Photo by mari lezhava on Unsplash

On Easter Sunday, church attendance swells to overflowing. Longtime members whisper to one another how wonderful it would be if every Sunday could be like Easter. Additional services must be added in some congregations to hold all those who come to worship. The Easter message: He is not here. He is risen.

It can be an emotional Sunday, less so than Christmas for many attenders, but for the church Easter is the high point of the year – to celebrate the risen Christ. If the church were to ask and to listen to its people, it might hear that some of its most devout members have some confusion, doubt, or questions about Easter. When do those members raise their questions and connect with others in conversation about the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth? Certainly not on Easter Sunday. The swell of the organ and the overflow of voices collaborating to sing the “Hallelujah” chorus overwhelms the intellectual curiosity about the events of Easter. During Holy Week and the celebration of Easter, it does not seem like the right time to engage in probing questions. So, when is the right time? 

Lent is a great time to consider the questions of the curious, although the church is always well-served to encourage followers to raise questions in their search for truth. Jesus encouraged people to be thinking people. When Jesus took the Great Shema from Deuteronomy and re-named it Christianity’s Greatest Commandment, he added one word: mind. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38). Use your mind, Jesus would have said. God wants people of faith to be thinking people, to raise questions out of curiosity, to evaluate data, to consider points of view, and to temper faith with reason, wisdom, and common sense. The church has nothing to fear from the raising of probing questions by thinking people of faith. 

Followers may question the wisdom or safety of asking questions. What will church leaders think? Perhaps they wonder if their church would feel threatened when beliefs are questioned. What could the curious questioning of traditional beliefs lead to? Could the raising of questions weaken my faith? Faithful followers may wonder if God would be upset when they question traditional or orthodox beliefs. During Lent, consider some of the questions that the curious may be quietly pondering:

• Why did God allow Jesus to die? 
• Who killed Jesus? How should I feel about them? Am I wrong to hate them? Is hate ever justified?
• Might I go to hell when I die?
• Why did God allow somebody I have loved to die? Is it possible that I may have a tinge of being mad at God about something?
• Was Jesus God? Or was Jesus a man? How could he be both?
• I’m not sure if I believe in the physical resurrection. Is there another way to look at it? Can I still sing those glorious Easter hymns about Jesus being raised from the dead if I question his physical resurrection?
• Does my church insist that I believe a certain way about Jesus? How does that make me feel about my church? Does my church get more concerned about the correctness or incorrectness of beliefs than it does about aspiring to live a God-like life?
• What if I cannot accept the “substitution view” that Jesus died for us… died on the cross to bear the agony, pains and penalty for our sins that we should have borne? What if I have a hard time seeing that Jesus became our substitute to bear the punishment that we should have experienced? 
• This seems to imply that there is something Jesus did to change the heart and mind of God, that God was poised to condemn humans and rid them from life, but somehow Jesus changed a wrathful, angry God into a gentle, compassionate God. What kind of God of love is that?
• Did Jesus have an ego? Jesus spoke about being the stone which the builders rejected, which makes us wonder: did Jesus feel the rejection? Did he feel not appreciated? Not valued? If the Word which became Flesh came to dwell among us and to feel what we feel and hurt like we hurt, would not he too have some bad days when it felt like he was not valued, appreciated, noticed, or understood?
• Jesus told the thief on the cross “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). Why did Jesus say that to a thief being executed? Did the thief do or say anything worthy of Jesus’ assurance of paradise? Can this kind of grace apply to people who have never sought to follow God? Might it seem unfair? Does grace need to be fair?
• From the cross, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34 KJV). A church member said, “I can see forgiving those who ask me to, but if they don’t ask, why should I bother forgiving them?” There may be some who have hurt you whom you feel you could never forgive. They have not asked you to. Should you?
• Overlooking Jerusalem, Jesus cried and lamented “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee…” (Matthew 23:37 KJV). Why would a government at any level reject the wisdom and insight of prophets in its midst? Is this happening today? 

Tough questions raised by curious Christians do not weaken their faith. Nor is it discourteous, challenging to orthodox teaching, insulting to God, or a sign of a weak faith. Rather, to probe out of curiosity is perfectly appropriate. You can see from the gospels that Jesus took people seriously. Jesus took people and their questions seriously as he did with Thomas, whom history inaccurately nicknames Doubting Thomas. Thomas was not doubting.  He was curious. Thomas had a lot of questions. Notice that even at the end, even when Thomas said he would not believe until he saw the nail marks in Jesus’ hands, Jesus still took Thomas seriously. In fact, Jesus used questions, even questions from hostile sources, as a teaching moment. This suggests that when we do not understand something, we are at least dealing with a kind teacher who has patience with us and takes our questions seriously.

May we – clergy, Christian educators, and leaders of the church – encourage the pondering of curious questions about the most challenging of subjects, especially at Eastertide. We have nothing to fear in our members’ search for truth. We may not have answers, and that is fine. To say “I don’t know” is an answer with intellectual integrity, and questioners will respect that. To say “do not ask” is an answer unlike the engaging Master Teacher whom we follow, and who took questions and used them to the glory of God.