Dear St. Paul’s Family,
It would certainly be anachronistic to suggest that Jesus was a student of the Socratic Method, but it appears that in John’s gospel, he loved to teach lessons by asking questions. Some examples:
- To the paralyzed man in chapter 5, he asked, “Do you want to be made well?”
- To the man born blind in chapter 9, he asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
- To Mary, at the empty tomb, the resurrected Jesus asked, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?”
- And at the end of the gospel, Jesus three-peated a question to Peter: “Peter, do you love me?”
In each of these moments, Jesus asked questions not out of ignorance of the answers, but as an invitation for people to deepen their faith. And every time a person answered Jesus’ question correctly, their lives were transformed. Right answers brought right belief, which led to new life. Here’s a question from Jesus to the disciples that sums up John’s central premise:
His disciples said, "Yes, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure of speech! Now we know that you know all things, and do not need to have anyone question you; by this we believe that you came from God."
Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe?
When Jesus asks you a question, it’s never out of ignorance of your response. It is to engage you in a deliberate exercise of clarifying your beliefs, solidifying your commitment, and taking a risk.
This week we focus on the question that Jesus asked the disciples on the mountaintop while viewing the starving multitude. While the three other gospels record Jesus telling the disciples, “You give them something to eat,” John plays Jeopardy! by framing it in the form of a question:
“Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”
And look at the responses. Phillip reacted with a realistic assessment of the situation. There was not enough money to buy enough food. And even if they had a stockpile of six months’ worth of salaries, it wouldn’t be enough.
In contrast, Andrew went on a search and found a possibility, albeit a remote one. He brought to Jesus a boy with a few fish and a handful of loaves. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Andrew’s response is a model for each of us to follow during this Lenten season. Faith enables us to see divine hope in the most remote of possibilities. And it calls us to place our finite lives and limited resources in the hands of the one can feed the masses.
The noted preacher, theologian, and social activist Walter Rauschenbusch wrote:
Salvation is always a social process. It comes by human contact. The word must become flesh if it is to save. Some man or woman, or some group of people, in whom the saving love of Jesus Christ has found a new incarnation, lays hold of an enfeebled, blinded human atom and infuses new hope and courage and insight, new warmth of love and strength of will, and there is a new breathing of the soul and an opening of the inner eye. Salvation has begun. (from Christianizing the Social Order)
We continue our Lenten series “Something to Believe In” focusing on the One who called himself the Bread of Life. Together, let us answer the questions correctly, and join in feeding a hungry world.
See you on the journey,
Magrey
The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
http://www.cherokeespumc.org
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