Questions are okay!

Some people might feel nervous about the idea of ‘re-examination’ or questioning in relationship to theology. In many traditions, questioning is seen as doubt, and doubt is condemned as an absence of faith. However, despite some suggestions to the contrary, God doesn't have an issue with questions. In fact, questions are invited. There are a number of stories in the Bible—including stories about Jesus—that demonstrate to its readers that God is okay with questions, doubt and uncertainty. Here are some examples.

The narrative of Genesis 18:16-33 tells us that God decides to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the horrendous attitudes and acts of the people in those places. He tells Abraham, the forefather of the Jewish people, his intentions. (Note: Hebrew, Israelite and Jew are all terms that describe the people of the Hebrew Bible. The name changes through a series of circumstances we will discuss as we go. Hebrew describes the family line of Abraham up to his grandson Jacob. Israelite refers to the descendants of Jacob. The name Jew comes later in the history of the ancient Israelites).

Abraham is seen as the spiritual father of the Jewish people, and his story is the focus of much of the narrative of Genesis. Abraham, whose nephew Lot lives in Sodom, pleads with God to change his mind. He bargains, eventually getting God to promise to spare the towns if just ten good people could be found. In the end, only three people (Lot and his daughters) are found worthy, but the story shows God’s willingness to listen to his people.

The term ‘Israelite’ comes from Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, whose name becomes ‘Israel’ after an encounter with an angel in Genesis 32:22-32. Something of a selfish young man for much of his life, Jacob eventually ‘settles down’ (as much as a tent-dwelling, caravaning nomad settles anywhere) for a quiet life with his two wives, two concubines and eleven sons. The family reaches a river that needed to be crossed. The story says he sends across family and his possessions, and finds himself alone. At this point, Jacob is attacked by a man. The story is told as follows. ‘So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man’ (Genesis 32:24-25, NRSV). Physically, the man was no match for Jacob, so uses supernatural powers to displace Jacob’s hip so that he could be overcome.

The man asks Jacob’s name, and on receiving a reply, pronounces: “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome” (Gen 32:28, NRSV). The fact that Israel wrestles with God (and wins!) is a significant revelation here, demonstrating that God invites our struggles, questions and uncertainties, and seems to bear it with good grace.

Next comes a story in Exodus 32, after the Israelites (descendants of Jacob/Israel) had tired of waiting for their great leader Moses to bring the Ten Commandments down from God. They turn to Moses’ brother, Aaron. They ask him to build a visible god they could see and touch, melting down their treasure to create a Golden Calf idol. God was clearly angered by this action in the story, telling Moses to ‘leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them’ (Exodus 32:10, NRSV). Not only does Moses ignore God’s request to be left alone, he then proceeds to argue the case for letting the Israelites live. He reminds God of the promise made to the Israelites, and changes God’s mind. ‘Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened’ (Exodus 32:14, NRSV).

‘Doubt’ is often regarded negatively because Thomas, the disciple of Jesus in the New Testament, is widely known as the disciple who took extra convincing to believe that Jesus had been returned to life after his execution. ‘Doubting Thomas’ is now seen as an unkind term for anyone who seems unreasonably sceptical or doesn’t show enough faith in something most other people believe is important. In the gospel of John, it is reported as this:

 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” (John 20:24-25, NRSV)

The particularly noted point in the story then comes when Thomas finally meets Jesus for himself. He says to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” (John 20:27-29, NRSV)

Jesus’ comments to Thomas have traditionally been viewed as both a commandment not to doubt and an admiration of the faith of those who do not need evidence. They have been used to dismiss people who question as somehow lacking in faith. Yet what those readings of the text seem to miss is that in the gospel of Luke 24:9-12 it is all the male disciples who don’t believe. In some copies of the gospel of Mark (Mark 16:14), it is the eleven disciples who are named. This is also discounting the fact that none of the disciples in John itself decided to believe the women and celebrate until they had seen Jesus themselves.

The ‘blessing on those who have not seen’ is certainly an encouragement for those who are reading, who didn’t meet the physical Jesus personally (which is all of us today!) However, it should not be read as cursing those who need to see, or learn, or understand a little bit more in order to commit. If that was the case, those followers who were closest to Jesus would all stand condemned. Yet Jesus embraces and encourages them, recommissioning them on their journey of faith. There is room for us to do the same in our faith, in our theology and in our Bible reading. If Christians can believe in an infinite God, and believe that our infinite God created humans, then we can surely be comfortable in asking an infinite amount of questions with our God-given brains, knowing that we are loved anyway!