Would you ask?

Luke 5:17–21 CSB

17 On one of those days while he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea, and also from Jerusalem. And the Lord’s power to heal was in him. 18 Just then some men came, carrying on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed. They tried to bring him in and set him down before him. 19 Since they could not find a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the roof tiles into the middle of the crowd before Jesus. 20 Seeing their faith he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” 21 Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to think to themselves, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Intro

Have you ever thought about how much of life is driven by questions?

You have Google, one of the biggest technological companies in history, and the idea that thrust them in front of everyone else in technology was the Google Search Bar. Ask it any question and it will guide you to an answer, not the right or wrong one, but the available one on the internet. Google went from being a noun to a verb.

I think of my kids and as soon as they were able to speak what they began doing was asking questions seemingly without end.

Have you ever thought about how many questions Jesus faced in his lifetime? It started early in his life:

Luke 2:41–50 CSB

41 Every year his parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up according to the custom of the festival. 43 After those days were over, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. 44 Assuming he was in the traveling party, they went a day’s journey. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. 46 After three days, they found him in the temple sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all those who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” 49 “Why were you searching for me?” he asked them. “Didn’t you know that it was necessary for me to be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he said to them.

Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks writes in The Art of Asking Questions:

In Judaism, to be without questions is not a sign of faith, but of lack of depth. ‘As for the child who does not know how to ask, you must begin to teach him how.’… Education is not indoctrination. It is teaching a child to be curious, to wonder, reflect, enquire. The child who asks becomes a partner in the learning process. He or she is no longer a passive recipient but an active participant. To ask is to grow.

But before we even meet Christ our temperament towards him and all who follow Him is very aggressive and prideful.

This brings me to the question, how would an unbeliever ask Jesus if he encountered him?

How would you ask?

Take the religious experts of Jesus’s time. The entirety of Matthew 22 is about religious experts trying to trap him through his response to questions.

Matthew 22:15–17 CSB

15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to trap him by what he said. 16 So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are truthful and teach truthfully the way of God. You don’t care what anyone thinks nor do you show partiality. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

Sadducees don’t even believe in the resurrection

Matthew 22:23–28 CSB

23 That same day some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came up to him and questioned him: 24 “Teacher, Moses said, if a man dies, having no children, his brother is to marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first got married and died. Having no offspring, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second also, and the third, and so on to all seven. 27 Last of all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had married her.”

the enemy of my enemy is my friend

Matthew 22:34–40 CSB

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. 35 And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him: 36 “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

After all their feeble attempts to trap Jesus through their questions Jesus asks his own...

Matthew 22:41–46 CSB

41 While the Pharisees were together, Jesus questioned them, 42 “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They replied, “David’s.” 43 He asked them, “How is it then that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’: 44 The Lord declared to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet’? 45 “If David calls him ‘Lord,’ how, then, can he be his son?” 46 No one was able to answer him at all, and from that day no one dared to question him anymore.

But if you had the assurance the person you were asking had come back from the dead, what would you ask about?

What would you ask about?

What will it be like?

As a kid growing up in church I used to think as life moved on I would compile a list of questions that I would then ask God about once I got to heaven.

Some of us might even want to know about heaven life itself. Will I be forever young? Will I instantly have a rockin’ body? Will I gain weight if I eat? Will the laws of physics be the same since the source of light will be God himself?

My grandfather instilled in me great curiosity about what would be possible in our glorified bodies once we are with our Lord in heaven with his imagining that we would transport from one place to another.

The disciples were also curious about the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 18:1 CSB

1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “So who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

What questions came to the disciples minds after they encountered Jesus a week after he had resurrected? We read in the gospel of John...

John 20:26–31 CSB

26 A week later his disciples were indoors again, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Don’t be faithless, but believe.” 28 Thomas responded to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” 30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

“We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we think we have the answers” Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Keep seeking truth and you will find Jesus.

John 14:6 CSB

6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.