the question...

Never kill a question; it is a fragile thing. A good question deserves to live. One doesn’t so much answer it as converse with it, or, better yet, one lives with it. Great questions are the permanent and blessed guests of the mind. But the greatest questions of all are those which build bridges to the heart, addressing the whole person. No answer should be designed to kill the question. When one is too dogmatic, or too sure, one shows disrespect for the truth and the question which points toward it. Beyond my answer there is always more, more light waiting to break in, and waves of inexhaustible meaning waiting to break against wisdom’s widening shore.
Wherever there is a question, let it live!
(Frost, “Bless My Growing” -Taken from nextreformation.com)
Christ led a woman and then a whole community to Himself by asking, will you give me a drink? He did not give the answer, no he gave the question to which they found the answer. We see Him ask one he is mentoring where shall we buy bread for these 5000 people to eat? He did not give the one he mentored the answer, he gave the question. Paul, loved to preach but notice as he speaks to King Agrippa. Paul preaches of Christ and how this is what the prophets spoke and then he poses the question, King Agrippa do you believe the prophets? He leaves him with the question.
Have we tried to be the Messiah by giving the answer rather than looking to the Messiah and seeing that although He was the answer, (according to his own words in John 14:6) often gave the question and allowed people to wrestle to the answer. I wonder on Peters words when he says,”always be prepared to give an answer”. The word he used was “apologian” from the word apologetic which we translate answer but it can mean defense, argument or plea. Perhaps the argument is not necessarily the answer but rather the prepared question which will lead others to wrestle with the question….