More questions, not less.

Day 86

OT Reading: Joshua 19-20

NT Reading: Luke 5:17-39

A long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away), I believed that the more I studied the Bible; the more degrees I accumulated and the more I spent time picking apart the Word, the fewer questions I'd have. However time and experience have taught me that quite the opposite is true.

Have a lot of my questions been answered? Certainly. In fact, I'm more certain about the inspiration of the Bible, the humanity and deity of Jesus, miracles, etc than I have ever been. Yet what I've found is that with every question I answer, two or three more seem to arise. Perhaps it's due to continued curiosity or perhaps it's just that I realize not everything is cut and dry. In an early post I said that sometimes my writing would be more about questions that I have instead of items that stood out...and today is one of those days.

Today in the gospel of Luke we read a familiar story. In fact I blogged on it when we read the same account in Mark's gospel. Yet for a long time one statement has stood out to me that I wonder about. In the second-half of Luke 5:17 we read this, "And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick." My question is...what does that mean?

Was Luke trying to point out something special by stating this? Were these extra-special miracles? Some would argue that Jesus only did miracles at certain times (this being one). What is this statement there for? A quick study of various commentaries showed me that the phrase is unique to Luke...and that's it. In fact, my brief study did not shed any light on what the author's intended meaning was here.

So I'm pretty much left where I started. And you know what? That's ok. I don't believe it would dramatically impact my theology in any way, and frankly the reason most don't mention it may be because they're not sure either. But regardless, I'll keep asking questions, searching for answers, and only occasionally finding them. And that's all part of the fun journey of learning about the Word of God.