Quizzing Jesus
“God’s power to create and restore life burst the limits of both logic and imagination. The glorious realities of the life to come can no more be accommodated to the pedestrian routines of earthly life than can butterflies be compared to caterpillars. Present earthly experience is entirely insufficient to forecast divine heavenly realities: we can no more imagine heavenly existence than an infant in utero can imagine a Beethoven piano concerto or the Grand Canyon at sunset.” – James R. Edwards
“When I get to heaven, I am going to ask God…” We’ve all heard someone use this sentence and it comes with all kinds of endings. People are eager to know the things we can’t yet know because we are in “the pedestrian routines of earthly life” to borrow from the above quote. Still it is telling of us and others in how we finish that sentence. For when we quiz God, it tells us an awful lot about ourselves. So it was for the religious people quizzing Jesus in Mark 11 and 12 and so it is to this day. Two things stand out in my mind as we consider the quizzing Jesus undergoes.
First, it ought to stand out to us that Jesus never treats the trap questions of the Sanhedrin as opportunities to ‘own’ His opponents. Each reply is an answer to their question but, also Jesus’ opportunity to point them to something deeper and ultimately to Someone deeper- Himself. They want to know about taxes, Jesus answers them on taxes but then points to the deeper issue. Not how much tax you owe but to Whom you owe your very life. They want to hear Jesus’ answer to a crazy scenario and Jesus wants to point them to the power and truth of the God they claim to know and serve. The tragedy of course is not that each time Jesus answers their question they lose their opportunity to advance their agenda. The tragedy is in fact that none of them sees the opportunity to respond to Jesus and His agenda for them- salvation. Even as they try to create by their own cleverness a plan set in place from before creation, the Creator is offering them a chance to have a different part in the drama. Their refusal makes them not only look foolish but makes ever more certain the reality that they will miss the Messiah who’s come to rescue them. They marvel at Jesus’ answer (Mark 11:17b, ESV). Jesus’ desire is that their amazement would move them to allegiance.
Second, I cannot get past how much humanity wants to play 20 questions with God rather than surrender to Him and the love He expressed in His Son. Our questions may not be the questions of the Sadducees or the Pharisees or the Herodians but, they do show our affinity with them. More often than not, we ask trap questions of God, not so we can submit to Him or know Him better but, so that we can affirm our rebellion as the right choice from the beginning. We are looking for a loophole, Jesus is looking for those who will live under His Lordship. Does this mean its wrong to ask questions? Not at all! If we are seeking answers as those submitted to Jesus, our questions become a vital part of growing as followers. The danger though, especially for “religious” people is to ask Jesus endless questions while ignoring the One who stands before us. In the end, it all boils down to one question: What will you do with Jesus? And while we must each answer that question once for all, it is a vital question for each day if we endeavor to follow Jesus well.