God’s Not Afraid of Your Questions
I think, sometimes, we are afraid of questions. Especially as Christians. It’s one of the most common hangups I hear from people about sharing their faith: “What if someone asks questions I can’t answer?” We can even be afraid of the questions we ask ourselves, otherwise known as doubt. Have you ever doubted? Have you ever been afraid to tell a fellow believer that you had doubts?
The irony of this kind of fear is that ultimately, asking questions should lead us to the truth. Perhaps the elephant in the room for many Christians who fear questions is that they are afraid of what the truth might be. What if they can’t answer the question? What if the answer isn’t what they thought it would be? That can be scary.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life…” Jesus says. And if he’s right, all truth should point to him. Perhaps this is the origin of the maxim, “All truth is God’s truth.” If, in fact, all truth is God’s truth, and if, in fact, Jesus is the ultimate Truth, then we should embrace a questioning outlook and the pursuit of truth. The answers to our questions should lead right back to him.
The foundation of our faith should not be shaken by the questions we ask, because the foundation of our faith is simply in a man. We begin with the witness of Jesus, who he is. That, ultimately, is the greatest question of all: “Who is Jesus?” If we can answer that as he did (“I am the way…”), then we can face any other question on solid ground.
And this is exactly what we see in Scripture. The Bible is full of questions. Some are profoundly simple (“Where are you?” God asks in the garden). Some are simply profound (“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” asks Jesus). Some come from a place of deep pain (“How long, O Lord?” cries the psalmist). When we read through Scripture, we realize that God is not afraid of our hard questions. He’s not afraid even of our doubt. He is big enough to face whatever we have for him.
As Pastor Mark shared this past weekend, we’re nearing the end of our time journeying through The Story, and our next sermon series fast approaches: Fearless Q: Dare To Ask. We’re going to spend the summer tackling the thorniest questions we all wonder about. The first wave of questions have come in, and the response has been very enthusiastic. Personally, this is encouraging to me. If you’ve written a question, or if you plan to, I hope that you are encouraged in the very act of writing the question. I hope that you write it truly fearlessly. When we cling to the witness of Jesus, we can truly dare to ask fearless questions.
Pastor Larry