Questions Instead of Answers

John 1:19-23
This is John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?”

John confessed (he didn’t deny but confessed), “I’m not the Christ.”

They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

John said, “I’m not.”

“Are you the prophet?”

John answered, “No.”

They asked, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

John replied,

“I am a voice crying out in the wilderness,

    Make the Lord’s path straight,

    just as the prophet Isaiah said.”

August 29th is the traditional remembrance of the death of John the Baptist. I imagine in his last days, the dark cell where he was imprisoned reflected his inner emotional state. John had been the one who heard God affirm Jesus at his baptism; the one who confidently stated, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” And yet here he was wasting away in prison with no sign of a new Kingdom in sight. So John sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”

We all want answers to hard questions. In the Gospels, people ask Jesus 183 questions. He directly answers three. His normal response is to answer a question with another question. In fact, Jesus asks 307 questions in the Gospels. 

Learning to live with hard questions instead of answers might not always bring comfort, but this is the mystery of our faith. During these times, we struggle with theology as I’m sure John the Baptist did–if God is on his side, how could he be sitting in prison? How are we to make sense of God’s upside-down Kingdom where there is strength in weakness and life in death?

Before John was killed, he received his answer. His disciples returned to let him know that Jesus had said this: “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor!” Perhaps not the clear-cut answer he had expected, but Jesus gave John a vision of God’s Kingdom that he had helped to usher in. John could rest assured. Whatever was happening to him, God was with him. 

Whatever will happen, God is with us. What more could we ask for?
 

Rev. Ryan Young