Caught in a Trap

Mark 11:31-32

      Sometimes you just don’t know how to answer a question. You might have been caught off guard, not expecting any question at that moment. Or it might be the question itself, the content of the question, that takes you by surprise. You might have expected questions, but not THAT question. Your mind goes into a spin trying to figure out how to answer. You can barely keep yourself from looking shocked and off balance.

      This happens to everyone from time to time. Students try to keep their heads down so the teacher won’t call on them. Others try to look busy as the questioner’s gaze circles the room. The conference table can get pretty small in those moments. You don’t dare look up, so you just bury yourself in your distracting activity.

      Some people are better at thinking on their feet than others. Their personalities don’t need much time to process an answer. Others need time to process. They really want to give you an answer later, after they have had time to gather the facts and distill a good response.

      For these religious leaders who came to Jesus with questions, they weren’t expecting to have to give answers themselves. They were on the offensive. They were there to trip Jesus up. The last thing they expected was to be questioned.

      So they deliberate. They don’t know how to answer. No matter what they say, they are caught. Either they get discredited by Jesus for not obeying John the Baptist’s message, or they are put on the defensive with the people who did accept John’s authority over their lives. They are stuck. The last thing they want to do is to validate Jesus’ authority.

      Most people don’t like to not give an answer. Not giving an answer is generally regarded as being dishonest or evasive. That is why politicians are trained to answer hard questions by not answering them. They do this very skillfully, answering every question by giving some of their own talking points. So often they get away with this evasive answering, especially if they support the values of the media.

      Often people who don’t know how to answer a particular question tell the questioner that they will “get back with the answer” at a later point in time. This gives them time to formulate a better, more reasoned answer. But, unfortunately, they often don’t get back with an answer. They are simply using it as a stalling technique. They aren’t able to say that they don’t know, or that they don’t want to answer because the answer will embarrass them somehow. So they stall.

      But what these religious leaders failed to do was really answer Jesus’ question. Jesus’ question goes right to their rebellion against the LORD’s authority in their lives. John’s authority was clearly the LORD’s authority. And so is Jesus’ authority! If they aren’t willing to commit to acknowledging the LORD’s authority in John’s life, they certainly are willing to acknowledge His authority in their lives. It is this lack of commitment to the LORD’s authority that Jesus nails.

      Are you acknowledging His authority in your life? In all areas? At all times? Or are you like these religious leaders who become evasive when asked to stand for something important? Do you come up with excuses not to answer directly to the LORD’s claim to authority in your life? Maybe it is time to give Him an answer.

Fear Driven Silence

Mark 9:30-32

      Have you ever been so afraid of someone’s reaction that you kept silent? You had something to say, but you didn’t say it. You had a need or a want that you wanted to express, but you knew the reaction was not worth the answer. We see this so much in marriages. A person gets tired of asking for help and not getting any. They get tired of reaching toward the other person and not having them reach back. Then they give up trying to reach. Reaching only leads to disappointment and pain. The reaching is replaced with silence.

      I remember in elementary school having questions about the lessons and not asking the question. I didn’t want to look dumb or slow. What the other kids thought about be was important. I moved several times while I was growing up, so I was always trying to figure out how I fit into this new crowd. Where was my place? What could I add to the mix? So asking a question opened up my world of unknowns to the class. They would now know that I didn’t know what they so obviously did know. I now know that there were many others who had learned to be silent when they had questions.

      Jesus has again told His disciples very openly and plainly that His enemies were going to kill Him and then He would rise from death. But they still don’t get it. They are in Jesus’ classroom, but they aren’t willing to raise their hands and ask the question. They all seem to have the same question, but no one asks it.

      I think that Jesus’ plan looked so different from what they understood about the Messiah, that they weren’t able to see the exact fulfillment of those Old Testament Scriptures that had seemed so puzzling before. For centuries the Jewish people had read Isaiah 53 and were puzzled. How could the Messiah suffer? The Messiah is our triumphant hero, so there is not way He could suffer this kind of death. Even today in many Jewish circles Isaiah 53 is puzzling. They have reconciled this puzzle by making the singular person in that text be the whole population of Jews, the Jews collectively.

      For the disciples, the resurrection was totally out of their realm of experience. They had seen Lazarus be raised by Jesus, but Jesus did the raising? Who would raise Jesus? They have questions, but they aren’t willing to ask. The text says that they were afraid.

      Fear can stop us from asking, from reaching, from growing. They feared the unknown response. They didn’t want to seem slow on the uptake. They wanted to blend into the crowd. They wanted to blend in and be a team player. They didn’t want to rock the boat.

      So instead of asking an important question, they get sidetracked onto very unimportant matters. We either deal with the important or our lives become a series of unimportant moments. Which do you want?

Questions for a Questioner

Proverbs 15:28

      One of the greatest lessons I have learned over my many years is to pause before giving an answer. Those little pauses have saved me so many headaches. And during that pause I try to ask myself a couple of questions. Maybe you want to start to do the same thing.

      The first question I ask is this: do they really want an answer or are they testing the waters? Many people do not deal directly with what they want. They scramble around the edges. I will always answer a sincere question, but I will often not answer others. The sincere question gives me a window into a person’s heart. If they open it, I want to be sensitive to the work of the Spirit and use that opening for the furthering of the Gospel. And in that answer I want to be sure I meet the need, if I am able, of the person asking.

      Slowing down your answer gives you time to not react. Answers given out of reaction seldom are good answers. They often come from a defensive posture. When I feel threatened I don’t often make myself vulnerable by being honest. That is why assessing the questioner’s motives is important. They may be asking in a way that puts you in a defensive posture, but they may be truly seeking an answer.

      The second question that runs through my mind is this: how will my answer reflect the glory and grace of God? I want every human encounter to be one in which the Holy Spirit can dwell. Since I am made in His image, I want my life, and even my answers, to reflect His character. So I slow down my answers.

      If the question comes by email, which is often how questions come to me, I write my response and then save it in drafts. I take a break, sometimes for a day, and go back and reread my answer to be sure it says what I want it to say in a way that honors Him. If it is a question asked directly to me, face to face, then I slow down and begin a conversation. If the question is an attack, I really slow it down. Attacks usually come because they feel threatened themselves and the question comes as a way to keep me at a distance.