By Brother Matthew Henson
I was told the story of a college student who was taking a philosophy class in college. The night before the final exam, he decided to spend more time drinking with friends than he did in preparation for the exam. When they sat down to the exam, he was unable to think straight or to keep his eyes open. He opened the exam to see one question, “Why?” He laid his head on the desk and drifted off to sleep. His friend who was sitting nearby, poked him awake with about fifteen minutes left in the exam, but the young man still did not write anything. With 60 seconds left in the exam, the friend poked him awake and implored him to write something. The tired student wrote his response: “Why not?”
There are many questions in life that begin with “why?” We do not understand our present condition, our experiences, or the struggles of life. It is easy to become stuck in the question of why and miss the possible answers. When we become stuck in those questions, we miss out on the fullness of life. We become weighted down.
Jesus faced this question as he hung on the cross. We read in Matthew 27:46, “About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ (which means ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’).” The weight of that moment as he lived the words of Psalm 22, echo through history into our own cross moments when suffering, pain, and even death overwhelm us.
If we leave the story at the cross, we stay in suffering and defeat. The cross is an instrument of death and defeat in the world’s eyes. E. Stanley Jones writes in The Christ of Every Road: A Study in Pentecost, “I know now that life can speak no harder word than it spoke at the cross…” If we end there, it is a hard word to receive and our ability to live fully is dismissed. Jones continues, “I know now that Life can speak no more adequate word than it spoke at the resurrection” (Page 78). The cross without the resurrection is defeat. The cross and the questions of “Why?” are overcome and answered with the resurrection.
Jones later writes, “Our gospel is the most pessimistic of faiths in that it dared to look at life through a cross, but it is the most optimistic of faiths in that it now looks at life through an Easter morning” (80). When we face the “Why?” questions of life, we can answer, “Why not?” because we know we have the power of the resurrection for our lives. We do not live as the world lives in defeat. We live in the knowledge of resurrection that incorporates all areas of life from physical to spiritual.
Do you have questions in your life today? Are you asking, “Why?” and feel overwhelmed because there are no answers. Can I encourage you to consider the resurrection and the fullness of life through the Holy Spirit. In Christ, we do not seek escape from our present condition. We seek our participation in Jesus’ resurrection to discover Life. The answers come through resurrection.
Prayer: Lord, my questions overwhelm me at times. Do not allow me to seek escape from the questions of life. Let me find in you, the hope of the answer and the fullness of life in your resurrection. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
