To understand another person you must speak the same language. Jesus was not being evasive with the chief priests and elders when he said, “I shall ask you one question, and if you answer it for me, then I shall tell you by what authority I do these things.” He was trying to find out if they were “speaking the same language,” if there was a common basis for them to understand each other. Unfortunately that search for a common language is particularly acute in our day and time in both national and religious discourse. Instead of an openness to what the other has to say there is a suspicion that those with divergent opinions are the enemy and not worth listening to.
