Theological Inquisition

It's Jesus' turn to ask a couple of questions.

And here, after all the questions directed at him, Jesus asks the Pharisees a question. Actually, he asked them two questions. For the second, he gets no answer, except that they don’t ask him any more questions.

His question presents a conundrum to them and perhaps this is a model of theological inquisition for us. There are both/and questions and answers.

Scripture and doctrine are helpful, but they are not exhaustively definitive.

Right?

In the beginning, God created. And God created creation and humans. These are the things of material and spirit. Combined with the thing that is time, they are narrative. God did not set out to create the exactness of law, but the relationship of beings.

We may not be convinced by this passage about the nature of David and the Messiah (the Christ), but about the way we do or do not approach theological inquisition.

Matthew 22:41-46

Now as the Pharisees were gathering, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”

“David’s son,” they replied.

He said, “Then how is it that David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, called him Lord when he said, The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right side until I turn your enemies into your footstool’? If David calls him Lord, how can he be David’s son?” Nobody was able to answer him. And from that day forward nobody dared to ask him anything.

Prayer

God,

I am thankful that you created me a thinking being. I like to reason. But as I grow older, I love all the more to love and be loved. To enjoy and be enjoyed. To laugh and to feel and to wonder and to experience.

Thank you for the world around, for the laughter of children, for relationship and intimacy, for sunsets and animals and the sky full of stars. Thank you for the taste of foods I like and for the enjoyment of the table with friends and family. Thank you for the joy of being compassionate and sacrificial and to learn more about the world and others by opening myself up to the unknown (actually, help me a bit with that, too).

All-in-all, thank you for the margins of knowledge which bleed into the experience of life. Help me to live it today.

By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.