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What Would Jesus Do? from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo.

What would Jesus do? That has always been a thorn for me each time I hear the phrase. It sounds harmless enough on the surface, but most people do not truly know the answer to that. For example, many have taken up a sword in the name of Jesus, though He didn’t seem to own one.

Years ago when I was working my way through Bible college, we had to read the “What Would Jesus Do?” book and write a report on it. During that time, I would listen to the Bible all day and night. Perhaps because of that, I found the book shallow, a mile wide, and an inch deep. I felt the Jesus represented in it, had little in common with Jesus Christ who was written about in the book of Mark. Also for me, it’s not just books; artificial Christian movies like “The Secret of Jonathan Sperry” typically make bile begin to rise in my throat. They present a form of godliness, but deny its power (2 Timothy 3:5).

I wrote my report on the book, turned it in, and the professor gave me a grade of an F-.  The lowest grade you could possibly get, a total failure. One of my good friends in the class also received the same “Fantastic” grade. So we discussed it, and found that we had both come to a similar conclusion, which was basically this:

Determining what someone would do depends directly on how well you know them. For example, what is your spouses favorite color? Some people have spent time learning the answer, but strangers would not know. Understanding who someone is, their personality, their likes and dislikes, are essential to predict what they might do in a situation.

The professor gave us a chance to recover the grade and rewrite our book reports, so we both simply regurgitated back to them things they had previously told us and we both got an A+, but the idea never left me. Decades later, I still feel the same way and I would like to share why.

Learning to be like Jesus has everything to do with who we believe Jesus to be. During the Dark Ages and the Inquisition, the church tortured people into accepting Jesus and burned many of His faithful servants on stakes. Obviously someone failed the “What would Jesus do?” check. Let’s examine some scripture and see how well people predicted what Jesus would do:

In Mark chapter 5, Jairus came to Jesus and begged him to come and heal his sick daughter who was on the verge of death. While Jesus was on the way, people came and told them his daughter had died and there was no need to come, but Jesus continued onward.

(Mark 5:38–42 NASB) They came to the house of the synagogue official; and He saw a commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing. And entering in, He said to them, “Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep.” They began laughing at Him. But putting them all out, He took along the child’s father and mother and His own companions, and entered the room where the child was. Taking the child by the hand, He said to her, “Talitha kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded.

The people first began laughing at Jesus like He was an idiot, but when the dead girl sat up, they were completely astounded, amazed, astonished, staggered, stunned, dumbfounded, boggled, and open-mouthed. They were simply blown away. What would Jesus do? Well, we didn’t expect that. Even the disciples who were closest to Jesus were often wrong when predicting what the Master would do:

(Mark 10:13–16 NASB)  And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.

The disciples apparently thought that Jesus did not want to be bothered with the little children, but they were wrong. He took them in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them. We can read about it now and it greatly helps our understanding, but what about those who don’t bother? It is important to know Him and His word, and that will help us make better decisions. The disciples were often wrong when predicting what the Master wanted:

(Mark 6:35–44 NASB)  When it was already quite late, His disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and it is already quite late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?” And He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”

And He commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass. They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish. There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.

The people were hungry and the disciples came up with two ideas, send the people away, or go and buy two hundred days wages worth of bread to feed them. Jesus had another idea, He blessed the food and it kept multiplying until everyone had eaten and was full.

I could continue for the next hour where people continually got it wrong because they did not know Jesus as well as they thought they did. The disciples screamed in fear when Jesus came walking to them across the water. Later they thought they were going to drown in a storm, but Jesus calmly rebuked the storm and the sea became calm. The Apostle Peter even tried to rebuke Jesus a couple of times. His family thought that He had lost His senses at one point and wanted to take custody of Him.

“What would Jesus do” is a nice sounding phrase, but we should ask ourselves “What did Jesus do?” We need to know and understand His teachings, what He said, what He did while He lived here on Earth as our example. We need to pray and listen. We need to be asking “Jesus, what do You want me to do?” instead of assuming that we already know because of what we have heard others repeat over the years. The answer to “what would Jesus do” is determined by how well you know Him, and His word.

You can pray this with me if you like:

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I thank You so much for Your wonderful gift of eternal life. Please help me understand Your word and bring it back to my memory whenever it is needed. Give me a clear vision and help me get in tune with what You are doing today, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen!