“How much wood – would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
How many books are there in the Christian Bible?
How many books are there in the Hebrew Bible?
How many books are there in the Early Christian Writings?
Great teachers throughout human history have taught their students by using questions.
The “classical Greek philosopher” – Socrates used a form of “inquiry and discussion” based on “asking” and “answering” questions to stimulate “critical thinking” and to “illuminate ideas.”
Thousands of years later, the “Socratic Method” is still a powerful, teaching tool for fostering “critical thinking.”
In Socratic teaching – the focus is on giving students “questions, not answers.”
And one of the things we know about Jesus and the Rabbi’s of his time, is that – they followed suit.
How many Jewish laws are there?
Jesus grew up in the Jewish faith and was familiar with rabbinical teaching so we shouldn’t be surprised when we read through the Gospels and we hear Jesus asking questions of his disciples as well as of his critics. It is what Rabbis did!
Jesus asks many, many questions and he answers very few.
When he does answer a question, it’s often times with another question.
How many endings are there to Mark’s gospel?
Once there was a rabbi who taught his students “only by asking questions.”
After experiencing this for several months, a student finally got “the nerve and the courage up” – to ask a question himself.
“Rabbi,” he said with a little frustration in his voice, “why do you only teach us by asking questions? You never tell us anything.”
The rabbi was quiet for a moment as he pondered the student’s question and then he said, “So what’s wrong with a question?”
What is the churches definition of sin? What is “real presence?”
By asking questions – Jesus challenged individuals to think about their priorities, their values, their principles, their decision-making-reasoning, their hopes, their fears, and the focus of their lives.
It was so much more than a simple teaching technique…or a style.
The reason I bring this up is because right away in the beginning of Mark’s gospel we already find Jesus asking poignant questions:
“Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food?
“Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?”
Mark tells us that Jesus was angry because, they were silent and he was grieved by their hardness in their hearts. They refused to answer his questions. They refused to grow. They knew what they knew and “it was enough.” They were stubborn and obstinate. All they wanted to do – was to “entrap Jesus.”
Mark is portraying the Pharisees as having become so focused on “rigid adherence to religious rules” that they lost “all sight” of one of the most important things – “loving our neighbor.”
The Pharisees were notorious for their observance of the laws and for their being influential and extremely prominent.
They had their own traditions on how to live “a life faithful to the Judaism” to which they were devoted.
Their rules emphasized purity, giving 10% of their food as an offering or tithe, and properly observing the Sabbath.
They were admired by the people and many were “learned in the law” and some were “politically powerful.”
As a group – as a whole they were known as being the “keepers of the law.”
Jesus was attempting to get them thinking outside of their box, outside of their normal comfort zone – and they categorically refused.
If it is within our power to heal, to help, to bless, to care for, to express sympathy or to show compassion – even on the Sabbath, then, shouldn’t we do so? Wasn’t the Sabbath made for our benefit?
Acting compassionately and showing love and kindness toward other people is more important than any “religious rule” – isn’t it? Isn’t that why it is called the “Golden Rule?”
Jesus is saying feeding hungry people on the Sabbath, healing hurting people on the Sabbath is very much in line with what God wants.
Jesus was simply challenging the Pharisees and their deeply held beliefs…but they refused to listen.
So, how open are you?
How well do you listen?
Are you still willing to grow in your life of faith?