I’ve been thinking a lot about questions.
Questions exist where they are articulated and where they are hidden or obscured. There are questions on the surface that we feel and know. And there are questions below the surface that shape us or nag at us, but that we can’t quite put a finger on or articulate.
Jesus’ interaction with people in the gospels are case studies on the nature of questions.
When Jesus encountered someone they usually had a question – a surface felt need, agenda or simple curiosity.
Jesus didn’t have much time for this.
Rather, Jesus would quickly brush past the surface and elicit the deeper – unspoken – question. What was really going on… what was really driving someone… what really defined things.
In John 3 the Samaritan woman asks, “Who’s right… should we worship in this style or that style, this mountain or that city,” and Jesus responds by avoiding the trivial and saying real worship is a matter of the heart and of authenticity… “A day will come when you won’t worship here or there, but you will worship in spirit and in truth.”
He didn’t waste time with pop-culture questions like, “Does Tim Tebow win games because he prays,” but would dive right at the heart of the thing, “Why don’t more professing Christians pray like Tim Tebow?” “If you believe God answers prayer then why are you not praying for bigger things like fighting injustice, how you can be used in his Kingdom, helping the orphan, loving the widow than just who will win an American sports competition?”
I’m growing hungry for better questions that lead to deeper answers.
We find God a lot better in those places. We find truth a lot better in those places. We understand ourselves a lot better in those places.
“Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.” – C.S. Lewis