What Would Jesus Do?
February 7th, 2007 by Stephen
It is trendy these days to wear fashion accessories with the letters
WWJD written on them. The letters stand for
“What Would Jesus Do”?
This question is a pertinent one. In any situation, we should ask, what
would Jesus believe was the correct course of action? If we follow him,
then we need to know what he would do, so that we too can do it.
But I would like to add some extra letters: DWRHAC – “Do we really have
a clue”? Have we any idea what Jesus would do about the illegal and
immoral detention of people in Guantanamo bay? Do we know what Christ
would say about going to war to secure oil supplies in Iraq? Do we know
what his view would be on the destruction of our environment? Do we know
what he would say about mortgage debt? Social security? Health care?
People using the asylum system to escape economic deprivation? The EU
and U.S. trade rules and dumping of food that keep Africa poor so that
we can stay rich?
How do we know what Jesus would say on an issue? Only by studying
the message of the Bible *and* studying the situation. Even then
there is often room for doubt, which is why Christians can disagree. We
have the Holy Spirit as our guide and the Bible to teach us, but what
would Jesus do about Guantanamo bay (where no doubt the prisoners are
being tortured too)? I have no idea.
But one thing I know – he would not do nothing. It was not within him to
turn his back on injustice, and that is the Christ I would follow.
The biggest problem I see with this question is that it doesn’t take into account the omniscience of God. For example, since God had a plan about Pharoah– to harden His heart– certainly what Jesus would choose to do versus what we think Jesus would choose to do is definitely different.
I mean, who would have figured that Jesus would choose to have people leave Him (since He is the source of salvation) by telling the people to drink His blood and eat His flesh? And what about that whole dying on the cross thing? I mean, when we start to do this weird question of “What Would Jesus Do?” we can say “What does the Bible say about what we should do?” but the former we don’t know.
God’s in the process of bringing things together (good and bad) for His glory– and that means that sometimes things aren’t as we would see them.
Clearly Christ’s work has an eschatalogical significance that trumps everything else. Christ did not write letters of theology, nor did he found churches nor go on missions to the gentiles, as the apostles would do. That work was left to others because Christ’s mission on earth was to bring us salvation.
In this context, of course, his earthly mission was tightly focused and we must beware drawing comparable particulars from where they do not really exist.
But Paul said to be a follower of him as he is of Christ. His ministry was different, but Christ’s commands were the same. Christ was the exact opposite of a hypocrite. He did and meant what he said. Thus his teachings in, for instance, the sermon on the mount give us a clue as to what he would do in certain situations.
But of course, we import our own beliefs and preconceptions into what we read, and to some extent we do not know how Christ would react. As you say, we are left with “what does the Bible say about what we should do.” It is not so catchy, but it is a better guiding principle.
The flaw is that the Bible is a larger work, and many people seem to be able to divorce the message of love, compassion, justice and faithfulness of Christ in the gospels, by selecting other passages that seem to say things like “it is right that Israel wipe out every non Jew within their borders” or somesuch.
I think I would prefer: How is the message of the gospel applied in this situation?
Guantanamo bay? “Did you visit me when I was in prison?”
War? “He who lives by the sword dies by the sword.”
Greed? “Consider the lilies of the field.”
Justice? “Woe to you you scribes and pharisees; hypocrites! You tithe your mint and dill and cummin whilst ignoring the weightier matters of the law: Justice, mercy and faitfulness”.
Mortgage debt, social security etc… those are harder of course. But if we search aout the message of the gospel, and the *attitude* of the gospel, we can still answer these questions.