December 14, 2020
Asking the Right Questions
At this time of year, we usually spend a lot more time socializing than in other times of year. Not so much this year with the pandemic, but still there are social situations. And in today's reading, Jesus experienced a social situation, and we realize that social situations haven't changed that much in 2000 years. I want to read you today's reading because I think it's really powerful. And we'll pause at a couple of moments through it and talk about what's really going on.
"When Jesus entered the temple the chief priest and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, 'By what authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority?'" What are they basically saying, they're saying, "Hey, Jesus. Where did you go to school? What are your credentials? What are your degrees? Where did you go to school?" Very often you go out in a social situation and people are like, "What do you do? Where did you go to school? Where are you from?" these sorts of things. And that's what the Pharisees are doing here. Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you a question. And if you tell me the answer then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, where was it from, from heaven or from man?” And they argued with one another. And they argued with one another. They said, “If we say it's from heaven he will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?' But if we say, 'It's from man,' we're afraid of the multitude for all hold that John was a great prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."
So it's a fabulous reading because the Pharisees, the teachers, actually have no interest in the truth. They don't ask any question about, okay, what is true, what is real. They're basically just, okay, if we say this, he'll say that; we'll say that. They don't actually ask, okay, what is actually true in the situation. So often we deal with how things are perceived. We deal with how things look. We deal with how we look. So often we're caught up in our persona. We're caught up in having things as they should be or how we think they should be. We get caught up in our persona. We get caught up in our persona, which basically is how do we present to the world, and when we do that we're lost because what we should be caught up in is who are we. What is our character? What is our virtue? How are we becoming a-better-version-of-ourselves? And then that automatically sends light and truth and goodness and compassion and generosity into the world.
If you ask the wrong question, you'll always get the wrong answer. And the Pharisees here, they're asking the wrong question. There's no way for them to get to the right answer because they're asking the wrong question. Whatever question you're asking in your life at the moment, make sure it's the right question. Make sure it's not a step or two steps removed from the question you really should be asking. Examine that question. We all have a different question in our lives at this moment. You've got your question. I've got my question. Let's examine our question today and make sure we're asking the right question.
