plato’s retelling of the tale is accurate,
his defense was brilliant, but the mob sentenced him to death by Hemlock
anyway. A well reasoned and delivered argument
can work wonders, but it has limits.
Humanity cannot always be persuaded by the truth, even when it is well presented.
Jesus explains this same truth in reference to the people
who were willing to accept both John the Baptist’s message as well as his own,
and those who had rejected John’s message and subsequently rejected Jesus as
well. The significance of this double
acceptance and double rejection is made clear by Jesus when he recounts the
objections that were made by those who rejected both messengers: They rejected
John as being too fanatical, too serious, and at the same time rejected Jesus
for being too friendly and open to the needs of the ‘sinners’. The approaches of John and Jesus were nearly
opposite in their style, yet they were both rejected by the same group of
people with the excuse that style was the problem and not the substance. Jesus is making it clear that it is the
substance of the message that is being objected to, not the form. The actual content of John’s message of
repentance, and Jesus’ message of repentance, is the same. It is not the messenger that is being rejected,
but the message, and because both of these men were sent by God, it is
ultimately God who is being rejected.
Does form and style matter in evangelism, outreach, and
worship? Of course it does, we should always
strive to be the best version of the Church and individual Christians that we
can be in order to showcase the Truth of the Gospel, but we must also realize
that these things have limits. To those
willing to listen to God, the Truth will speak in a variety of settings and
styles, but to those whose hearts and minds are close to God, it won’t matter
how many different church styles they try, the substance is being rejected
behind all of them. In the end, it is
the grace of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, that is necessary to
break through the barrier of a hard heart and melt away the resistance to the
Gospel. We must do our part, God will do
his.
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