Fostering an Existential Crisis: Probing Questions
I hear the question, “Why?” a few dozen times a day. With my 4-year-old, it’s almost reflexive. Jesus also asked a lot of questions. Unlike my 4-year-old, His questions were rarely for information or explanation , but a means to foster an existential crisis. He wanted to provide an opportunity for a person to evaluate his or her conscious or unconscious assumptions about God, life, purpose, and worship. His questions were often perplexing, sometimes unsettling and always revealing.
- Who do you say that I am? (Matt. 16:15). Jesus, from at least the age of 12, knew who He was and why He was here, but the same could not be said of the people who interacted with Him. Even those disciples closest to Him, weren’t entirely sure. This existential question drew out Peter’s response, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” If Jesus is the Christ, what does that mean for Peter and for all of us who allow this declaration to guide our life choices?
- What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? (Matt. 16:26). Peter goes from making a supernatural deduction about Christ’s true nature to rebuking Jesus for revealing to them His true purpose – to be betrayed, killed and raised to life 3 days later. Jesus hears in Peter’s rebuke the very words of Satan in the desert, “All this I will give you (insert dramatic revealing of the kingdoms of the world), if you will bow down to me.” Peter and Satan were suggesting Jesus take the world without pain and suffering. What if receiving the nations without suffering is to gain the whole world yet forfeit not just one soul, but all souls everywhere? In what areas am I trading something of infinite value for a temporary trinket?
- Do you want to be healed? (John 5:6) This question strikes a certain chord in me entirely because of the number 38. Jesus encounters a man who was crippled for as long as I have been alive – 38 years. His question challenged this man’s identity as invalid and whereas the answer to such a question seems obvious, Jesus was striking a nerve we all feel at times. What if following Jesus replaces my identity as the victim, as the depressed person, as the fragile personality with something less comfortable? This question also incited another identity crisis in the Jewish leaders because Jesus did this work of healing on the Sabbath, which was forbidden. What do I do if God ask me to go against my traditions and social norms to follow Him?
Jesus was the master of causing people to question their assumed foundations for being. He forced existential crisis wherever He went. At Upton Lake we believe one of the goals of Christian education is to do this very thing. I will not pretend that this kind of struggle is easy but it is necessary and good. The human condition is to want to be left alone with illusion that everything is fine. To have our often wobbly foundations kicked and shaken, even by those who have our best interest at heart, fills us with that gut wrenching feeling of uncertainty and fear of falling with no one to catch us. The reality is, not everyone Jesus questioned was willing to leave her or his wobbly pedestals and follow Him. In Christian education there are no guaranteed results. But the most loving thing we can do is to test the foundation of what each of us are building our lives on. Jesus said himself, sand may be easier and more convenient to build on but when the storms of life come, it will fall with a great crash. What better time or place than to discover a foundation of sand in our lives then when we are young and surrounded by people who love and care for us? Only then can we scrap our self-made identity heap and allow our existential crises to guide us to the rock of Jesus. For us at Upton Lake, fostering a passion for Christ often begins with standing with our students through their existential crisis.
