Why Don’t We Ask More Questions?

As human beings, we ask many questions. Our questions are rooted in two things: a personal recognition of a lack of knowledge on our part, and humility. They are one of the most important skills of our common human experience. They are, in their purest, most useful form, the source of all new ideas. They are rooted in wonder, which Aristotle wrote is, “the beginning of all science and all philosophy.” It is also the beginning of all theology, and all of our ever-deepening understandings of our Christian faith.

But, like all things human, questions can come in two forms, one rooted in arrogance and pride, the other in true humility. We often hear questions today like: “Who are you to tell me what is right and wrong?” Or, “Who are you to tell me what is true? I decide these things for myself.” Clearly, though this is in the grammatical form of a question, it is not rooted in humility, nor is it interested in an answer of any kind, as it is, in fact, nothing less than a prideful “statement”. On the other hand, one might say: “I don’t understand what you are saying, can you explain what you mean, so I can understand it more clearly?” This is a question humbly seeking an answer. It implies both a recognition of one’s own ignorance and a desire to know a meaningful answer that one can chew on. Question: Is there enough of this latter kind of questioning in today’s often argumentative culture, at any level?

Jesus asked well over 300 questions in the four Gospels. Ought we be curious as to why he did so? What can we learn from his model of communication? In general we can come up with several purposes for Jesus’ use of questions. They were a powerful means for engaging with those he encountered. They were a way of beginning conversations about things of ultimate importance. Jesus’s listeners, like so many of us today, were quite capable of holding, or “owning” their own conclusions about things that might not be fully true or even true at all. The questions that Jesus asked forced those he was interacting with to think more deeply, to look within themselves more directly, to see what might be blocking them from a fuller understanding or insight into God’s wisdom.

An example of this would be when Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well in Luke 6:32-37, and asked her, “Will you give me a drink?” Just the circumstance of him being a man and a Jew speaking to a Samaritan woman, gave this question a significance to the Samaritan woman that could not be denied, as it should to us as well. It got her attention. She was able to listen and to gain a profound, life-changing insight into herself, her lifestyle, and her desire for a deeper happiness that she could not deny or turn away from. Indeed, it led her to recognize Jesus as the hoped for Messiah and, then, to go joyfully off to draw others to him. Is this not what we all want and hope for?

Jesus asks several questions in Mt, 6:25-30: “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” “Are you not much more valuable than [the birds of the air, or the flowers of the field]?” “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” “[Will God] not much more clothe you [and feed you], you of little faith?” These questions were deeply challenging to the disciples and the people of Jesus’ time, and they are equally, if not even more challenging to us today in these ever more shallow and materialistic times? Do we have the humility and the courage to allow these questions to change us?

One of Jesus’ most challenging questions, a question that is just as powerful today as back then is: “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye” (Mt. 6:3-4)? Given our current political environment, and the level of dialogue seen on TV talk shows, or in the environs of social media, are we letting that question sink into our own minds and hearts? How might our political environment, or our own dialogue with others, be different if we did? If we could see our own hypocrisy and our own desire to move away from it, would our dialogues be more respectful, more dignified, more Christian toward one another?

Let us all endeavor, then, as true followers of Christ, to take Jesus’ questions more seriously. Let us take his challenge to be more humbly self-reflective, more open to recognizing our own faults and failures, with the seriousness that Jesus desires of us. Let us take more responsibility in addressing them, before we so quickly, willingly, and destructively judge others. Let us learn to humbly ask more questions than we so readily offer unquestioned opinions. Let us pray for the great and holy virtues of courage and humility. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.