If you had a chance to question Jesus, would you?
Our natural reaction is “you bet I would!” But that’s a very different picture than the one the Bible paints. In fact the people closest to Jesus often didn’t question Jesus.
“But they didn’t understand what he meant, and were afraid to ask him about it.” (Mark 9: 32)
The Disciples were an interesting group. On the one hand they witnessed things that most of us never will. They saw miracles like people coming back from the dead (in non-zombie form) and the blind seeing. On top of all that they also had a chance to spend time 1-on-1 with God.
Now we can all talk to God in prayer. We can all get our questions answered that way. Prayer is an amazing thing. But it’s not the same as talking to God while having a cup of Starbucks. The disciples though did this (although I’m not sure how many Starbucks there were in Galilee). They were able to talk, laugh, and just spend time with Jesus. They had a unique opportunity that none of us will get in this life.
And yet time and again they passed up on the opportunity to question Jesus.
Right before Jesus was crucified he began to talk about dying. The disciples, however, wanted no part of that conversation. They believed Jesus was going to be a great military leader. That he was going to reestablish a literal and physical kingdom, much like David. In short he was going to make Israel a world power again.
They didn’t want to listen to him talk about death. In their minds it just didn’t make sense. And it terrified them. So they did what most of us would do: stick our fingers in our ears and go “la la la la.”
It would be as if George Washington had told his troops on the eve of the Revolutionary War that he was “about to die”? Or if Lincoln, during the height of the Civil War said he was about to die. People would have been terrified. Their leader, the person they put all their faith in, was going to die? How did that make sense? What was he talking about?
I think the disciples were afraid not just because Jesus said he would die, but because they couldn’t understand how Jesus’ death would bring about their image of a messiah. Dead leaders don’t win wars after all.
Out of all of us the disciples were in the best position to question Jesus. Yet they didn’t. They let fear hold them back. They more afraid of the truth than willing to trust Jesus.
Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if the disciples hadn’t let fear rule those moments. Would the days following the crucifixion look different if they had really understood what Jesus’ death had meant? What if the disciples had pursued an answer from Jesus? Would he have given it to them?
Of course that makes me think about you and I. What would our lives look like if we questioned Jesus for the truth, instead of letting fear stop us short?
We are often too afraid to ask God for help. We’re afraid to ask because he might say “no.” We’re afraid to ask, because what does it mean if nothing happens? We’re afraid to ask, because we can’t see beyond our current problems. If we’ve only ever known suffering and fear, what else could there be?
We may be angry and yell at God and “question” his authority or justice. But we rarely question God seeking real answers. We don’t want to understand what God has in mind for our lives if it means learning that it’s not what we expected. And isn’t that when we’re the angriest at God? When our expectations don’t match reality? How much less suffering we would endure if we just questioned God and actually listened for an answer!
