Jesus Didn’t Come to Give Answers — He Came to Ask Questions.

Growing up in the evangelical Church, I was taught that Jesus provided the answers to all of life’s questions.

But, it turns out that Jesus provided hardly any answers.

In fact, in the Bible, Jesus only answered 3 of the 183 questions others asked him. If you were looking for answers, Jesus should be the last person you go to. In fact, reading through the Gospels, you will notice that Jesus rarely answers a direct question. Most of the time, he would respond by telling a story or by asking a question of His own.

Yes, Jesus was more concerned with asking the right question than giving the right answer. He only answered three questions, but he asked 307.

That’s one answer for every 100-plus questions.

You might conclude that Jesus didn’t come to provide answers at all but to provide questions. Perhaps Jesus understood that asking the right question is extremely powerful. It can expose a person’s true motives, defuse a heated situation, and lead the asker to their own conclusions; it can even cause a breakthrough in someone’s life.

There is a reason why Google gets 47 billion hits every month. It’s because we are addicted to answers. Jesus doesn’t give answers; he asks questions. Here are eight questions that he asked that are still relevant today.

What do you want me to do for you?

If Jesus had a favorite question, this was it. He asked it more than once. Jesus asked it of a blind man who was sitting beside the road begging for Jesus to “have mercy” on him.

It’s a strange question to ask a blind man, don’t you think? I mean, isn’t it obvious what the blind man wants from Jesus? And yet, Jesus asks the question. Perhaps, he wanted the blind man to speak it out loud for himself. Perhaps the blind man’s blindness had become such a part of his identity that Jesus was checking to see if he really was ready to have his life completely changed.

Who knows.

But for one reason or the other, Jesus asked the blind man the question, “What do you want me to do for you?” I wonder, would you have an answer if Jesus asked you that question? Imagine Jesus walked into the room where you are right now and put his hand on your shoulder, and said, “Hey, what do you want me to do for you?” What would you say? What is it that you would want Jesus to do for you? Maybe the answer to that question is more vital than you realize for you to grow, change, and see as you’ve never seen before.

There’s another thing that stands out about this question. Here was Jesus, supposedly the one-and-only son of God, creator of the universe, asking one of his created beings, “How can I serve you?”

Think about that for a moment.

What does that tell you about what God is like?

Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye yet fail to perceive the wooden beam in your own?

Here is a question that Jesus asked that surely resonates down through the ages and still speaks to us today — all of us. This question punctuates Jesus’s ultimate statement on judging others, found in Matthew 7:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?”

Sometimes the things that Jesus says are a bit obtuse or abstract and require interpretation. But, on this matter, I think Jesus couldn’t be more clear.

DO NOT JUDGE.

It’s a bit of an irony that Jesus tells us, in no uncertain terms, not to judge others, and yet Christians have become renowned for it. When we catch ourselves judging others, this question from Jesus should punctuate and deflate our self-congratulatory fault-finding.

Who touched me?

Picture this:

Jesus is in a crowded place, where people are brushing up against him on all sides. A woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhaging illness for many years sneaks up to Jesus and touches the hem of his cloak, hoping that this alone may cure her.

Her vaginal bleeding problem embarrasses her, so she tries to be discrete. She assumes that in the crowd of people, Jesus won’t even notice someone touching the corner of his robe.

But he does.

Amongst the bodies brushing up against him, he somehow senses the woman’s light touch and asks, “Who touched me?”

In Mark 5:33, we read, “Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.”

What is so profound and wonderful about the fact that Jesus knew this woman had reached out and touched him amongst the many hands and bodies? Let me explain it like this: I was in a crowded shopping mall the other day. The place was packed with hundreds — perhaps even thousands of people. I remember thinking, “God, how could you notice all of these people? How could you know them all? How could you distinguish their prayers one from another?”

But in this story, we see that Jesus recognized the slightest touch from one woman in the crowd. This question from Jesus reveals to us that those who reach for Jesus do not go unnoticed by him.

Do you want to get well?

Here is a truth: Your ability to help a person is limited by the extent to which they wish to be helped. Some people have found their identity in a kind of learned victimhood to which they have become so addicted that they don’t actually want to get better.

Of course, such people often say the right things — like, “I wish I were better” — but their actions betray the truth.

Once, Jesus came across a guy who had been stuck dealing with illness for a staggering 38 years. This poor fellow was hanging out by a pool in Jerusalem. Word on the street was that every once in a while, an angel would swing by and give the pool a bit of a stir. Tradition held that the first person to jump in, right after the water got all riled up, would be cured of whatever ailment was bothering them.

John 15 says:

“When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Imagine lying around for 38 years hoping that a superstitious legend might deliver you from your affliction and doing nothing in the meantime. Is it any wonder that Jesus asked, “Do you want to get well?”

Jesus refuses to tolerate the man’s learned victimhood. He tells him to take action. Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” The man was cured at once; he picked up his mat and walked.”

This question from Jesus invites us out of our learned helplessness and instructs us to get up and do something about our afflictions, whether finding peace in a situation we cannot change or finding change.

Why does this generation seek a sign?

You can sense the frustration in Jesus’s voice when he says in Mark 8, “Why does this generation ask for a sign?”

After Jesus had miraculously fed four thousand people, the Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Just give us a sign from Heaven, and then we’ll believe.”

Jesus sighed.

The reality is that if Jesus had turned the chief priest into an armadillo, they still wouldn’t have believed. There’s a very simple reason for that. Belief requires faith which is belief in that which you cannot see. You will never get enough evidence from signs and wonders to cancel all elements of doubt. Therefore, belief requires a leap of faith in the end.

Some churches have such a profound focus on seeking the miraculous that they completely miss the miracle worker. To follow Jesus, you must follow Him for Him — not for what he can do. Since Jesus is no longer physically on earth, that requires faith.

That’s why Jesus said, “Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.” When Jesus asks, “Why does this generation seek a sign?” it is simultaneously an invitation to trust him when there are no signs to be found.

Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?

Oh… you didn’t know Jesus said that, did you?

Yes, believe it or not, in Luke 12, Jesus exhorts the listening crowd to exercise their own good judgment and brains. Here’s what it says:

He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time? Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?”

The title of this section of the Gospels is “Interpreting the Times.”

Growing up in the church, I was taught to banish my inner voice and not to trust my feelings and intuitions because I am inherently and hopelessly wicked. I was told to take every thought captive and measure it against the scale of righteousness.

Yet here is Jesus essentially saying, “Use your own brains to recognize the times and act accordingly.” It’s almost as if Jesus is saying, “Trust your own judgment.”

So, the question from Jesus: “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?” is an invitation to listen to your inner voice, intuition, and feelings. After all, are you not guided by the Holy Spirit?

Do you love me?

This question was asked not once but three times to the Apostle Peter by Jesus.

Why three times?

Well, Peter denied knowing Jesus three times. It was symbolic. Peter had abandoned Jesus just like the rest when Jesus’s hour of need had come, after boasting, “Even if everyone else abandoned you, I will not!”

He had failed Jesus big time.

Jesus could have responded angrily to Peter. He could have written Peter off. He could have accused Peter of being a traitor. And Jesus would have been justified in all of those things.

But Jesus doesn’t demand an explanation. Jesus doesn’t expect Peter to grovel and wallow. Jesus doesn’t heap guilt and condemnation on Peter. Jesus does not treat him as you or I might!

But instead, through the power of asking a gentle but searching question, Jesus helps Peter see the enormity of his failure for himself and the magnitude of Christ’s forgiveness and reconciliation.

Do you love me?

It was a restorative question that communicates a beautiful truth: With Christ, a failure is an event, not a destiny. A failure is an event, not a person.

Who do you say that I am?

In Matthew 16, Jesus asks his disciples this question. Here is the story as it unfolds:

“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.”

At the end of the day, your answer to this question will determine your regard for his life, his teaching, and his example. It’s a question that all people still need to answer. Was Jesus merely a good, wise, and benevolent teacher? Or was Jesus something more?

I can’t answer that question for you, but I’m sure that Jesus still asks it today.

Questions > Answers

When I was in high school, I would often ask my teachers during lessons, “Do I need to know this for the exam?”

I’m sure it would drive my teacher nuts. I was less interested in learning than I was in having the answers! Just give me the answers, dammit!

But, now, I see the power of questions. In fact, I’m convinced you can learn just as much — maybe even more — through a good question than a good answer.

And many of the questions that Jesus asked are still teaching their lessons to this day.

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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