Luke 2:46
“After three days they found him (Jesus) in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.”
Did you ever have a teacher that discouraged students from asking questions? It seems antithetical to the profession of teaching, so I hope not. Chances are, though, there was someone who came to your mind.
I had a math teacher in high school – let’s call him Mr. A. – who literally had each of his lessons scripted and he read them to us each day. It was hard to get his attention to ask a question, and doing so irritated him, presumably because the scripts were carefully timed to the length of a class period. When someone asked a question, though, he would return to that part of the script and re-read it. I’ll never forget the day I told him that I still didn’t understand and asked if he could explain it a different way. His face turned a strange shade of purple and a vein started bulging on his head. He called me impudent and demanded I show more respect. As typical teenagers, we found his reaction hilarious and I got my 15 minutes of high school fame for having caused it. Thank goodness my parents were good at math, though, or I’d have been completely lost.
Most of us know that asking questions is how we learn. As exhausting as they can be, we instinctively realize that the incessant questions of children, especially young children, are important for helping them understand the world around them. Yet something happens along the way, and for some reason the same behavior that causes a child to be labeled as bright and inquisitive causes an adult to be labeled as subversive, disloyal, or even dangerous.
This seems to be especially true in some subcultures, and sadly the Church is often among those that most discourage questions. While I see trends that give me hope that this might be shifting, there is still a significant portion of Christianity that seems to find questions threatening. Especially if they’re not the “right kind” of questions.
Friends, we have nothing to fear from questions.
If we follow Jesus’ model, asking questions is both an effective way to learn and an effective way to teach. In Luke 2, when his parents find 12-year-old Jesus in the temple, he is listening and asking questions. If the Son of God had questions, it’s very reasonable that we have a few as well. Later on, Jesus also used well-timed and clever questions to help others understand truths on a deeper level than simply explaining them. Check out Luke 7:42 for one clear example among many.
Scripture is full of examples of prominent people who all questioned God in different ways, and none of them managed to topple God off his throne or shake the foundations of his kingdom. In fact, they were usually met with patience and, when appropriate, answers. Even when God refused to answer directly, he never condemned the question or the asker.
If God isn’t afraid of questions then we shouldn’t be either. We’re not reflecting him well when we meet honest questions with pat, “scripted” answers or passive-aggressive judgment. Our intentions may be to defend God, but the result is often that we widen the gap between God and a child of his that he loves. We would do well to remember that Jesus encourages us to ask, seek, and knock (Matt 7:7).
When we encounter hostility, whether related to our faith or our opinions on current issues, asking questions is a disarming way of learning about someone else’s position, making sure that person feels seen and heard, and planting gentle seeds of another way of thinking.
Like the sharks in Finding Nemo, who had to learn that, “Fish are friends, not food,” we also need to learn that:
Moment of Beauty
I recently discovered this lovely poem by Rudyard Kipling that inspired some of these reflections about the value of questions.
I Keep Six Honest Serving Men
I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.
I let them rest from nine till five,
For I am busy then,
As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,
For they are hungry men.
But different folk have different views;
I know a person small
She keeps ten million serving-men,
Who get no rest at all!
She sends em abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes
One million Hows, Two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!
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