Heritage of the Saints: Bonhoeffer Childhood

 Our voices portray the heritage left to us as followers of Christ. We speak carefully with wisdom but also learn to discern when we are called not to speak - to remain silent. We speak in  decress:

"Your decrees are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart."  Psalms 119:111 

As Deitrich Bonhoeffer grew up, the world entered World War I, with three of his brothers going into military service. The middle brother of the three died in France shortly after enlisting. Deitrich saw the devastating effect on his mother, who took over 10 years to recover to some level of normalcy.

It may have been this experience that caused Deitrich to follow the path of her side of the family to a career in theology. His sister-in-law, Emmi, recalled that once he made the announcement, they peppered him with questions:

"We like to ask him questions that haunted u, e.g. was evil really overcome by good, or did Jesus want us to offer the other cheek to the insolent person too, and hundreds of other problems which drive young people into deadlock when they face real life.  He often countered with another question which took us further than a concise answer might have done, e.g. "Do you think Jesus wanted anarchy? Did he not go into the temple with a whip to throw out the money-changers?"  He himself was one who asked questions.  Bonhoeffer, Mataxas, page 38.

Scholars indicate that in the Gospels, Jesus asked 307 questions. While it is unclear that all the questions are unique, even half of them would be significant, particularly when these scholars also indicate that Jesus only answered three of the 183 questions asked of Him.

Bonhoeffer's observation that "He himself was one who asked questions" is an excellent insight as we seek to discover our heritage as servants of the Lord. The better the questions, the more we are reflecting our heritage.

Asking questions is also a sign of humility. When we are too quick to give answers, it can be a sign of arrogance. Is the answer to educate and lift up, or is it an attempt to show superiority? Might our being quick with an answer before understanding the real question be our answer in action to the question that Jesus asked in Matthew 7:3?

“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”

 Often, the questions we get asked as followers of Christ are designed to point out what is seen as a speck in our eye, particularly when the question comes from another Christian. We see an example of what should be our heritage in Matthew 15:1- 6. The Pharisees and scribes challenge Jesus with the questions:

“Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”

While it was easy for Jesus to directly answer this question from members of what would be a different denomination today, Jesus points to a more significant question that could apply to more than just the ones asking the question. Jesus begins his reply with:

“Why do you yourselves also break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

By replying with a question, Jesus gains control of the conversation, which allows Him to bring up a more significant point. One part of heritage is the traditions that we gain from our ancestors. Even as Christians, we have the scriptures, other confirmed writings, and the church's traditions. Jesus has just pointed out that traditions may break God's commandments. A good question we learn to ask in relationship to our heritage is, Do our traditions (religious or otherwise) break the commandments of God?

 Honest answers to these types of questions can cut us to the core of our being, both our spiritual being and our physical being. It gets to the foundation of what we believe and how founded we are in our heritage. It leads to the dialogue that Jesus had with the chief priests and elders as he entered the temple on a defining day for them in Matthew 21:23,

"When He entered the temple area, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?”"

This is again a place where Jesus takes complete control of the conversation by asking a question that seems relatively innocent on the surface but sets a tone of cooperation and engagement. In Matthew 21:24,

"Jesus responded and said to them, “I will also ask you one question, which, if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John was from what source: from heaven or from men?”"

Is this a question that we should be asking ourselves today, not necessarily about the baptism of John but in our daily lives? Questions such as:

• My current job was from what source: from heaven or from men?
• The home I reside in, whether owned or rented, was from what source: from heaven or from men?
• My finances are from what source: from heaven or from men?
• My spouse is from what source: from heaven or from men?

Hopefully, when answering such questions, we do not get caught up as the chief priests and elders did in considering the implications of their answers. We should rapidly see only one answer to these questions and loudly proclaim—FROM HEAVEN!!!!

Of course, the chief priests and elders were too concerned about how their response would appear to others and

"they began considering the implications among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the people; for they all regard John as a prophet.”"

 The questions that Jesus asked in response to the religious authorities of the time make an amazing study all by itself. Often, we can get caught up in the answers and in how we would answer rather than learning to ask the question ourselves, rather than learning that our heritage in Christ and from Christ is to ask questions. We need to get more comfortable having questions rather than having answers.

When the mother of the sons of Zebedee went to Jesus with a request, we can mistake our heritage as going to Jesus with requests. While we can go to Jesus with our requests, and He will answer them, we need to understand that the questions are our heritage to ask. Matthew 20:20 documents the request, and verse 21 contains the question we need to learn to ask:

"Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons, bowing down and making a request of Him. And He said to her, “What do you desire?”"

 While our desire is to become like Christ, which is the foundation of being Christian, we often meet people with an answer rather than a question. Perhaps we come with our Christian hammer (answer), and so everything looks like a nail. Our answer is the same regardless of the question. To be like Christ, should we be asking, "What do you desire?"

In this Hebraic year 5784, as we learn to use our voice and ask questions, perhaps the questions are not all that complex or complicated; maybe they are very simple:

• What do you desire?
• Do you want to be healed?
• What do you need?
• What do you want?

Asking questions is a massive part of our heritage in Christ. Can we be challenged to ask 307 questions for every three answers?