Asking Jesus a Question is Dangerous
A wise theologian and my good friend Jack Shea says, “Notice how scripture tells us that asking Jesus a question is dangerous.” Here are some examples.
In Matthew 22:35 a lawyer asks Jesus, “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?” This seems straightforward. He is seeking one commandment as greater than the rest, and he is a lawyer who knows the law. For the Old Testament people the law centered on the Ten Commandments, given to them through Moses by God. Remember the encounter in which Moses ascends the mountain, symbolizing his desire to get close to God, and God reaches down to get closer to humanity. The result is a structure of laws designed to guide the Divine/Human partnership that I so often call an enterprise. The Law was given to humanity by God.
Notice that Jesus answers the first Commandment word for word extolling the instruction to love God with everything you have, your whole heart and soul and mind. BUT Jesus then gives a second Commandment as equal in importance to the first. Jesus continues, “And the second is like it; Love your neighbor as yourself.”
In other words, the Lawyer gets more than he asked for from Jesus and in doing so sets a structure for all Ten Commandments. Love God and love neighbor and you will obey all Ten Commandments.
In Luke 10:25-37 a man asks Jesus two questions. First, “What must I do to inherit everlasting life?” Jesus tells him to follow the commandments and, very succinctly, tells him a version of the passage above from Matthew. He tells him to love God and love his neighbor as himself.
The man then asks, “And who is my neighbor?” This inspires Jesus to tell the story of the Good Samaritan who is so compassionate to a man left for dead on the side of the road, a man who was overlooked by seemingly very religious people. The Samaritan, who Jews despised, goes out of his way to help the man, tenderly caring for his wounds, putting him on the animal that he uses for transportation. He walks alongside the man to an inn where he pays for the man’s lodging, enabling him to recover and even gives the innkeeper extra money if the man has more needs.
Jesus then asks the man which of the three who encountered the man was a good neighbor to him. The answer is obvious. The questioner again gets much more from Jesus than he asked for.
These are just two examples of questioners getting so much more than they asked for and as a result are ushered into a deeper level of spiritual consciousness by Jesus. This type of thinking can be dangerously challenging.
Jesus Asks Us Questions This Week
In this week’s Gospel, Jesus asks the disciples, and us, two questions: “Who do people say that I am?” and “Who do you say that I am?’ These are really significant questions and Peter just gets us started with his response to the second one. He replies that Jesus is the Messiah. The reaction from Jesus is one of the most emotional and challenging in all of the scriptures.
The title Messiah and the identity that it signifies has to do with kingly glory and power. Jesus does NOT want to be known for those things. He emphatically tells the disciples that he must suffer and die in order to rise. We have centuries of belief in that pattern, so it is quite impossible to understand the impact that those words had on those who loved Jesus and lived with him so closely.
The emotional response from Jesus should usher us all into the more and deeper of Jesus’ identity. He is the human manifestation of God, the second person of the Trinity, and thus he is so much more than a Messiah. He is the gift of God himself at work in our lives through the Holy Spirit every day. That is worthy of significant spiritual reflection leading to deeper spiritual consciousness, urging us to see Jesus as much more than he appears, mysteriously manifest in our suffering, dying and RISING. Those three in combination can be dangerously fulfilling!