May you never cease to find the questions to your Answer.

The Word for today:
Luke 8:22-39

mark this: Luke 8:25
"Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?"



Which came first--the chicken or the egg?

Which came first--the question or the answer?

I'm not here to strain your brain or place you on the horns of a dilemma. I just want to point out that the Q & the A have a more complex inter-relationship than often meets the eye.  Jesus knew this, and often made a question his answer.

The other day I was reading some political commentary, and a government program was described as "a solution in search of a problem"--an answer in search of a question!

Now that your brain feels like it's been tumbled in the dryer, I'm going to tell you where the Bible has taken me. Are you ready?

Jesus is the answer.  Now, what's the question?

***

Today's reading provides no less than the ultimate, most consequential question ever asked:
"Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?" (Luke 8:25)

The answer, of course, is embedded in the question. The disciples knew their Old Testament scriptures, which taught that God controls the seas. Psalm 107:24-30 is a precise parallel of what they had just seen:

They saw the works of the LORD, his wonderful deeds in the deep. For he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away. They reeled and staggered like drunken men; they were at their wits' end. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven.

Psalm 65:7 refers to God as the one "who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves." Psalm 89:9 addresses God directly: "You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them."

The disciples knew that Jehovah could still the seas by his word alone:
But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight. (Psalms 104:7)
He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up. (Psalms 106:9)

All waters flow and cease to flow at God's command. Logic demands, therefore, that Jesus must be the Creator, God. The disciples understanding of Christ suddenly shot right out of the universe!

***

There's a man in our office with the most ironic ring-tone of all time. His phone blasts out the old U-Tune called "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

My spirit has turned the song's original intention inside out, so that each time I hear it, I'm reminded that there's no end to the thrilling questions I've yet to encounter, every one of them revealing a heretofore undiscovered facet of Jesus.

May you never cease to find the questions to your Answer.

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