Books & Bibles
Entertainment
Fashion & Jewelry
Gifts & Giving
Home Decor & Accents
Kitchen & Gourmet
Beauty & Health
Specialty Stores
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Questions of Jesus: Challenging Ourselves to Discover Life's Great Answers
| Our Price |
$ 13.59
|
|
| Retail Value |
$ 15.99 |
|
| You Save |
$ 2.40 (15%) |
|
| Item Number |
2719545 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Item Description...
This illuminating examination of the Gospels reveals how the questions Jesus asks of his followers lead the way to a deeper understanding of the meaning of life and the mystery of God.
The Gospels are filled with stories, parables, miracles, commandments, and dramatic incidents that trace Jesus' life and recount his teachings. A close reading of the Gospels reveals, however, that they are also filled with questions. As John Dear points out in this remarkable book, Jesus, like any great teacher and rabbi, “has a question for everyone he meets, for every occasion, for every experience, for every potential disciple.” Dear uses these questions as a starting point, an invitation to readers to discover the lessons they contain by searching their own hearts and minds for answers.
Throughout The Questions of Jesus, Dear interweaves insights from ethical and religious teachers ranging from Buddha to Gandhi to Martin Luther King, Jr. Using recent events as powerful and poignant examples, he shows why a renewed commitment to Jesus' message of nonviolence, compassion, justice, and peace is essential to healing a world torn by violence and war.
Praise for John Dear's Living Peace
“Living Peace is a deeply moving and profoundly inspiring account of John Dear's journey of enviable courage, boundless faith, unquestioned hope, and unconditional love.” —Martin Sheen
“In this inspiring book, John Dear proves himself the William Sloane Coffin of our day.” —Publishers Weekly
“Living Peace is a call to the reader that peace is no further away than a prayer to the Lord that He might come.” —St. Anthony Messenger
“John Dear is a bright young light in the religious peace movement. Living Peace shows the deep spiritual roots of his commitment.” —Jim Wallis, editor in chief, Sojourners
John Dear is a priest, retreat leader, author, and peace activist. He has served as the executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an interfaith peace organization, and as a Red Cross coordinator of chaplains at the Family Assistance Center in New York City after the September 11, 2001 attacks. He has traveled to the world's war zones on missions of peace, has been imprisoned repeatedly for civil disobedience against war, and has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR's All Things Considered, USA Today, and the National Catholic Reporter. He lives in northeastern New Mexico.
ONE
INVITATION
What are you looking for?
(JOHN 1:38)
What are you looking for?"
The first question Jesus asks does not address our sins, failures, or infidelity. It is not accusatory or hostile. Rather, it is a question rooted in compassion and love, calling upon our deepest desires, the best within us. It is a question full of hope.
"What are you looking for?"
John's Gospel begins when John the Baptist tells two of his disciples that Jesus is the Messiah. "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world," he says, pointing to Jesus. The two disciples immediately begin following Jesus. When he notices these two followers, Jesus turns around, looks them in the eye and asks, "What are you looking for?" He does not reject them. From the start, he is interested in them. He draws them out. He gets them to articulate their hopes and dreams. He is willing to listen to them. He shows them loving kindness.
Those first disciples are caught off guard by Jesus' disarming question. So they ask him a question. "Where are you staying?" Always inviting, Jesus welcomes them into his life. "Come and see," he says to them.
What is it we are looking for in our lives? A good place to begin our daily meditation is to sit in silent peace with the holy desires within us, and to imagine Jesus looking at us with loving kindness and asking, "What are you looking for?"
What would we say to Jesus? As we look at him, as we feel his sincerity and love, and as we notice his lack of judgment or anger, we can let those deep desires surface and be spoken. Seeing the love in his eyes, we know that he will not laugh at or reject us. We know that the best within us comes from God, that God has given us everything that is holy within us, and that he will affirm whatever holy desires we seek.
What is it we want? What do we truly desire? Life is short and precious. What are we most looking for in the remaining years we have left? If we can sit with his question for days and weeks, we will discover, perhaps to our astonishment, that we are not looking for money, power, fame, or control. We are really looking for love, goodness, truth, peace, happiness, justice, mercy, and joy. We are looking for meaning. We are looking for God. We are looking for Jesus.
St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, knew, even in the sixteenth century, the importance of holy desires. He taught that every time we pray we should ask God to give us "what it is we are looking for." The Buddhist monks of Tibet also recognize the spiritual wisdom of knowing what it is we seek. For thousands of years, their dharma was based in the understanding that the spiritual life begins by naming what we truly want.
Our deepest desires hold great power. If we can name them, unleash their goodness, and channel those desires toward God, then our lives will be transformed. We will begin a journey toward God, into the mystery and peace of God, and become servants and friends of God.
If we listen to Jesus' question, name the pure, selfless, loving desires that lie buried in our hearts, and tell Jesus what we are looking for, he will listen and beckon us into a whole new life where those holy desires will be realized. If we dare say that we are looking for him, that we want to be with him, that we want to follow him, we can trust that he will invite us to join him on his journey and lead us to where he lives.
Why are you looking for me?
(LUKE 2:49)
According to Luke's Gospel, when Jesus is twelve years old, he goes with his parents on the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Afterward, he stays behind without his parents knowing it. When they realize he is not in their caravan, they return to Jerusalem in a panic, searching everywhere for their boy.
After three days, they find Jesus in the Temple, where he sits "in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions." Already at his young age, Jesus behaves like a rabbi, listening and asking questions. "All who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers," Luke reports.
"Son, why have you done this to us?" his mother asks. "Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety." The poor parents are worried, stressed out, and angry. They probably feared that something terrible had happened to Jesus, perhaps that he had been kidnapped or killed. But they do not respond with corporal punishment, verbal abuse, or humiliation. Rather, Jesus' mother asks a simple yet serious question.
But Jesus has just spent three days arguing the fine points of the Scriptures with the highest religious leaders in the holiest place on earth. Although he is just twelve, he has already become a spellbinding teacher, an extraordinary rabbi who listens, asks questions, and gives remarkable answers. So Jesus in return asks his parents a pointed question: "Why are you looking for me?"
Luke records that his parents do not understand what Jesus is saying, but that he returns home with them.
It's a good question. If we sit with it, we may hear Jesus' desire to know what motivates us--and we may find ourselves, likewise, unable to answer.
Over a billion people claim to be followers of Jesus. More books have been written about Jesus than any other person in history, and more books have appeared about Jesus in the past thirty years than ever before in history. In recent years, portraits of his face have appeared on the cover of nearly every major U.S. magazine.
Why are we looking for Jesus? Each one of us has a different answer. We look for Jesus because he is the most authentic person who ever lived. We look for Jesus because we feel his compassion for us. We look for Jesus because in his humility, suffering, forgiveness, and death, we see pure selfless love. We look for Jesus because deep down we believe he is alive, that the resurrection is true, and that he will help us through our personal brokenness and global catastrophes. We look for Jesus because we hunger and thirst for God and we believe that he embodies God.
In the end, we may say simply, "Jesus, we are looking for you because we love you, we need you, and we want to be with you."
What do you want me to do for you?
(MATTHEW 20:32; MARK 10:36 AND 10:51; LUKE 18:41)
The most frequently asked of Jesus' questions is also the most beautiful: "What do you want me to do for you?"
In Matthew's account (20:32), the mother of James and John approaches Jesus and bows down in homage before him. "What do you wish?" Jesus asks her. In Mark's version (10:35), James and John themselves approach Jesus and say boldly, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." Their selfishness does not faze Jesus. "What do you want me to do for you?" he asks them. In both cases, James and John want to sit by his side in heaven. They want to be in control, to dominate, to be God. But Jesus says that position is "not mine to give."
But Mark's Jesus keeps asking the question. In the next scene, Jesus hears a blind beggar named Bartimaeus call out to him, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me." Against the disciples' protests, Jesus calls him over. Immediately, the beggar throws aside his cloak--which would have held not only all the money he had collected but constituted his sole possession. He jumps up and runs to meet Jesus. Seeing this, Jesus places himself completely at the disposal of the poor man. "What do you want me to do for you?" he asks. "I want to see," Bartimaeus says. "Go your way; your faith has saved you," Jesus answers. His sight is restored, and Bartimaeus begins to follow Jesus "on the way." Luke tells almost the same story (18:41).
In both Mark and Luke, Jesus' question to the blind beggar occurs soon after Jesus is challenged by a rich official who wants to enter eternal life as his rightful inheritance. When Jesus invites him to sell what he has, give the money to the poor, and follow him, the rich man turns away sad. Mark even records that Jesus "looked on him and loved him" as he invited him on the discipleship journey.
But it is the blind beggar who wins Jesus over and gets what he wants. The blind beggar shows us our proper disposition before Christ and his question. We too are poor, blind beggars. We too need to come before God in our brokenness, helplessness, blindness, and poverty. We too need to call out to Christ to take pity on us. If we dare renounce our egos and selfishness and beg for God's help, we too will hear God ask, "What do you want me to do for you?"
The question is beautiful because it not only shows God's desire to help us, but it reveals the very nature of God. In Jesus, we have a God who is humble, loving, and generous, a God who longs to serve humanity, especially in its brokenness, poverty, and blindness. Jesus said he came "not to be served but to serve." With this question, we see once more how serious he is.
Like all the questions of Jesus, this one requires reflection, not a hasty response. Do we want to sit beside God in heaven in powerful domination over others, like the selfish male disciples did? Do we want eternal life as if it is our rightful inheritance, as if we deserve it, as if we are the great, worthy elite? Or do we recognize our poverty, brokenness, helplessness, and blindness--our need for God, our need for vision--and want simply to see again, to see God face-to-face?
If we come before God as the broken beggars we are, we can trust that Christ will restore our vision, and, like Bartimaeus, we will see God.
TWO
IDENTITY
Who do people say that I am?
(MARK 8:27; LUKE 9:18; MATTHEW 16:13)
After some quiet prayer in a secluded spot, Jesus turns to his friends and asks them what people are saying about him. He has been denounced by the religious authorities as possessed, by his family as crazy, by demoniacs as a torturer, and by the crowds as a blasphemer. But he wants to know if his followers have any clue who he is.
"Who do people say that I am?" Mark records the question. "Who do the crowds say that I am?" we read in Luke's version. "Who do people say that the Son of Humanity is?" Matthew's account says.
Jesus tries to share his identity with everyone, but he learns early on that he cannot come out and tell people who he is. People cannot handle it. They simply cannot accept it. In many ways, neither can we. Yet, Jesus wants to know what others are saying about him to see if they have understood who he is.
The people of Jesus' time were never able to grasp who Jesus was during his lifetime. They could not comprehend his heavenly origin, and, in the end, they brutally executed him as a fraud, a charlatan, a blasphemer.
But Jesus' question is asked from a heart of love, a heart that loves everyone. Even as the people respond to his healing miracles and preaching ministry with hostility and resentment, Jesus feels only compassion for them. He continues to reach out and speak the truth to them. He never stops inviting them into the grace and light of God's reign. He is interested in their lives--in helping them, in saving them.
"Some say you are John the Baptist," the disciples answer. "Others says Elijah. Still others say you are one of the prophets." The disciples have clearly been listening to the crowds and are impressed by some of the rumors. But they themselves do not point out that the crowds are wrong. Their answers belie their own uncertainty. They do not know who Jesus is either.
Jesus' question reveals a deep self-awareness, a searching spirit, someone used to reflecting on the meaning of his life and his own identity. Jesus surely must have put the question to himself first: "Who am I? Why am I here? What am I to do? What is God's will for me?" These are questions that Jesus would have spent time with, probably after his baptism, when he first heard the voice of God call him "my Beloved." He would have pondered these questions also during his forty-day fast in the desert.
At some point, Jesus decides on an answer. He accepts and realizes that he is, indeed, God's beloved. He understands that his special identity means that he will have to treat everyone else as his own beloved. His personal identity is rooted in his intimate relationship with his beloved God, but he knows that means he has to treat the whole human race as his beloved.
Throughout his brief public life, Jesus explores his identity. In John's Gospel, he announces who he is, not as God's Beloved, as the Son of God, or as the Son of Humanity, but, in more poetic imagery, as the Light of the World, the Bread of Life, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the True Vine, the Good Shepherd, and the Gate. Such beautiful images could only emerge from deep self-reflection. Jesus must have constantly asked himself, "Who am I for others? What do they say about me?"
Jesus' search for self-understanding can inspire our own. "Who are we? What do others say about us? How does God identify me?" The more we ponder our identity and the purpose of our lives, the greater the inner peace and self-confidence we will know, and the greater the compassion and love we will be able to offer to others. Similar self-reflection will lead us to discover that we, too, are God's beloved, called to share that belovedness with every other human being and to help everyone else discover their own true identities as God's beloved sons and daughters. |
Item Specifications...
Pages 336
Dimensions: Length: 8.16" Width: 5.56" Height: 0.94"
Weight: 0.68 lbs.
Binding Softcover
Release Date Nov 16, 2004
Publisher Image
ISBN 0385510071
EAN 9780385510073
|
Availability 7 units.
Availability accurate as of May 27, 2012 11:52.
Usually ships within one to two business days from La Vergne, TN.
Orders shipping to an address other than a confirmed Credit Card / Paypal Billing address may incur and additional processing delay.
|
Product Categories
Similar Products
Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | Great theology Nov 29, 2008 |
Father John Dear is among the most inspiring, devoted, and authentic spiritual figures of our time. "The Questions of Jesus" is by far the best theological work of the year.
When Dear originally surfaced on the international scene as Jesuit social activist in the tradition of Father Daniel and Philip Berrigan, I wasn't sure what to think of him. Was he a mere imitator? I immediately wanted to read one of his books in order to find out for myself who he was.
"Transfiguration" and "The Questions of Jesus" put any doubts I had to rest. John Dear is the real thing, just as his prophetic forefathers are.
"Questions" is the kind of book that makes us want to change everything about our lives for the sake of Christ. With prose that is electric and endowed with a contagious compassion, Dear refuses to play the conventional theologian and focus on our local community, parish, or the Vatican: he wants our attention as Catholics on the whole world.
On pg 37, he asks where Americans might be able to find Christ in everyday life and then on a global level. "The questions of Christ invite us to put on the glasses of faith , to read Christ in all those at the bottom or edge of society: the children of Iraq, the teenagers of Palestine, the tortured victims of U.S. backed military death squads in Colombia, the men and women on death row, the homeless families in our city shelters, and the millions of Africans with with HIV and AIDS. Those people are Jesus, and from now on we know it. From now on, we have to try consciously, deliberately, and poetically to serve the poor."
If this be called heresy, I'm a heretic. If this challenges Christology, let Christology change.
The book is replete with heartrending stories of his assignment as a chaplain to victims of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks and anecdotes of his friendship with Mother Teresa herself. A must for any serious Catholic. | | |  | Great Devotional Resource Apr 11, 2008 |
John Dear spent a year's sabbatical reflecting on the questions of Jesus. His insights are unique and challenging. His writing is beautiful. I've recommended this book to many.
A word of caution: Mr. Dear is pretty far left in his political views, and this occasionally comes out in his writings. But even a crusty conservative like me can find much beauty and inspiration in his writing. | | | | Fresh, insightful, and challenging Mar 17, 2008 |
| I love this book! I use it for preaching and Bible study. It provides a fresh, insightful, and challenging view of familiar texts. Sometimes provocative, always helpful, this book has made it possible for me for approach scripture in a new way. | | |  | Challenging Christology Nov 12, 2006 |
Readers should be aware that the Christology espoused by John Dear is profoundly out of synch with orthodox Catholic teaching. His depiction of Christ is essentially that of a secular messiah who, like Dear, urges followers to "disturb the peace with trouble-making nonviolence."
Politics are never far behind Dear's "questions of Jesus." Here is how he celebrated Christmas 2006 in the pages of the National Catholic Reporter:
"This week, tens of millions of Christians across the country will celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace. Right along with them, Bush and Cheney, and their legions of hawks and warriors, will attend church and make merry around the table. But the very next day they'll resume Herod's imperial project -- the ongoing massacre of the innocents. The U.S. wages war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia and elsewhere. It crushes the hungry and homeless, the imprisoned and the refugee, and maintains upon their feeble backs the world's ultimate terrorist threat -- a huge nuclear arsenal."
If challenging oneself with the spiritual message of Christ is the goal, I suggest readers start with the Vintage Spiritual Classics series, especially their version of St. Francis DeSales's "Introduction to the Devout Life," or even a simple life of Christ by either Frank Sheed or Fulton Sheen. All are available via this site. | | | | PLEASE SEE THE EXTENSIVE TABLE OF CONTENTS IN AMAZON'S SEARCH INSIDE Oct 16, 2006 |
and you will find every question Jesus asked, and some He even answered.
For like ourselves in every way, Our Lord Jesus Christ did all He could to avoid ansering any questions, including those designed to trip him up at his trial.
Let us ask Jesus with the rich young man: Good Teacher, what must I do to have eternal life? Let us ask in this time of unjust war: Who is my neighbor? And let us answer the questions Jesus asks of us: Who do you say that I am? (asked of Peter) Why do you look for me? (asked of Mary and Joseph in Jerusalem) and the similar Why have you come? (asked of Judas in the Garden, responded with a kiss)
The Reverend Father John Dear is a well-respected and authoritative member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) as well as past president of the Catholic Organization PAX CHRISTI as well as the International Fellowship of Reconciliation. He is a member of the great Jesuit community which includes the Reverend Father Daniel Berrigan, whose several commentaries on the Old Testament prophets make excellent fuel for contemplation of Catholic theology, especially his thick book on Job, and on Ezekial and especially the ever-necessary Jeremiah. In brief, the Father John Dear is a very orthodox and respected and admired Catholic writer on matters theological in the most important and relevant vein. Even under Ratzinger his views and writings have never been called on any carpet.
Father Dear was breakfasting with his parents the morning of 9/11/01. Upon the news of that morning his parents left town as he ran to the Red Cross to volunteer bravely, putting his beliefs and words and Faith into action, consoling the sick and afflicted selflessly and bravely. Father Dear at personal risk was placed in charge of 500 chaplains, and he personally comforted and prayed with and ministered to thousands of victims, their families and support emergency workers, firemen, etc. I sincerely believe the Reverend Father John Dear deserves our full respect as a man, and as a very Catholic theologian whom our Church cherishes and whom God loves. This being said let us return to our text at hand:
Early in the text, as you can see through this site's generous Search Inside service, Father Dear declares his belief in the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This belief has always been a cornerstone of Catholicism. This belief denies the opposing idea that Jesus was a mere "secular Messiah" or political figureheadsuch as Judas sought, which Father Dear's strongly expressed and truly felt Catholic Faith denies on each page, as Dear declares his belief in the eternal and Divine Love and Peace, and resurrection, of Our Lord.
This present large volume comprehensively opens for us today the fullness of Jesus Christ's Gospel message of peace, compassion, self-sacrifice and resurrection. We find fully explored each question from His earliest ministry ("Who are my mother and brothers . . .?") to Calvary and beyond, and how we must now receive and answer in our own hearts these same questions in order to follow Jesus the Lord upon the path to peace and compassion in service to God and one another, especially the poor, the afflicted, the oppressed and those unarmed who suffer the present scourge of imperial war.
Hear these questions. Contemplate deeply these questions. Reflect with John Dear these same questions which were put to our Lord.
Once again as for a half century past at least we must thank God for speaking to us through the good work of Image Books, which always with intelligence and grace offers us so profound nourishment for prayer, spiritual growth, and service.
Please notice especially that great Catholic Martin Sheen's endorsement of this prayer book.
There is much to learn here. There is rich soil to grow with here.
You will love the Rev. Father Dear's clear and concise and courageous writing style and content. I strongly recommend you study further his several volumes, in particular his Jesus the Rebel, especially around the twentieth page, which has much to say regarding our complex Church today, some six years after he so propheticallly wrote it. See also in this Advent time his commentary on Mary, Prophet of Peace, etc. | | | Write your own review about The Questions of Jesus: Challenging Ourselves to Discover Life's Great Answers
|
|
|
Special Features
Search
Super Hot Deal!
Top 20 Items
Valerie Saxion Shop
|
(0 Items)
