Opportunity?
Scripture Reading: Luke 21:10-19
Due to the everyman accessibility to fact-checking on the internet, I won’t tell you that “crisis” in Chinese is made up of two words, one meaning “danger” and the other “opportunity.” But, boy, would it fit here if it were true. Talking about persecution, Jesus says, “This will be your opportunity to bear witness.”
Anticipating our normal human reaction, Jesus tells us not to figure out everything we are going to say ahead of time. I usually encourage forethought and planning. And most of the time I still say that’s the best approach. In this case, Jesus specifically overrides that advice. He wins, of course.
This is not, by the way, a case against preparation for preaching or teaching. He isn’t saying just wing it in every circumstance. He is saying that in this specific case you can’t prepare pat answers and responses. It won’t work. But what will work is the Holy Spirit giving you the right words to say at the right time.
I think there are at least a couple of obvious reasons God has chosen to work this way in this case. First, there is the problem of pressure. Most of us don’t think well under pressure, and there is no pressure greater than persecution. No fear. God is near. Second, I think that in that kind of circumstances our witness is undergirded and confirmed by the way God gives wisdom. In other words, it becomes more evident and obvious that the words spoken by the believer under persecution are coming from a power beyond them. Therefore, “none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict,” your wisdom.
I wish the thing everyone says about the Chinese word for “crisis” were true. I’d like to use it here and tell you it comes from two characters meaning “danger” and “opportunity.” But that isn’t exactly correct, so I won’t tell you that. So, I’ll just say that the crisis of persecution is both a moment of danger and opportunity according to Jesus.