First United Methodist Church, San Diego, CA, 2000. Guilt is good when it motivates change. That's what it is for. Guilt is good if it gets you to live a better life than the life that you are living now. The Interface of Rhetoric and Culture in Mark's Gospel.
Questions score points, draw blood, and shame opponents.
The same interpretation applies equally to the phenomenon of answering a question with a counter-question, which also is an aggressive weapon. And by observing who is reduced to silence, we have narrative clues about who triumphed in the question game and who lost. Asclepius, of human and godly decent, learned the arts of healing and reportedly raised a human from the dead. Later he was stricken by the gods and made a god himself. In the practices of the cult there was a three day purification process that is similar to Jesus' pardoning of sins.