Tag Archives: Jesus

“What Would Jesus Do?” Try Asking, “What Did Jesus Do?”

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“What would Jesus do?”

The answer to that question often depends on who you ask.  It’s a question that fits nicely into the relativistic mind of our age.  It allows each of us to thoughtfully rub our chins, look up at the sky and say, “Well, I believe Jesus would…”  So, the question is really just Jiminy Cricket’s “follow your conscience” line wearing a Christian mask.  It is relativism presented as religion.  Whatever answer you come up with is as good as anyone else’s answer as long as we are all “sincere.”

Often, the honest answer to the question “What would Jesus do?” is “I really don’t know.”  His disciples lived with him for three years and Jesus constantly kept them surprised and guessing.  Why are we so convinced that we have Jesus pegged?  For example, it astounds me when celebrities claim to know what Jesus would or would not approve of, as if being a famous celebrity makes one an authority on the mind of Christ.

When we ask, “What would Jesus do?” we can only think and act hypothetically.  We can only speculate and take our best guess.  Maybe we’re helping, maybe we’re doing harm.  What if we decide to do the exact opposite of what Jesus would actually do?  Our world faces daily situations for which there are no explicit instructions in the Bible.  Dealing in general, biblical principles does not always provide enough specifics.  Asking what Jesus would do often doesn’t help much.

Perhaps a more helpful question is, “What did Jesus do?”  There are documented answers to that question.  In terms of what our world faces today, an important answer is, “Jesus established an authoritative, teaching Church to guide us and to spiritually feed us.”  In the midst of all the confusion over what Jesus would do, we have a Church to inform us of what we as followers of Jesus in this present day are to do and what we are not to do.

I sometimes hear people defend immorality by stating that the Bible is silent or ambiguous about certain modern day issues.  Of course it is!  Jesus never told his disciples to write a book to instruct us on every possible, future, moral issue.  Jesus established a Church (only one Church) with the authority to provide us with those instructions on faith and morals.  Jesus did not establish multiple church denominations to speculate and argue about what He might or might not do.  Men established those churches (some very recently).

God is not the author of confusion.  Jesus did not leave us with a Bible, the Holy Spirit and hypothetical questions about what He would do.  He left us with His Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, to lead us into all truth.  Does this mean we always have every answer to every question?  No.  Does it mean we put it to a vote when we are confused about what Jesus would do?  No (Christianity is not a democracy).  It means that by following His Church we are following Jesus.  We are to strive for obedience to the faith, not speculation.

It comes down to trust (i.e. faith).  Either we trust with all our heart that Jesus knew what He was doing when He established the Church (trust what He did), or we try to constantly change the Church to conform to our speculations about what Jesus would do (lean on our own understanding and feelings).

Speak And Hear In The Flesh

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First, imagine that you live in the time of Jesus.  Next, imagine that you have come to believe that Jesus is who he claims to be, namely, God.  Then, you begin to ponder the state of your soul.  You realize that in many ways you have sinned against God and the humanity God created.  It suddenly occurs to you that the very God you have sinned against is in town, right now, in the flesh.  What would you do?

Hopefully, you would go into town and find Jesus.  You would seize the opportunity that awaits you.  It might require some effort on your part, however.  You would probably need to make the journey on foot.  When you finally arrived in town, you would need to figure out where to find Jesus.  Is he walking the streets?  Is he staying in someone’s home?  Is he preaching at the Temple or outside of town?  After some searching and polling of the locals you finally figure out where he is.

Once you get to his location you see that he is surrounded by many obstacles.  There are people all around him.  You must find a way to get through.  After squeezing and prying your way through the crowd you at last find yourself face to face with Jesus.  He looks at you as if he has been expecting you.  He seems to know the effort it took for you to be there before him.  Then he waits.

Jesus knows that “out of the mouth flows the intents of the heart,” so he waits.  He waits for you to open your mouth.  He already knows what is in your heart, but he wants you to say it.  Jesus, the “Word made flesh” wants you to use your fleshy mouth to form the words of your heart and convey them to his ears of flesh.  He wants to hear you say, in your own words, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

As you speak the words, you sense that every syllable, every inhale and exhale of breath is releasing something you have been holding in.  Even your body language, the nonverbal expression of your message, reveals the depth of your heart as it pours out to Jesus, seeking new life and restoration.  At last, you have come to Jesus with all of your physical and spiritual being.

Finally, you raise your fleshy eyes to his.  Your ears of flesh hear his mouth of flesh declare with God’s authority, “Be at peace.  Your sins are forgiven!”

Transport to present day.  We still live in the time of Jesus.  Jesus said, “I am with you always.”  He still wants us to share our hearts with him through fleshy means.  So, he gave his own authority to fleshy men.  “As the Father sent me, so I send you.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven.  Whose sins you retain are retained.”  We still get to speak the words and hear his forgiveness.  And it still requires a degree of physical effort.  We have to find a time and a place to meet with a priest who stands in for Christ as we confess to God.  We still have to push through the obstacles.  We still need to feel the humility that can only come from speaking out loud to another.

Of course, we can pray to God anywhere anytime.  God is everywhere.  But, Jesus wants our relationship with him to be more than a spiritual, “telepathic” sort of communication on a golf course, at home or even in a church.  Jesus became a human being.  He wants us to be in full relationship with him, body and spirit.  When we hurt someone, we should apologize to them in person whenever possible.  Jesus makes it possible through the Sacrament of Confession.  Jesus is still in town.  Go meet with him and tell him what’s on your heart, in the flesh.  That’s how he made you.  That’s how he wants to meet with you.

Jesus: Liar, Lunatic Or Lord.

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The prevailing philosophy of our times seems to be that no one can really know truth.  Truth is relative.  Therefore, if one claims to know truth, one is often regarded as arrogant or narrow minded.  Yet, there are some truths that are knowable, and everyone agrees with them.  For example, it is not arrogant or narrow minded to know that the opposite of “false” is “true.”

I cannot personally claim to know everything that is true.  I don’t know all truth.  Some things must remain a mystery, at least for now.  I do, however, know a man who claimed to know all truth.  He actually claimed to be truth.  His name is Jesus Christ.  He is an historical figure who really lived and said lots of wild things.  For example, he claimed to be God.

Jesus Christ also gathered lots of followers who believed what he taught, saw what he did, and sacrificed their lives to teach others about him.  I can’t think of anyone more famous than Jesus Christ.

Some people regard Jesus as just a good teacher.  They don’t believe he was really God or that he performed miracles.  They just think he had some good things to say about love and morality.  To them, he is simply one person on a long list of influential, religious teachers.  Few people believe that Jesus was a “bad” person, although some believe he deceived people with phony “miracles.”

We come to a crossroads here.  Jesus claimed to be God, the Creator of the universe.  Why would a man make such a claim?  Was he insane or delusional?  Was he a liar and a charlatan?  Was he telling the truth?  If he really isn’t God, then he lied.  Or, if he truly believed he was God but wasn’t, he was delusional.  Those are the three choices.  As many before me have noted, he was a liar, he was insane or he was God.

If he was a liar or a delusional person then there is no reason to call him a good, moral teacher.  When someone addressed Jesus with the title, “Good Master,” Jesus responded, “Why do you call me good?  Only God is good.” (Matt 19:16-17)  In other words, “Don’t patronize me.  Either you believe I’m God or you don’t.”  If you don’t believe he is God, why bother calling him a “good teacher?”  He wasn’t.  He was a liar or a lunatic.  Yet, millions of people want to tip their hats to the teachings of Jesus while simultaneously dismissing his divinity.  Jesus is either true or false.  It doesn’t work to have it both ways.

Consider also that Jesus started a Church.  2000 years later, that Church is still here, although empires have risen and fallen around it.  Why?  Why is Jesus’ Church still here?  How has it managed to avoid destruction?  The Church has suffered many attacks from within.  Any other organization would have imploded long ago.  The Church has suffered attacks from outside.  People have tried to snuff out the Church from the beginning until today.  Why have they failed?  Why do governments and empires crumble while the Church lives on?  Is this all due to just another “good,” lying, deceiving, delusional, religious teacher?  Or is it due to God’s power?

If I believe that even some of the teachings of Jesus are “good” for me to follow, then I must dismiss that he was a liar or a lunatic, for liars and lunatics can’t be trusted.  The remaining option is that his teachings are good because he told the truth.  If he told the truth, then he is God and his Church is preserved by God.  That means that the divine Jesus and the Church he preserves know better than I do about faith and morals.

When I encounter official teachings of the Church that are difficult to accept, it is not because Jesus and his Church are false.  It is because there is something within me, for whatever reason, that resists the truth.  Maybe it’s emotional, maybe it’s intellectual, but if I can’t accept the truth, the defect is somewhere in me.  There is something in my heart, in my mind, or both that is obscuring my view of the truth that Jesus proclaims.  It may be through no fault of my own, yet it is there, blocking my view.

Jesus did not say, “I know a way and I know the truth.”  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  These are the words of a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord God Almighty.