What Jesus Would Do

During the discussion at Elevation a thought came to me, but it was a thought that may be a bit unorthodox.  I remember a huge craze a few years back (did I just date myself?) called WWJD—What Would Jesus Do?  Well, tonight my mind started expanding on that concept. 

Often times in the so-called “modern” church we take WWJD to a bunch of different levels.  Who Would Jesus Hang Out With?  Why Wouldn’t Jesus Do That?  Where Would Jesus Go?  We are taking a simple concept of how we should treat others and making it into a box in which we hope to figure out God.  The thing is, God is bigger than any box, and we could spend an eternity and STILL be getting to know Him better, it’s what makes Him God.

Let me give an example.  The majority of people would probably agree that Jesus would not be seen or go near a bar or night club.  I am not one of those people because I think Jesus is there in EVERY bar and EVERY night club.  I think that Jesus is the designated driver who gets all of His friends home safely.  I think that Jesus is person who carries a drunken friend to His car and sees they get home safely.  I think that Jesus is the one who gently brings water and Tylenol the next day when His friends are feeling the ill effects of the previous night’s decisions. 

Am I saying that we should go out, party, and get drunk every night because Jesus will be there anyway?  Of course not!  What I am saying is that we should look at the question: What Would Jesus Do?  Let’s look at His life here.  Did Jesus just go to the temple every Sabbath and only associate with all the perfectly holy people?  No.  Jesus did the exact opposite with that.  Look at his disciples.  There were dirty fisherman, a tax collector, and others who were considered to be the lowest rung on society’s ladder.  Jesus hung out with lepers, with Gentiles, with Samaritans, with everyone the world considered worthless and most of Jesus’ people, the Jews, would rather not be caught dead with.  Jesus went to places where it was thought that God would never go.  Why should we do any differently?

I’m not saying we should get on a soapbox and preach the gospel over the music of some popular club.  In His life, Jesus did the majority of His work by example.  He could have just come down and told us everything we needed to know, but it wouldn't have had the impact of us seeing HOW to do what was needed.  So God showed us in the example of His Son.  Let us not try to put God in a box and try to dictate where God could or could not be found.  God is so much larger than that; let us take comfort in that instead.