Shedding Light Through Orthodoxy

Jesus asked the right questions. Are you?

In the ninth chapter of Mark, Jesus asked his disciples: "What were you discussing on the way?" He was evidently aware that the disciples had been debating who the greatest was among them. Jesus could have responded to the disciples' power struggle by telling them their discussion was nonsense. He could have told them to stop dealing with petty and trivial matters and get a grip on reality. Instead, Jesus asked the right question: "What were you discussing on the way?"

In Mark, Jesus defines the reality of God's kingdom and his own identity by asking the right questions, such as "What did Moses command you?", "Why do you call me good?", "What do you want me to do for you?", "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" Jesus did not get drawn into the triviality of the disciples' power struggle. Rather, his question helped the disciples focus on the importance of being a disciple: "If anyone would be first, that person must be last of all and servant of all."