Wednesday, May 17, 2006

What Would Jesus Do?

What would Jesus do?

Christians often toss that around even when it is not apparent what Jesus would do. But it is too malleable: A person on the Left would have Jesus doing things that are ideologically on the Left; a Right-winger would have Him simply following the ideals of the Right.

WWJD can also easily devolve into guilt manipulation. The caricature is “poor Jesus, meek and mild.” But sometimes He turned over the tables of the moneychangers; and sometimes He allowed precious ointment to be “wasted” instead of being sold and having the money given to the poor. “The poor you will have with you always,” He said. Both acts came as a surprise.

What would Jesus do?

We don’t always know. Even if we did, it would not always help us, for then we would simply be operating at the external level. But we also need to understand why Jesus did what He did. It came from His relationship with the Father. Jesus did not come upon new situations, stop and scratch His head and say, “Hmmmm, I wonder what I would do.” No, He always operated out of relationship with the Father. He did only what He saw His Father doing; He said only what He heard His Father saying; He judged only as His Father judged. That has always been His M.O.

The Father always knows what’s going on; nothing sneaks up on Him. He fully understands all the ramifications of each thought, word and deed. And He will share the answer with those who walk with Him and listen to His voice.

What would Jesus do? He would walk with His Father.

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