What Did Jesus Ask?: Christian Leaders Reflect on His Questions of Faith

by Elizabeth Dias, Nancy Gibbs

In What Did Jesus Ask?, more than 70 of today's most prominent spiritual writers, religious leaders and artists offer modern meditations on the questions Jesus asks in the Bible. Their contemplations provide telling context, with both contemporary and traditional interpretations to lead readers on an exploration of their own faith and to shape their own meaningful answers.As a teacher, Jesus Christ put many of his lessons in the form of questions. The gospels recorded some 100 others. Some are rhetorical, needing no answer, but most were real questions posed to real people. Many of Jesus' questions are familiar to readers today, yet the context and the potential interpretations of such phrases will offer enlightenment to many. Organized by Biblical verse, these enigmatic questions "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" - Matthew 8:26 "Why do you call me good?" - Mark 10:18"Does this offend you?" - John 6:16 Contributors include bestselling singer/songwriters Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith, Christian leaders Barbara Taylor and Cardinal Wuerl of Washington, and bestselling authors James Martin and Sarah Young, and many more. Including a foreword by Nancy Gibbs, bestselling author and managing editor of TIME magazine, What Did Jesus Ask? is a thought-provoking volume for both readers interested in religious thought and understanding the teachings of Jesus better.

Genres: Christianity, Religion, Faith, Nonfiction

322 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 23, 2014

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a point when I was led to believe I would really enjoy a book that talked about the questions Jesus asked of both his followers and detractors in the course of his ministry. When I went to obtain it, I had lost the review that led me there, so picked out to possible titles - I hope this was not the one I was led to as it was a bit disappointing. Just because you put together a variety of interested people and assign them to write about Jesus' questions does not mean there will be much cohesion that finds its way to the result. The writing was seldom horrible, or even close, but some of the reasoning was pretty lame. Still, the Table of Contacts and appendix do list 75 questions that Jesus asked along with their Biblical references, so from that standpoint the work was not a loss.

[Fire · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay and I felt like I got more out of few of the chapters than most of them. This is a collection book written by lots of different people all taking one of the questions that Jesus asked and discussing their thoughts on them. I only felt like a few of the contributors did this justice and I enjoyed reading them. I felt like I got something out of those few, however the vast majority it felt like the authors more wanted to tell a story of their choosing and only briefly touched on the questions they were supposed to cover, I didn't enjoy those as much and honestly didn't feel like I got much out of them.

This book sounded like a good book, but I was disappointed.

[Diane Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I savored this book.
Ill give you this one quote within Otis Moss II essay that sums up the purpose and contribution of this book:

“What is Strange and disconcerting about Jesus is the fact that he rarely makes demands. The style of teaching he engages in is not rote on memorization or indoctrination but Socratic, propositional and inductive. The listener is invited to explore and come to a conclusion. It is the desire of Christ for his audience to reach a conclusion and not be told what to think.
Stories, sayings, reversals, parables and other forms of teaching used by Jesus are not good teaching tools for people who seek simplistic answers. Jesus teaches but requires more of a listener. We are invited to join the journey, wrestle with our assumptions, confront our spiritual bigotry and struggle with the humbling mystery and profound profundity of God.
This is HARD faith, especially for the modern reader. We want the speaker to tell us what to think. We want our stories tidy, without complication, and we do not want questions designed to coerce us beyond easy answers. This is the LIFE and MINISTRY of Jesus. He was a walking mobile university, a theological gadfly, a spiritual teacher and Savior who cannot be contained by tradition, conformity or assimilation. Jesus is loose in the world quietly upending all assumptions, ideas and concepts we hold true.”

The power of a strategically asked question is incredible!
To break strongholds, prejudices, naivety, haughtiness, entitlement, avarice, ignorance, pride, etc etc!

I finish this book with the prayer that I may learn to ask myself and others better questions, always, in the style and reverence of the manner in which Jesus focused in the true intent in the heart and the bias of the mind to lean for whatever is found there in.

Feeling very inspired, so I will start with this one....

What did Jesus Ask?

Pick up this book and find out ;)

[Ted Hinkle · Rating 4 out of 5]

In "What Did Jesus Ask", seventy-two prominent spiritual writers, religious leaders and artists relect on Jesus' questions of faith taken from the text of the four Gospels. Their contemplations provide text for meditation both of contemporary and traditional interpretations. I used Elizabeth Diaz' compilation as a Lenten devotional.

[Bryan Neuschwander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the concept. Enjoyed many of the essays.

[Gian Inchauspe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it. It is a book that I will visit frequently.

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an interesting look at how a wide variety of Christians respond to Jesus' questions. Most responses were 3-4 pages long. Don't expect this to be deeply theological or a Bible study. Some entries were mini-Bible-studies, but most only spent a few sentences on the question before describing their organization's work or going into a social issue that deeply concerns them. I quickly realized that the questions were like an ink blot test: what the person wrote said a lot more about them than it said about the verse.

The people included were all people who called themselves Christians (as in, they didn't ask Muslims or Jews or agnostics). They came from all branches of Christianity and all over the world -- "Catholics, mainline Protestants, evangelicals, and Eastern Orthodox; men, women, LGBT, straight, black, white, Latino, and Asian; musicians, painters, essayists, poets, theologians, producers, preachers, and nuns." They come from all over the world. While a few had interesting points about the verses, I sadly didn't get any new biblical insights based on this diversity as few actually focused on the question in context.

I received this review copy from the publisher through Amazon Vine.

[Thom Kohl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never realized how many questions Jesus asked in the Bible. What a powerful way to teach! Each chapter addresses one question He asked and expounds on the significance of the question. The contributors approach this in their own way - the varying perspectives and writing styles make it very interesting to read. Loved it!

[Jon Kopecky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I stopped reading this book as it became to frustrating to finish. We want to believe that Christianity allows for a big tent view of scripture, but some analysis in the book is just plain wrong or contradictory. It does reveal that without a foundation (The Church), the Bible can take a reader into many misleading places.

[Susannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thought-provoking and interesting read.
My full review is here-
http://teaandtheology.com/book-review...

[Bailey L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally finished this book at the glacial pace I (purposely) read it in a year and a half! To sum it up, if you want to know if God exists, studying the questions Jesus asked will answer SO many of the questions you have. And as a believer, it will teach you how to answer these questions nonbelievers have, while at the same time increasing your faith. You don't need this book to study them obviously, and many of the questions they aren't well explained in the book itself and are rather trite (hence the 3-star rating). But if you take the chapter titles (which are the questions Jesus asked) and create your own study of them by reading them in the context of the section/paragraph, look up the context of which John is talking about (e.g. from commentaries), you will learn so much from this way of studying the gospels.
Two examples / my favorite applications of these questions that stick out to me:
"Do you see this woman?" - Jesus asks, and I did love how the author of this chapter of the book also explained it as, "Do you see I AM THIS WOMAN?" We are all broken, in a state of depravity, and we all need Jesus' help.
"Why do you ask me?" - Jesus asks, and then commands us to ask others who HAVE asked God about the questions we all have about the human condition, about why things are the way they are if He is a good God... meaning that we should be asking the questions so that we can understand God more.
Ultimately, Jesus' questions helped me to know more about eternal life (John 17:3). I hope you too are led to study these questions and let the word of the Lord come alive in new ways as this book springboarded me to do as well.
I thank God for using this book to let the Word of God come alive in new ways for me :)