Your Question is Your Question

It was a very easy question for Him to answer.

“By whose authority did you drive out the merchants from the temple?” Mark 11:28

Any of us who would be willing to read the story of Christ could likely answer the question with ease. There is little need to head to seminary or work towards a Masters of Divinity. I just asked my 10 year old son. Even he knew the answer. So
I’m pretty sure Christ wasn’t being quizzed beyond His capacity.

Do you suppose the answer would have satisfied his audience? If He had told them, “My Father gave me the authority”, do you really think that would put the issue to rest? Up until this point, these leading priests and teachers were trying to kill him. (Mark 11:18) Do you really think that His answer would divert their purpose?

“Oh. I see. God told you to do it. That makes it all better. And to think, we were upset with you and wanted you dead. Now we know you are doing these things for God. That makes it all better. After all, we love God too. Let us do lunch sometime!”

That would be too surreal.

If you’ve chosen to take your stand with Christ, you’ve no doubt had occasions where you have been similarly put on trial. You have found that no matter how you answer the questions presented to you, nothing seems to satisfy the one who asks, even though they are normally pretty simple questions.

There are people who have genuine questions about Jesus and the faith which carries His name. Many questions which come our way however, aren’t actually questions at all. They’re merely objections which take on the form of query.

In my walk, one such trial took place a couple of years ago.

“You’re a Christian are you? Well. I have questions that you can’t answer.”

“I’m sure you do.”, I replied.

As it turns out, his questions were very simple questions, much like the one posed to Jesus in Mark 11. He didn’t have questions I couldn’t answer. Instead, the questions he had were not able to be answered in a way that pleased him.

The question he gave me in particular was the old fashioned, “If there is a God, then why is there suffering?”

I can answer the question with one word. Sin.

It answers the question, and it answers it quite directly. It does NOT however answer the question in a way that generally satisfies the one who asks.

If you have read at least the first few chapters of the Bible, you should have gathered that much yourself. God created a good world, one in which men and women would live forever. Death came into the world by the sin of one man, and it’s a curse which hangs over humanity to this day.

Jesus never answered the question posed to Him. He’s smart enough to know the difference between an honest question and an objection. Rather than answering His critics, He responded with a question of His own. If only we were that intelligent.

We don’t have to answer every question brought before us. We do have the right to remain silent, and sometimes keeping our mouth shut is the smartest thing to do. Seeing as Jesus responded with a question of his own, perhaps we should do the same if we find ourselves in a similar situation.

I don’t know why the atheist expected me to answer his life questions. Why is it my responsibility to figure life out for someone else? I’m not Jesus, so I can’t always tell if the person interrogating me is asking with an honest heart or not. What I can say, is most of the time, if I have to explain it to you, you probably won’t understand anyway.