Mark 12 - Wednesday 17th April

Today’s chapter is Mark 12

Tom writes:

We all know a guy who loves to go swimming in his speedos. All you have to do is glance at them and everything is revealed. Much to our frustration Jesus isn’t like that. Time after time I’ve met people who want the speedo Jesus - revealing everything to anyone at just the slightest glance. But Jesus isn’t like that. Like a riddler or a coquettish friend, Jesus uses questions and answers to hint, to suggest, to spark curiosity, to arouse desire. Jesus is so committed to questions that when no-one dared ask him any more questions (v34) he simply starts asking some of his own (v34, 37 etc). That says a lot about our God, that does. Even when Jesus comes out and actually answers a question - about the greatest commandment - it provokes more questions than answers; “why have you said two commands rather than one?!”; “what does it mean to love God with all my understanding?!”; “how can I love all my neighbours like I love myself and still get everything done?!”.  At once baffling and intoxicating the gospels assure us that mystery and discovery are at the core of our faith. If you are looking for a Spiritual Maturity that looks like clarity, certainty and revelation on tap then you’ve got the wrong faith. (Or at least you are “a bit early” - that stuff will come post-Jesus’ return). No.

Our “modus operandi” is not so much “instant revelation” as “loving discovery”. The inclination of the spiritually mature is towards inquisitive, insistent relationship with Jesus and towards committed curious affection for our neighbours (and spouses) especially when we haven’t got a clue what is going on in their brain. And so we must love questions. But what kind of questions? Some questions (like those of the pharisees) are intended to close down discovery, to catch others out, to build a wall around our knowledge that others cannot cross. People who ask these kind of questions eventually give up (v34). Jesus is too smart to ever be caught out. Other questions - Jesus-type questions - want to know what others are actually thinking. They aren’t happy just to assume or not to care; instead they put in the effort to enquire, they dare to find things out, to take the risk that the one we are asking may not fit neatly or easily into the box we have made for them. These are harder questions but better questions. These are the kind of questions that lead to discovery, to amazement and to genuine growth in faith. 

Question for reflection

What good questions will you ask today? 

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