The quote attached to today’s thought reminded me of the age-old argument about where Jesus fell on certain issues that continue to plague our conversations today. The question, “What would Jesus do?” popped up in the 1990’s, and at first, I found it to be an intriguing thing to consider. Of course, for those subjects that Jesus never addressed – like abortion or non-heterosexual people – there is no precedence in His teachings to give us guidance. We know what He thought about the Sabbath, and we know what He did about illness and hunger and thirst – but we have no idea what Jesus would do in certain circumstances. A better question for me has always been, “What did Jesus do?” Even that can sometimes be a struggle, because Scripture can be contradictory.
It is clear to me – in my interpretation of the teachings of Jesus – that where Jesus fell on the human understanding of left and right – liberal/progressive or conservative – depended on the situation. Take the woman caught in the act of adultery; Jesus was liberal – the person without sin can cast the first stone to kill her – and He was conservative, telling her to go and sin no more. Unspoken in that story is the injustice of only punishing her and not the man as well (we assume it was a man, but being a lesbian isn’t condemned in the Hebrew Bible) she was doing the deed with. Jesus healed a woman with a 12-year hemorrhage – liberal – but banned divorce – sort of conservative, but also about justice. Jesus ignored the Sabbath – liberal – but still went to the Temple and taught in Synagogues – conservative.
As usual, we try our best to put Jesus where we want Him to be, and that seems to be a step in the wrong direction to me. I try really hard to follow His teachings, which tell me that loving God, neighbor, and self is the most important task. All the Laws and the Prophets come under that three-in-one rule. What I eat and what I wear? Not important, spiritually. How I treat all people, with respect and equality? Important. This is why misogyny is a grave sin against God – Jesus banned it. Some men in the first century (and beyond) have embraced it. The questions posed by the picture you see here makes sense: am I, if I claim to follow Jesus, living the way He has asked us to for centuries to live, or am I not? You and I need to look at what we say and how we live to figure that out. That’s today’s homework – get to work.
Prayer – Holy God, none of us knows exactly what You want, and that is frustrating, so be patient with us as we work it out. Amen.