WE are so lucky aren’t we that most of the words Jesus spoke here on earth have been recorded by his disciples and written for everyone of us to read? Listen to Him speaking calmly and tenderly to the woman at the well, harshly and angrily to those who used the temple for business, and with a sense of urgency to those who listened as He spoke at the Mount.
One can feel Him sobbing as with a quivering voice, he calls Lazarus out of the tomb, and one can hear Him whispering to His father to forgive those who were killing him because they had no comprehension of what they were doing.
And today, as we see so called holy men of the cloth accused of rape, and others of thievery, we wonder what the church is coming to. But there’s no need to worry. Religion is manmade. The priests are human, and the taller the hat or redder the robe doesn’t bring them anywhere nearer or make then holier to the God they are supposed to serve!
A few years ago, my children wore a band on their wrists, which bore these words, “What would Jesus do?” It was to remind them at every juncture and in every situation, to ask, “What would Jesus have done in this situation?” Like I said, we are so lucky to know the character of Jesus through words He spoke, situations He went through and temptations He overcame. Armed with that, let us live our day, asking again and again, “What would my Jesus do?”
Maybe you’ve seen everybody having a poke at the self-conscious, slightly fat, or skinny guy or girl in the office or your college or school. But did Jesus do that when he saw short Zacchaeus up on a sycamore tree? Did he look up and start chuckling at the funny sight, and I’m sure it was a comical one, of a fat, short tax collector, wedged between a branch peering into the very public he had squeezed dry? No, Jesus did not see the comical, He saw a desperate man, with a tearing need, and addressed it.
Did he admonish the woman caught in adultery? Haven’t we often been the first ones to piously throw the first stone at our own church members or others in our housing complex?
I wonder sometimes, why he didn’t joke with Mary and Martha as they wept, about their dead brother, knowing Lazarus would be out in a few minutes? He didn’t, he cried with them. Doesn’t it remind us of the times we step up callously to someone who’s grieving and say, “Don’t worry, your mom’s in heaven. Stop crying!” Wear a band on your heart today, with words etched powerfully deep, “What would Jesus Do?” Then run everything by Him…!
—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com
