Review
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Title: What Seek Ye? How Questions of Jesus Lead Us to Him
Author: S. Michael Wilcox
Publisher: Deseret Book
Genre: Religious Non-fiction
Year Published: 2020
Number of Pages: 152
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN-13 Hardcover: 9781629727578
Price: $16.99
(Reviewed by Richard Ji for the Association for Mormon Letters)
What See Ye? Is a compact but thought-provoking devotional book by S. Michael Wilcox. We often find ourselves petitioning our Heavenly Father with questions. However, in Wilcox’s latest work, he reverses that. The premise of the book is to ponder and explore answers to questions the Savior has asked. It effectively makes us the Answerer and our Heavenly Father the Questioner (p. 3).
This insight and approach are ones I had not previously contemplated. We are counseled throughout the scriptures to ask and counsel with the Lord. However, Wilcox suggests that we can also be the one to provide the answers. Wilcox shares a famous Jewish story of a man who asked a rabbi, “Why do you Jews always answer a question with a question?” To which the rabbi replied, “Why shouldn’t we?” (p. 107).
Consistent with the Jewish teaching technique of asking questions, the Savior asked a number of questions in His lifetime. These questions were directed at those He interacted with. In keeping with Nephi’s approach of likening “all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning” (1 Nephi 19:23), we can likewise consider these questions as if asked to us directly. This Socratic method of teaching opens us up to different ways the Lord can reach us to provide insights into our lives. In Wilcox’s experience, by truly contemplating, meditating, deliberating, and answering these questions for himself, they significantly decreased the questions he asked in his prayers (p. 3).
What Seek Ye? explores a sampling of twenty-four questions the Savior asked. All but one are from His ministry as recorded in the Four Gospels. The other one is recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants. There are twenty-five short, unnumbered chapters, a scripture index, and a subject index. Wilcox intentionally did not provide a lot of commentary to allow for the reader to consider answers on our own. So, while the chapters are relatively brief, there is much room for introspection. The commentary he does provide includes personal experiences/insights (including the passing of his beloved wife), quotations from classical literature, and scriptural discussions. I greatly appreciated the balance of the commentary among these different modalities. It was easy to hear Wilcox’s voice in this work. This may sound obvious since he wrote it. However, there was an intimacy in his prose where it felt like one had the ability to peer into his soul at times.
The chapter I enjoyed the most was “Why Beholdest Thou the Mote That Is in Thy Brother’s Eye?” In it, Wilcox notes that:
We live in a mote seeking world. Beholding motes is endemic, almost a plague in our politics, our media, and our interactions with others. Our attention is ever directed to others’ failings, not their successes. We sense sometimes a certain delight, a feeling of self-importance, or a justifying moral indignation in those who point them out. Our society is becoming less and less civil, more critical, and more prone to find fault – to the point that it borders on mean-spiritedness. There’s a sense of superiority in beholding the motes of other (p.34).
Furthermore, he notes that:
We tend to behold the motes in historical people as well. Again, a false sense of superiority comes from debunking some of the veneration these personalities have generated. We see it done with the Prophet Joseph Smith and other figures of the Restoration, with the Founding Fathers, and with other people from our history (p.36).
This perspective seems so timely with the rancorous divide we are experiencing in America along social, political, and racial lines. We would all do well to ponder the question, “why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye?” and seek to focus on the virtues in others (past and present) despite differing beliefs.
What Seek Ye? is a refreshing take on finding answers. It has motivated me to study the words and more specifically, the questions of the Savior; and to ponder them as if He was standing in front of me and asking me. I highly recommend this book for all Seekers.