S. Michael Wilcox - What Seek Ye?: How the Questions of Jesus Lead Us to Him

2020 S. Michael Wilcox

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Wilcox, S. Michael, author.

Title: What seek ye? : how the questions of Jesus lead us to him / S. Michael Wilcox.

Description: Salt Lake City : Deseret Book, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: Noted Latter-day Saint author S. Michael Wilcox discusses the questions that Jesus asked his disciples (and by extension, us) and what our answers might beProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020010271 | ISBN 9781629727578 (hardback) | eISBN 9781629739717 (eBook)

Subjects: LCSH: Jesus ChristWords. | Jesus Chri stMormon interpretations. | Christian lifeMormon authors.

Classification: LCC BX8643.J4 W565 2020 | DDC 232.9/54dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020010271

Printed in the United States of America

Lake Book Manufacturing, Inc., Melrose Park, IL

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Cover painting, Rejoice in Christ , by Kate Lee

Used by permission

Design Deseret Book Company

Art direction by Richard Erickson

Design by Shauna Gibby

For My Rachel
# Seven

And it came to pass,
That after three days
They found him in the temple,
Sitting in the midst of the doctors,
Both hearing them,
And asking them questions.

Luke 2:46

I love collecting wisdomfolktales, stories, anecdotes, myths, and parablesfrom many different countries and times. The Jewish people were especially talented in creating humor as a way to survive centuries of pogroms and persecutionsthat particularly paradoxical Jewish quality of finding rejoicing in times of sorrow and sorrow in times of rejoicing. One of my favorite stories is a classic display of Jewish wit. I first heard it a long time ago from my mother. It seems a lady bought a fan from a Jewish peddler for one kopeck, then left for home. Early the next morning, she was back at the peddlers cart, complaining loudly that she had been sold a defective fan and wanted her money back.

How much did you pay for it? the peddler asked.

A kopeck!

Yes, yes, he answered. And how did you use it?

What do you mean how did I use it? Naturally, I waved it in front of my face, back and forth.

So, you think thats how you use a one-kopeck fan, do you? Thats how you use a five-kopeck fan! With a one-kopeck fan, you hold the fan still and wave your head from side to side in front of it!

Occasionally we just might get our thinking backward, as did the lady with the fan; or, in any case, we might need to see something from an entirely different point of view. For most of my life, I have felt that what was critical and essential in my relationship with my Father in Heaven was learning how to get answers from Him. In other words, I was the one with questions and God was the one with answers. This was the fundamental element. The Restoration itself began with just such a situation: a boy had a question and went to his God for an answerso it is inherent in the very seeds of our faith to seek answers and guidance from heaven. Thats what Latter-day Saints do. Joseph Smith taught us this essential, pivotal initial lesson, and he kept doing so throughout his life. He was always asking questions, and we have a whole book called the Doctrine and Covenants containing so many of the answers he (and others) received. Thank God for it and for him!

The most frequent question posed to me over a lifetime of teaching the scriptures has been, How do I get answers to prayers? Joseph Smith taught the early Saints, By learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus. We spend our lives learning how to be the Questioner approaching the great Answerer. Jesus, in His own ministry, taught us to ask, seek, and knock. So I have been learning and growing, asking and seeking and knocking since my youth, as have you. God has been more than gracious in His responses. He has certainly been with me, and I pray such has been your experience also!

Yet lately, a new insight has been growing in my soul which has caused me much reflection, pondering, and introspection. Perhaps one of the grand truths, one of the sublime secrets, of fulfilled living is just the reverse of what I have taught, and written about, and tried to live for so long. Perhaps the critical point is that God has questions for us and we must wrestlenot to receive answers from Him, but to give them to Him. How we answer those questions tells our Father in Heaven much about us, and helps reveal ourselves to ourselves. Those questions direct our paths as much as His counsels to our inquiries have. He is the Questioner and we are the Answerers!

This realization came upon me gradually, in such a way that I could not tell you when the thoughts first appeared, but this conviction keeps building and has become a strong affirmation which now occupies the dominant place in my communications with my God. Its as if He said to me: You have been working on receiving answers from me for most of your lifetime. That is good! It is now time to move on to the next lessons. I am also learning that if I am the Answerer and God the Questioner, and I can answer His questions with thought and devotion, my own inquiries to Him decrease significantly. His questionswhen we truly contemplate them, meditate about them, deliberate over them, and answer themsimply eliminate the need for so many of our own! They change us!

As in so many areas of our lives, the questions God has for us come through the ministry of His Son, Jesus Christ. In one of the first stories we read in the New Testament about Him, Jesus was asking questions (see Luke 2:46). As we study the New Testament and read the frequent questions Jesus asked those around Him, the Spirit begins to help us focus those questions on ourselves. They are no longer about Peter, or Andrew, or Mary Magdalene, or the Pharisees. They are suddenly directed solely at you and meand we so want to give the correct replies. Jesus turns His eyes from the people around Him and looks out of the pages into our eyes.

Yet the answers are not one-time, get it right or get it wrong responses, because we have to answer these questions pretty much every day of our lives. They are about how we live and think and feel; they are about what we are and what we are becoming. They are not life is a test questions. I always hated school. The idea that all of mortality was a midterm leading to the final exam on Judgment Day was a bit terrifying. For me, life is a journey, a climb up a beautiful mountain. Some of the questions are deeply moving and touching. They invite reflection and give us pause for thoughtful contemplation, so that we may see ourselvesand life as a wholein a new light. They draw love out of us, not fear or shame or guilt or regret. When I ponder Jesuss questions, I receive the sense that my eternal happiness hangs upon my answers in a way more acutely poignant and important to me than when I thought my relationship with both the Father and the Son was focused on me as a Questioner and Them as the Answerers.