Posts Tagged ‘questions’

Posted on May 17, 2009 - by Tim L

Jesus - always ducking questions with questions

Go and have a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQak6ng0RXQ

One way of looking at asking questions can be seen in Lean manufacturing or lean production, which is often known simply as “Lean”.  A system we are currently adopting at work.  A lean process is a process that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. Working from the perspective of the customer who consumes a product or service, “value” is defined as any action or process that a customer would be willing to pay for.

Basically, lean is centered around creating more value with less work. Lean manufacturing is a generic process management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System (TPS) and identified as “Lean” only in the 1990s.  One of aspects of Lean thinking revolves around asking questions and not telling people what to do.

The basic premise is that you avoid telling people what to do for three narrow reasons and one deeper one: 1) it robs people of the opportunity to think the problem through for themselves, 2) it deprives them of ownership of it, and 3) you might be wrong (imagine that).

And, finally, it feeds into the belief that the solution should be the focus, rather than the facts and the process of understanding where we want to go and what is happening now to keep us from getting there.

Regarding the first reason, I like to quote my friend David Verble: “What keeps people from thinking for themselves? Someone jumps in with the answer.”

Apply the same thinking to the second: What keeps people from accepting responsibility and taking initiative? Someone tells them what to do.

And the third: What keeps people from feeling free to try and fail and learn? Someone says we need to get it right the first time. Better be right. Better have the

Go and have a look at I would walk 500 miles  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uActryeSj7w

Talk
It’s a set up.  You know the kind of thing.  You’re approached by two people or cornered by that one person you’ve been trying to avoid.  They start off the conversation with an opening question but you know and they know that they’re going t follow up with the killer question, the one you’ve been trying to avoid.

After the niceties of “yes I’m fine, thank you!” you wait holding your breath for the next question or statement - “where were you?” “how could you?”, “you didn’t tell me”

And there you are - thinking round and round in circles, hoping that the honest straightforward answer doesn’t slip out of your mouth otherwise you’ll never get a fair hearing again.  Do you the feeling - you’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t.

Well, rest assured Jesus knows how you feel - just look at this

One day he was teaching the people in the Temple, proclaiming the Message. The high priests, religion scholars, and leaders confronted him and demanded, “Show us your credentials. Who authorized you to speak and act like this?”

Jesus answered, “First, let me ask you a question:
About the baptism of John-who authorized it, heaven or humans?”
They were on the spot, and knew it.

They pulled back into a huddle and whispered, “If we say ‘heaven,’ he’ll ask us why we didn’t believe him; if we say ‘humans,’ the people will tear us limb from limb, convinced as they are that John was God’s prophet.” They agreed to concede that round to Jesus and said they didn’t know.
Jesus said, “Then neither will I answer your question.”

Luke 20: 1-8 (The Message)

Now just place yourself in this scene.  Jesus is in front of a crowd of interested people, but in addition to that the chief priests, teachers of the law and the elders of the church are also there.  Its there job to make sure that the religious law is followed correctly and they are now so wrapped up in maintaining the status quo and their own position of power that they are very antagonistic towards Jesus.  He just does fit their picture of how a rabbi (teacher of the law) should act.
So they hit him with a very confrontational question - who gave you the authority?  This is a patronising question - the assumption being that of course he doesn’t have the authority to speak or act in this way.  Just the kind of question to rile someone and get his or her back up.

Jesus’ choice is either - No one OR God the Father.  The first option is not true as far as Jesus is concerned although that’s the way his critical audience probably see it.  The second answer while true will only make the situation even more confrontational - so what should he do?

And so he turns the question back to them with a question - a cross court volley of a high back court lob I’m not sure but it does send them scurrying off into a huddle.  I want to ask you something he says and he picks on an area where he knows they have a weakness.  John the Baptist, he had stood up to the Roman ruler at the time over his immoral behaviour and had been beheaded for his trouble.  The religious rulers were caught in a hard place because they knew they too should have been condemning Herod’s behaviour but had not and yet they John the Baptist had been a complete maverick who had challenged their authority.  The question then about John’s baptism puts them on the spot.  If they say it was from God then they should have backed John up when he confronted Herod.
Jesus’ question goes to the heart of what they were trying to ask him but they hadn’t seen that when they started off.  All they wanted to do was to get Jesus to admit that he didn’t have any authority.  Not to question whether his authority was from God or not.  Jesus return question made the leaders and the audience start thinking in a different way.

Now sometimes we read the Bible and it feels like it was written many many years ago.  But here we see leaders being put on the spot to answer a direct question and they are focussing on a the politically correct answer, the world of spin, they will answer in such a way that the crowd will be well received by the gathered crowd.

And in the end they bow out with - its not possible to tell with certainty.

The bottom line here with these kind of questions is that the people asking them are not really interested in what the other person thinks.  They are questions designed to incriminate the person.

Is Jesus any different?  I think Jesus does actually care, he wants the religious leaders to side with him, to take a stand, to see the world through God’s eyes.  He questions their motives about what they’re asking him because he longs for them to see the world through God’s eyes.
Jesus is able to cut to the heart of the matter because he is passionately concerned for each one of them.

So where does that leave us today?

are you asking God questions and feeling that all you get is answers back.

are you facing difficult questions from other people that leave you uncomfortable and not sure of your answers?  It may be on work or home life questions, it may be questions about your faith or how you live your life? Or do you have friends or family facing difficult questions in their life at the moment?  Do you struggle to know how to answer them.

If it the first then ? then maybe its time to let those question really register.  Rather than find the politically correct answer or spin your response back to God.  Maybe you need to take the time to actually contemplate those questions,  what is the heart of the issue that you are wrestling with God over?

If it’s the second then we need to think about how Jesus managed to be so intuitive and specific in dealing with the questions he faced.  It was his relationship with his Father that enabled him to see into the hearts and minds of those that were questioning him.  It was the certain knowledge that his Father in heaven held all things together and would be with him through anything that followed on from his replies.  So please don’t feel that you have be super bright or articulate to be like Jesus if you’re facing lots of questions.  You need to have the same relationship with God and he will help you to find the answers.  And sometimes the answer to those questions will be another question so that either you or those you are helping can find the answers themselves.

Posted on April 26, 2009 - by Tim L

Questions Jesus asked

Religious leaders are supposed to be full of answers, aren’t they?  But you’d never know it from listening to Jesus talk.  Surprisingly he was full of questions.

Why did Jesus ask so many questions?  What did he want to know?  How did people avoid answering him?  Jesus asked many questions but he had one single purpose in mind.  The one thing he is so passionately pursuing isn’t answers - come along for the summer term and find out what he is pursuing.

This week we look at asking questions.
Children get to a certain age and all they seem to do ask questions.  I don’t know if you have ever experienced that?
The Why? Questions seems to come up and awful?  Why does this happen?  Why do I have to do that?  Why?  Why? Why? No doubt there are some parents hear who have been driven to distraction by it.
Children also seem to think and expect that adults know all of the answers to life’s questions.  But again there ge ta certain point in time when the children realise that adults don’t know all of the answers and it can come as areal shock to children or YP and adults alike.  For adults in can be particularly hard to accept.  You might come across it now trying to help children with their homework and you feel as though you are the one who needs to go to school to understand what they are trying to do.
For children it is part of their growing up and having to become mature adults.  Similarly for adults the adulation for a parent that comes from a child who thinks their parents are all seeing, all knowing and all powerful - makes them sound like God doesn’t it? - means that some parents never admit that they are wrong or don’t
know anything.
We have a saying in our house “That was a Peter Houghton statement”. Claire’s dad always had an answer when they were kids to every question they asked even if he did not know anything about it.  He would just say whatever he said confidently and he would get away with it.
Now in Mark’s gospel in chapter 13 there is a whole load of stuff about how the world will end.  A bit like if the bumble bees die out all humans will die 4 years later.

²⁸“Take a lesson from the fig tree. From the moment you notice its buds form, the merest hint of green, you know summer’s just around the corner. ²⁹And so it is with you. When you see all these things, you know he is at the door. ³⁰Don’t take this lightly. I’m not just saying this for some future generation, but for this one, too-these things will happen. ³¹Sky and earth will wear out; my words won’t wear out.
³²“But the exact day and hour? No one knows that, not even heaven’s angels, not even the Son. Only the Father. ³³So keep a sharp lookout, for you don’t know the timetable. ³⁴It’s like a man who takes a trip, leaving home and putting his servants in charge, each assigned a task, and commanding the gatekeeper to stand watch.
Mark 13; 28-34 (The Message)

What Einstein, like Jesus, was unable to predict was when it would happen.  But it is not the events of the end time and when it will happen that we are looking at here. What I want us to look at or note is that Jesus did not know when it was going to happen either and he says he does not know it was going to happen.  Even Jesus, the son of God who has such a great relationship with the Father does not know when the end will come.  Only the Father knows that.  Hold on a minute, Tim you are saying that Jesus did not know something. But he is the Son of God, the divine one. How can that be?  If Jesus did not know everything it means he can be taught.

In one of the letters in the early church it is quite clear that Jesus gave up things when he came to live amongst us. He gave up knowing everything and being everywhere at once.  It is amazing for those early Christian writers to admit that Jesus did not know some things.  If they were trying to cook the books then this was a mistake because, because it makes Jesus look, well human!

But this is not the only account of Jesus’ humanity.
Have a look at this from Luke’s gospel.

46The next day they found him in the Temple seated among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions.

Luke 2;46 (The Message)

Jesus got lost!  But he was also asking questions.  It is true that all who heard him were astonished, but Jesus asked questions.  Contrast that with some of the other stories about Jesus that were circulating about in the 1^st Century.
There was a Gospel called “the infancy Gospel of Thomas.”  In it we learn that as a boy Jesus is very powerful and barely aware of his own strength.  A bit like Clarke Kent, getting used to his powers in the TV series Smallville.  In the infancy Gospel of Thomas we learn that Jesus makes birds out of some clay. He then claps his hands and the birds come to life and fly off.  On another occasion he is playing with a friend who falls through the roof of a house and dies, but Jesus just brings him back to life.  Contrast this with what Luke reports about Jesus getting lost and asking questions.  Now which Jesus would you find it easier to identify with?

Jesus asked questions all of his life.  He made a habit of it.  InMark’s gospel there are 67 episodes recoded of conversations taking place.  Jesus asked 50 questions in those 67 accounts.  If you met Jesus was he was more like to ask you something than he was to tell you something.

Jesus is always asking questions; What is Jesus asking you today?

Based on, with permission,  Jesus asked. What he wanted to know Introduction, Conrad Gempf, Zondervan, 2003.  http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Asked-Conrad-Gempf/dp/031024773X.  To learn more about Conrad go to http://www.lst.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=71