Questions

Prodigal Kiwi makes some good points, initially quoting Richard Rohr.

Jesus is asked 183 questions directly in the four Gospels. He only answered three of them forthrightly. The others he either ignored, kept silent about, asked a question in return, changed the subject, told a story or gave an audio/visual aid to make his point, told them it was the wrong question, revealed their insincerity or hypocrisy, made the exactly opposite point, or redirected the question elsewhere!
Check it out for yourself. He himself asks 307 questions, which would seem to set a pattern for imitation. Considering this, it is really rather amazing that the church became an official answering machine and a very self-assured program for ‘sin management’.

pax et bonum

Article posted at 09:37am on 18 July 2006
Category: Faith, Links

Without going into the great lenghts required, I would address the statistic. In Matthew 19, the rich young ruler engages Jesus with three questions, and gets three answers:

And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Jesus was plenty clear. The fact that he challenged people to think does not make him the mysterious seer that the writer presents. After all, what use is truth if we cannot discern it?

Hammertime () (URL)
9:02pm on 26 July 2006

But the young man didn’t get a direct answer. Jesus’ first answer was “why do you ask me about what is good?”, then He led the young man down a path to the question he really needed to ask: “What do I still lack?” (in other words, keeping the Law wasn’t enough). Only then does the young man get a proper answer.

The fact that Jesus preferred not to give straight answers doesn’t make Him unclear – it’s possible to make a stronger point by asking a question than by answering one. And it’s certainly true that Jesus wasn’t a “fact-dispensing machine”, which was kind of the original article’s point – for we sometimes try to turn the Church into one.

pax et bonum

[John] () (URL)
08:09am on 27 July 2006

What were the three questions Jesus did answer directly?

paul
2:17pm on 03 November 2006