It’s Good to Ask Questions
Have you ever been in a class and not understood what was being taught, but were afraid to ask a question for fear of looking dumb? Then, somebody else asks the exact question you were thinking. I think most of us have been in that situation at some time or another.
The problem is: if the question isn’t asked, we are left not knowing the answer.
We’ve heard the story of doubting Thomas. He was the disciple who wasn’t with the others when Jesus appeared after being crucified. Thomas said, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger in the wounds left by the nails, and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe.” (John 20:19-25).
Days later, Jesus appeared again. And this time Thomas was with them. Jesus told Thomas, “Put your finger here. Look at my hands. Put your hand into my side. No more disbelief. Believe!”
Thomas responded to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus replied, “Do you believe because you see me? Happy are those who don’t see and yet believe.” (John 20:26-29)
Thomas wasn’t the only disciple that asked questions.
In John 1:43-51, after Jesus calls Philip to follow Him, Philip goes to his friend Nathanael and says, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law and the Prophets: Jesus, Joseph’s son, from Nazareth.”
Nathanael responds, “Can anything from Nazareth be good?”
When Nathanael later meets Jesus, Jesus tells him that He saw him under the fig tree before Philip ever spoke to him. That’s when Nathanael realizes Jesus is exactly who Philip said He was (verses 47-49).
Later on, Philip questions how they could feed thousands of people. With just five loaves and two fish, Jesus feeds them all, with more left over than what they started with. (John 6:1-14)
In John 14, there are even more questions from the disciples.
Jesus tells them He’s going to prepare a place for them. Thomas asks, “We don’t know where you’re going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answers, “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Philip then asks to be shown the Father.
Jesus replies, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) asks, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
Once again Jesus answers the question: “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
With all the miraculous things the disciples witnessed, it’s no wonder they had questions … and they asked them.
The same is true for us. We have questions, and we shouldn’t be afraid to ask them. We aren’t expected to know everything.
Asking questions leads us to see greater things. Asking questions is the path to the Truth. And finding the Truth is a good thing.
