pigs and pearls

Pigs are creatures that eat trash and wallow in mud.

Pearls are precious treasures waiting to be discovered by those who search eagerly for them.

When Jesus instructs me in Matthew 7 not to “give dogs what is holy” and not to “throw pearls before pigs,” what is he talking about?

Let me give a little context for this question. Since I have arrived in France, I have had numerous opportunities to engage with people in discussions about spiritual matters. In a few cases, I have made direct reference to Christ and to our need for the grace of God that comes through Him. In many cases, I never even got that far. In no case yet have I actually talked through the profound significance of the cross of Christ, or the eternal implications of His death and resurrection for sinners like you and me.

At times I feel guilty about this. Am I ashamed of the cross? Am I afraid to present the gospel in its entirety? Am I worried about what people will think of me?

Today I was walking and praying to the Lord, and I asked Him about this. “Lord, I have asked you to give me boldness to proclaim the gospel, and to give me the words to say each time I interact with someone who does not yet know you. Why don’t I ever get to the cross? What’s going on?”

I kept walking and I waited for a response to this question. Very soon after I posed the question, this image of pigs and pearls came to mind. What use does a pig have for a pearl? He can’t eat it; and if he does, it will probably make him sick to his stomach.

Then a contrasting image came to mind. I pictured a sheep wandering around in a desolate valley, with nothing to eat. I imagined someone approaching the sheep, pointing to a rocky path leading up the side of a mountain, his lips whispering some message of hope. Soon, the person turned and began walking; and the sheep followed behind. I knew where they were going. They were going to find the green pasture.

No pig in his right mind will follow a stranger up a rocky mountainside in order to find some grass to eat. But a hungry sheep will. The sheep may not be too bright. But one thing the sheep does well is to follow the one who knows where to find the good grass.

It is interesting that this instruction about pigs and pearls comes on the heels of an exhortation to avoid judgment. Jesus rebukes the person who would look to pull the speck out of his brother’s eye before dealing with the log in his own. Sometimes, I think evangelism can go this way. I approach someone with the certainty that I have the message that they need to hear. Unfortunately, I may not recognize that I’ve got logs in my eyes that keep me from seeing this person clearly. The log of my own limited experience. The log of my own narrow worldview. The log of words and images that may mean one thing to me and something entirely different to them. And with these logs in my eyes, I can’t possibly help this person with their speck, whatever that may be.

And this is a major problem: I don’t know what the speck is. I don’t know why they don’t believe in the Lord. I don’t know what experiences they have had with faith and religion. I know little or nothing about their journey, their loves and passions, their successes and victories, their wounds, their failures, their dashed hopes and dreams. To give them my explanation of the gospel in such a state of blindness would be like throwing pearls to pigs.

But Jesus is in the business of transforming spiritual pigs, who eat trash and wallow in mud, into spiritual sheep who hungrily search for green pastures and still waters. How He does this is a mystery to me. It is a work that the greatest evangelists, most eloquent preachers, and wisest theologians on the planet are incapable of accomplishing.

So what does that mean for my day to day interactions with men and women who don’t know the Lord? It means that I take time to hear before I speak. It means that I ask the Spirit of God for discernment regarding a person’s readiness for the pearls of the gospel, the profound truths of the cross and the death and resurrection of Christ. It means that I guard those pearls until the Lord begins His transforming work of grace in their heart.

It means dropping tempting nuggets of truth into the pens of apparent spiritual pigs. It means testing the waters by making mention of the green pastures that are found in Christ, talking openly about the evidences of His grace and the effects of His power, looking for a sheepish spark of hunger in the eyes.

It means that much of the work of evangelism includes searching for lost sheep (men and women whose hearts have been quickened and made hungry by the grace of God), placing myself in contexts where I might encounter them, and readying myself to lead them to green pastures.

Does this mean that I never talk about the cross or the essential message of the gospel? Not at all. But it does mean that sometimes, when filled with the Spirit and with boldness to proclaim the good news, I may find myself unable to express that which I most want to say. For some reason, the Lord may not let me go there. And so I keep looking for opportunities, as I wait and I pray with expectation for that moment when pearls may be placed in the palm of a companion who has finally started searching for them.