QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Have you ever noticed that Jesus never really answered anyone’s questions? In fact, his usual response to a question was to ask another question of his own. This behavior suggests that Jesus is quite comfortable in the presence of people who ask questions. So much so that He would seemingly rather send people away still clinging to their questions than to enlighten them on the spot and provide the answers they seek.

This is in stark contrast to the Church today which seems to relish the idea of providing answers to people, even if those people aren't asking any questions.

I can’t help but wonder what might happen if Christians shifted their tactics from providing verbal answers to everyone and instead started behaving more like Jesus. What if we simply invited people to get to know Jesus for themselves. See, Truth isn't information. Truth is a person. Jesus is the Truth, and that means that to know Truth (the person) you will have to enter into an ongoing relationship with Him.

However, one might also expect to not ever completely “know” the Truth completely. That is because Jesus, the person, is also God, and that means that Truth cannot ever be fully and completely known on this side of eternity. And I kind of think that this is how Jesus prefers things. Because, based on what we can observe about Jesus, he seems to prefer the company of those who lack wisdom and are hungry for truth, rather than to spend time with those who believe that they already have all of the answers and only want to broadcast the solutions to everyone around them.

If I'm honest, I've spent a lot of my Christian life trying to be the guy who has all the answers. The Pharisees had all the answers too. They loved the status that being an "answer person" gave to them among all the seekers around them. However, the people around them still had questions, apparently. Because when Jesus shows up they ask Him a lot of questions. The funny thing was, when Jesus refused to answer their questions but instead gave them another question to consider, they looked at Him as someone who had authority that the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law (the ones who supposedly had all the answers) did not have.

I can remember hearing someone at a conference ask a question of the speaker. I knew the answer and I was expecting to hear this person explain everything, but instead the response given was, "That is a great question. I'm sure we'll explore that as we continue throughout our day."

At first I wanted to raise my hand and provide the answer. But, thankfully, I held back. Afterwards I went up to the speaker and I asked him why he hadn't answered the man's question. He looked at me and said, "Because the answer to that question is a key to the Kingdom. I can't give it to him. He needs to find it himself."

Later that day this same man raised his hand again and began to share what the Lord had been speaking to him about this same subject. As he spoke he started to break into tears. Those around him began to pray for him. He had found the key to the Kingdom. It was beginning to turn in his heart. 

Maybe that's why Jesus loves questions. He loves to reward those who earnestly seek Him. He loves to show Himself to people who are hungry and thirsty for His presence. 

If you could ask Jesus one question, what would it be? Knowing that He is likely to never answer that question, what do you think your response should be? How can you search out the answer for yourself? 

Maybe, the answer is to get to know the "Truth" (the person) a little better?

-kg