A reflection on the Lectionary Readings for this twenty second Sunday after Pentecost.
One of my favourite things I’ve done in my years as a priest is to host ‘ask a priest a question’ sessions with children. In my first assignment after ordination, each school year we would invite the school children (grades K through 5) to a time where they could ask me and the other priest anything they wanted. Their teachers helped them prepare their questions ahead of time but we didn’t know what they would ask (although from year to year the questions were similar). I learned so much from their questions! And, one of my favourite podcasts is by an amazing woman named Kaitlyn Schiess (author, scholar, theologian, podcaster) titled Curiously Kaitlyn in which she brings in other scholars to help her answer questions asked of her by the children she teaches at her church. The podcast helps adults to understand the questions better and I learn something every time I listen.
Children ask the best questions! That is, before we adults teach them that we get frustrated when we don’t know the answer to them and squelch their questioning. But what I’ve found is that children are ok with us saying “that’s a great question and I don’t know the answer but we can explore the possibilities together.” Children ask questions from a genuine curiosity of wanting to know and understand this world we live in and the people with whom we do life. They don’t need instant, all-knowing answers. They need encouragement and to learn how to discover possible answers. And these types of answers often lead to more questions which lead to more exploration and discovery. Children should be taught that learning and discovering is a life-long journey, that we should never stop learning.
Adults, however, often have a different view of asking and answering questions. In our Gospel reading today (and in so many other stories from our good news writers), some folks ask Jesus questions in an attempt to trap him in saying things that they can use to take him down. These folks have no interest in learning or growing. They’ve decided they know everything and if others don’t see and interact with the world as they do those people are wrong and should be condemned. For these folks questions are a means to judge whether or not other people belong.
Today’s reading is part of a larger section of Matthew’s telling of the Good News that involves Jesus being asked and asking questions and we begin with a reference to Jesus silencing the Sadducees which falls in-between last Sunday’s reading and today’s (go read Matthew 22:23-33). Sadducees, a group of Jewish Leaders who didn’t believe in a bodily resurrection, tried to trap Jesus in questioning him about what life would be like in a time of resurrection. So, a group of Jewish Leaders known as the Pharisees, who were often more concerned with the letter of the law than they were about the people whom God’s laws are meant to provide for, thought they’d show how superior they were by their own questioning, even though this strategy hadn’t worked out well for them prior to this.
But Jesus never shied away from questions, answering or asking them. When asked from sincere curiosity and the desire to know the truth (say for instance the story of Nicodemus) Jesus led the asker into discovery and discernment. When asked from an emotional need for relief of the pressures we put on ourselves (cue Martha asking Jesus to tell Mary to help her) Jesus offered the truth that sets us free from our own unrealistic expectations of ourselves and others. When asked from a need to prove ourselves right (the rich young man who wanted to justify his hoarding of wealth) Jesus leads us to the answer and then lets us choose for ourselves what to do. When asked from the motivation of proving Jesus wrong, he often turned the questions back to the one asking so their true motivation was revealed in a way that allowed for self-discovery if the askers and those listening to the interaction (and us) are so inclined.
I’ve know some adults, and I’m sure you have too, who get angry when asked a question they don’t know the answer to because it makes them feel stupid or foolish when they really want the world to see them as all knowing. I’ve known adults who don’t ask questions because they are afraid of what the answer might be, that it might cause them to have to rethink something or admit they are wrong about what they think they know. I’ve known adults who don’t ask questions because it’s just easier to go through life with blinders on to anything that might cause discomfort and some who don’t ask because they’ve been shamed for asking. We all have our reasons we either don’t ask or don’t like to be asked questions. And we all have our reasons for asking the questions we do ask.
I have to wonder what on earth this group of Pharisees thought Jesus would say in response to their question about the greatest commandment. Every Rabbi had their ‘greatest commandment,’ that particular word from God which they taught their disciples was the foundation of all that they did, so this wasn’t necessarily an odd question to ask a Rabbi. Yet the Pharisees wanted nothing more than to discredit Jesus as a Rabbi so people would stop following him.
Jesus took the opportunity to give them two commandments that in all of his teaching and all that he did shows us the true foundation of our relationship with God – Love. Jesus says that when we get this part, grounding our lives in seeing each other as beloved, then the rest follows. We don’t need other gods because we know we are loved by the God who is Love. We don’t need to bear false witness, steal, take a life, or dishonour anyone because we know every human being is loved by the God who is Love.
And while the pharisees are processing their failed attempt (again) to trap Jesus, Jesus asks them a question that requires them to assess their own ideas about God’s promised Messiah. They refused to accept that Jesus was the Messiah so Jesus poses a question that could shake loose their rigid ways but only if they are willing to be shaken, to let go of their need to always be right and be freed from their self imposed bonds. In essence, what Jesus tells them is to open up their minds and hearts to continued growth. How they’ve understood the promise of Messiah doesn’t line up with what God is actually doing. Jesus is telling them to have the eyes to see and ears to hear God at work in the reality of this world instead of trying to contain God in their own ideas and ideals.
This part of our story ends with the definitive line that no one dared ask Jesus any more questions. I think this is just Matthew’s way of announcing what felt like a triumph to him. But Jesus always invited questions and did so much of his teaching through the use of questions that enable us to discover the answers we need to overcome the obstacles we’ve put between us and God’s Love.
Questions, when asked with true curiosity lead us on our journey of discipleship, that is learning to be more like Jesus every day. Questions help us take these ancient stories told by our faith ancestors and apply the wisdom to our lives today.
How are you with questions? How are you about asking questions? What happens inside you when you are asked a question you don’t know the answer to? When you encounter information or a question that goes against what you think you know, how do you react? Are you open to considering other ways of moving through this world?
To Love, Jesus tells us, is the foundation of who and Whose we are and to Love well, we are to be curious. Curiosity is a genuine desire to know, to know God, to know the people we do life with, to know those who move through and experience life differently than we do. This is what Jesus is saying when he tells us so often to have the eyes to see and ears to hear. And because our life is an ongoing journey of Following Jesus, our curiosity leads us to continuously learning to Love better each day. It’s also part of why Jesus tells us that to enter into God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven, we must be like children, willing to ask all sorts of questions as together and with God’s help we continuously discover the answers to what it means to call Jesus Messiah.
Keep Lovin’ louder than the hate, Y’all!
