Matthew 19 is full of questions people asked Jesus. Important questions. Pressing questions. Life-altering, eternity-shaping questions.
- “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” (19:3)
- “What good deed must I do to have eternal life?” (19:16)
- “What do I still lack?” (19:20)
- “Who then can be saved?” (19:25)
- “What then will we have?” (19:27)
Do you remember how Jesus began his response to the Pharisees’ question about divorce?
“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” (19:4-5)
Good question.
People continue to have questions. Lots of questions. Important questions. Pressing questions. Life-altering, eternity-shaping questions. Questions can be a very good thing. They show we’re thinking. Heartfelt, thoughtful questions demonstrate that we care enough to consider input and explore the possibilities. But I wonder if Jesus wouldn’t respond to many of us exactly as he did in the beginning of Matthew 19. “Have you not read?”
At times, it can be difficult to maintain the discipline of Bible reading. Life for many of us is very, very busy. But the questions don’t disappear, do they? And even if you don’t have a specific, weighty question on your mind at the moment, a golden opportunity may very well fall into your lap today in the form of someone else’s question…
- “Should I get a divorce? Could I get remarried?”
- “Is there life after death?”
- “Why can’t I figure out what seems to be missing in my life?”
- “I’ve made a real mess of things; is there any hope?”
- “Why am I here? What is life really about?”
Are you ready with an answer? Do you know the answer? Parents, what will you do when really big questions come from really little hearts in your own home?
Jesus isn’t afraid of my big questions, but neither is he hesitant to ask me a question of his own in response: “Have you not read?” Perhaps the answer, the wisdom, the perspective, or the hope I need has been right there all along, in black-and-white, preserved in that God-given book I’m not picking up very often.
Keep asking those big questions, by all means. Dig deep. Be curious. Stay hungry. Just remember there’s a much more credible source for the biggest questions of all than Google or YouTube or a quick poll of your friends on Facebook.
Have you taken the time to carefully read and humbly consider what your Creator has been saying from the beginning?