How to Foster an Existential Crisis: Heart Revealing Answers
Whereas 3 year olds ask questions continually, 13 year olds know everything and never ask another real question until they are 25. Some people need a good question to get them thinking; others need a good answer to get them thinking. Previously we looked at Jesus asking questions in order to provide an opportunity for a person to evaluate his or her conscious or unconscious assumptions about God, life, purpose, and worship. He also answered questions with the same intent – to challenge deeply held beliefs, to reveal self-deception and to force a person to take stock in where hope and help come from.
- “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Lk. 5:31-32) Growing up in a Christian community and teaching in one now, it’s easy to demonize the Pharisees and miss the reality that I am more like them then I would like to admit. I would be more comfortable eating dinner with the Pharisees then with tax collectors and sinners. They valued the Bible, gave money to good causes, believed in spiritual reality and practiced spiritual disciplines. And while Jesus never refused to eat with the religious elite, He seemed to prefer those no one else would reach out to, the culturally and morally revolting. When asked why He spent time with these reprobate people, this response reveals their self-righteous assumption and the heart of God to heal those who realize their sickness.
- “One thing you lack, go sell everything you have and give to the poor…Then come, follow me.” (Mark 10:21) This account has always struck me as tragic. This young man realizes he is missing something and he wisely goes to Jesus for the answer. His question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Mark’s gospel tells that Jesus looked at this young man with love. Jesus knew the problem – this man had built his life on wealth and morality and didn’t even realize that these had taken the place of God in his life. With this piercing answer the man experienced an existential crisis and walked away very sad. The question and answer time doesn’t end here however because the disciples evaluating all the positives this young man had going for him ask, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus’ answer, “With man this impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
- “’If you can?’ Everything is possible for him who believes.” (Mark 9:23) This story reveals the unseen impact of discouragement and doubt on the inner life of faith as seen through this helpless father in regard to his demonically afflicted son. Nothing creates existential crisis like the sense of being unable to help deeply hurting children. The father in this encounter, like many parents, has a child that is beyond human help and it has driven him to his emotional and spiritual end. Without even knowing it, in his use of the phrase “if you can”, he has applied human helplessness to God Himself. Jesus answers this man’s unknown question with a phrase we would expect to see on a coffee mug, but challenges this deep seated belief. You can trust God in the dark and difficult times. He is never helpless. This father responds with the beautiful paradox of struggling faith, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” And Jesus does.
Asking good questions is all well and good, but what happens when there are contrasting answers to the question? What happens when the human heart responds in opposition to the reality of God’s way? Open ended questions can prompt self-reflection, but we need loving answers that rest on the revealed realities of God Himself and not just our fragile feelings, thoughts and experiences. Here at Upton Lake we don’t claim to have all the answers, but we are deeply committed to the One who gives them. Struggles that shake our core foundations and beliefs don’t have to be worked through alone. Christian education provides another opportunity for Jesus’ nailed scarred hands to lift us up and provide something deeper than answers; more of Himself.
