A research group emphasizes the
importance of questions in the learning process:
“Questions define
tasks, express problems and delineate issues. Answers on the other hand, often
signal a full stop in thought. Only when an answer generates a further question
does thought continue its life as such. This is why it is true that only
students who have questions are really thinking and learning. It is possible to
give students an examination on any subject by just asking them to list all of the questions that they
have about a subject, including all questions generated by their first list of
questions.”
What would it have been like to actually
hear Jesus tell one of his imaginative parables? To understand the nuances of
what he was saying? Our challenge is that Jesus lived in a very different
culture and at a very different time. His listeners would pick up on humor,
nuance, and a hoard of other cultural particulars that we would never see apart
from diligent study. If I were telling a story, and in that story, talked about
how proud we are to be Cheeseheads this Fall, with a team playing at Lambeau
and the Brewers playing at Miller Park, topping it off with a hopeful season to
get into one of the big Bowls as a Badger, you would know what I was talking
about. But if you said that to someone in another country, or even in our country
a hundred years ago, they would wonder what you were smoking. Actually, if you
said that to a person out of state, they would wonder what you were smoking,
and just the phrase, “what are you smoking”, is culturally bound!
Jesus often spoke in imaginative
parables revealing crucial truth about the Kingdom of Heaven, which is the will
and reign of God in our life and world. He used stories to draw people in to
the larger story of his life and purpose. We miss so much because of cultural
barriers but also because of our pragmatism. As Americans, we come primarily
from the perspective of pragmatism. Pragmatism says that if it works, it must
be right. Pragmatism has value, but often ignores what is behind and before the
process or choice. In a church context we are pragmatic when we just want 3
easy steps to holiness. Or 4 steps to raising great children. Or 7 steps to be
free from financial anxiety. We want to get right to the practical life
application with little concern about what is behind it; what the bigger story
and narrative are informing the biblical truth. Becoming holy, raising great
children and being free from financial anxiety are all good things, and steps
can help, but what if we are often missing richer and grander truths because we
are so quick to jump to the concrete and practical path forward? Could there be
some benefit to ambiguity in our messages? What if asking more questions and
having fewer answers forces us to wrestle with a story and allows for the
application to be birthed in an authentic community of conversation far beyond
our time together in the worship service or a one hour Life Group? What if the
pastor were to give fewer “how to do this” steps or “how to be this” and
primarily helped us to enter Jesus’ world and his irresistible influence? To
simply understand the parables as Jesus’ contemporaries did and leave the
primary application, the “steps” to the people in the crowd/congregation? That’s
usually what Jesus did.
First we must hear the story. The Message is a translation of the
Bible by scholar Eugene Peterson. His philosophy of translation was to give us
a sense of what it would be like if Jesus were speaking to us today in the
common language of our day. And if you are familiar with a biblical passage or
parable I encourage you to read it in the Message in addition to your
translation of choice to begin to “hear” it as the people in Jesus’ day did.
As you read and reread the story, ask
questions of the text, long before you jump into, “what does this mean for me
today?”
·
Who is Speaking
in the story? (Jesus, Paul, James, Matthew, etc.)
·
Who is the
primary audience? (Disciples, Crowd, Jewish leaders, Early Church, etc.)
·
What images are
in the story unique to Jewish or ancient Middle Eastern Culture? (Sheep,
Shepherds, Caesar, etc.)
·
What does this
text say about God? (Love, Justice, Patience, etc.)
·
What is
confusing me in the story?
After reading and re-reading a portion
of the text and asking key questions, invite the Holy Spirit to illuminate the
truth of the text. Write down your question and take them to your home group, life
group, mentor, mature Christian friend, or pastor and begin to understand and
ultimately to apply biblical truth by asking questions.
Jason Esposito
Lead Pastor, CrossWay Church
www.crosswaygt.org
