The Questions We Ask
There is an interesting story recorded about Jesus and his disciples in John 9:1-5 (NIV):
“As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
From there, John records how Jesus healed the blind man.
I’ll be honest. Jesus' response in this story has always troubled me. Did he say, “This happened so I could heal him?” It seems odd that this man was born blind so that Jesus could heal him so many years later.
It raises all sorts of questions about God’s activity in the world.
But that is a blog post for another day. (As I age, I also accept the mystery of Jesus much more easily than I did in my twenties.)
For today, I want to focus on the disciples' first question. “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
The question reveals the assumptions baked into the disciples’ worldview. They assumed the only possible explanation for blindness was the sin of the guy or his parents. Jesus' response indicates that the world is more complicated than this narrow assumption.
And here’s a truth hidden in plain sight of this story: Our questions also reveal our assumptions about the world.
My formative years in church leadership seemed to ask the same question in various ways: How do we attract people to attend one of our church activities?
This question was based on many assumptions:
Once we got people to attend, we would impress them enough to return.
Church activities were the key to life transformation.
Our role as church leaders was to “run the church”
Discipleship happened best on church property.
I now believe that these assumptions are not the most effective way to fulfill the great commission.
Today, church leaders are asking a different question: “Why is Gen-Z leaving the church?”
Once again, that question assumes so many things.
Questioning these assumptions is one reason I enjoyed our recent conversation with Grant Skeldon on the podcast. He challenged me to think about asking different questions, and I loved his insight about how young people can find someone to disciple or apprentice them.
For now, I will leave you with this final thought: The questions we ask reveal our assumptions and determine the problems we are trying to solve.