Over a hundred years ago a man named Charles Sheldon wrote a book called In His Steps that asked for the first time What Would Jesus Do? In the nineties all the cool hipster Christians started wearing bracelets with W.W.J.D written on them. I had one that I wore for about six years until it disintegrated into dust.
Despite the cheesiness of our propaganda, Christians today are still asking the same question. Don’t you just wish we could all have our own personal Jesus we could carry around and have walk us through the right decisions to problems we face in our “modern” world?
We could take Him driving with us and see what He does when somebody cuts Him off and gives Him the finger. We could take him to the movie theater and see which movies He really would rather us not see. We could take Him to our school or workplace and have Him pick out who we should start a relationship with.
More likely than not, we really would rather have Jesus stay where He was as some rabbi who lived in Palestine two thousand years ago than have Him actually influence our daily decisions because for the most part, we already know exactly what Jesus would do.
Let me throw out a new question that is not as likely to catch on and might not be as trendy as the last one but I think is just as relevant.
W.W.J.G.T.?
What Would Jesus Go Through?
Christians are really bad about wanting to be like Jesus but forgetting all that Jesus went through.
Jesus was made fun of, He was lonely, He was betrayed, He was ignored, and He was killed.
We pray that God would help us be more like His Son- all filled with wisdom and friendliness- but we forget that Jesus once sweat drops of blood because of the agony He was feeling. We forget that Jesus once wondered if God had forsaken Him completely on the cross.
We are most like Christ when the world is falling down on top of us. We are on common ground with Jesus when nothing makes sense. We are just like Jesus when we have run out of money.
Have you ever considered what it costs to travel like Jesus? I have; it’s a lot. All four of the gospels show Jesus going from place to place His entire ministry and never settling down to earn an income. Here is the cool part- he never traveled alone. We all know about the Big Twelve that followed Him around, but what about the list of women who went with him everywhere?1 At one point, Jesus happened to have 72 people He called disciples just standing there waiting to be sent out into the world.2 So Jesus has this mob following Him everywhere He went that needed food and shelter every day. Everybody would have looked at Jesus, their fearless leader, and said “hey Jesus, any word on when we will be eating… you said we don’t live on bread alone but you have to admit it is at least important…”
Jesus chose to live a life of unemployment with lots of hungry mouths that were His responsibility to feed. When He said to God “give us today, our daily bread3” it was because He might not have known exactly where tomorrow’s meal would come from. In everything, Jesus chose not to be in control.
Two of Jesus’ best friends died. One came back but the other one had his head served on a platter. The friends He had left ran away as soon as He needed them. But everybody wants to be like Jesus…
I don’t understand how we think that suffering ruins our perfect life. Suffering makes our ruined lives perfect. Jesus wouldn’t be all that He was if everything he went through was easy. That is how the disciples were able to rejoice in suffering. They knew that being like Jesus in the wisdom He spoke or the miracles He performed was a task that would take a lifetime, but to suffer- to put themselves in the lowest point possible- that was something they could do now. They could share in the most important thing Jesus did.
We live in a country that seems to be all about making life easier. Every info-mercial to ever air has promised to make some part of your life more convenient than it already is. Why use all those annoying paper towels to clean up a mess one Sham-Wow could fix? Why go through the hassle of deciding whether or not you need a blanket or a backwards robe when you can just wear a Snuggie and thus eliminate all your lounging needs?
What if “easier” isn’t supposed to be the point? What if the most convenient and safe life possible isn’t actually the best choice. We all know it isn’t in the long run but we still persist. Instead of waking up and praying for a good day, I want to pray that I might be a little bit more like Jesus. I don’t want an easy life. I want to ask of everything “What Would Jesus Go Through?”
Would Jesus make all his decisions based on His comfort level? What would He be willing to go through to do what needed to be done?
The reason we try and be like Jesus is because we want what is on the other side. Paul said that we “share in His suffering so that we might share in His glory4.” Read the book of Revelations and you will see the kind of glory Paul is talking about. A few years of heartache here seem like a fair trade for an eternity of glory.
It all begs the question, how can you claim to be Christ-like if everything in your life is perfect? In what way are you like Jesus when you are in control of everything within your reach?
You can’t ask what Jesus would do unless you are willing to go where He went. W.W.J.G.T
1- Luke 8:1-4, 2- Luke 10, 3- Mathew 6:11, 4-Romans 8:17
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