Asking questions is the answer
When some Pharisees gathered together, Jesus asked them, ‘What do you think about the Messiah? Whose descendant is he?’
‘He is David’s descendant,’ they answered.
‘Why, then,’ Jesus asked, ‘did the Spirit inspire David to call him “Lord”? David said,
“The Lord said to my Lord:
Sit here on my right
until I put your enemies under your feet.”’
(verses 41-44)
What do you do when something doesn’t make sense? I’m sure I wasn’t the only one at school who avoided asking questions, thinking it would make me look stupid. I finally learnt that those who ask questions soon become the smartest people on earth.
Scribes and Pharisees prided themselves on knowing the answers. But God walked up to them and asked a simple question: How can the Messiah be both David’s descendant and his Lord? This would be like a grandfather bowing down to his grandson. The Pharisees are dumbstruck. How could they have known that Jesus was the son of Mary and God? Even today’s most learned theologians have problems getting their minds around the fact that Jesus was both a human being and God at the same time.
The Pharisee’s mistake, however, is not that they didn’t know the answer, it’s that they didn’t ask the question. You are not saved by knowing the answers but by recognising your shortcomings and asking God to reveal himself to you.
Dear Jesus, I don’t know all the answers. Please teach me to ask questions and hear your answers. Amen.
by Robert Turnbull, in ‘Renewed Hope for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2000)
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