The Bungee Cord. 1-20-25

Hello,

WWJD?

It wasn’t too many years ago that many Christians adopted these for letters as their guide to their life of faith. “WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?” I remember that wristbands were made carrying these letters, and many people wore them daily. Not to disparage the question that these letters ask, nor those who wore the wristbands, but I do think that there is somewhat of a difficulty with the question the letters pose. The difficulty: the answer is not always readily answered. If you put a handful of Christians in the same complex situation, I suspect you might get a handful of different answers.

I was watching a “reel” from America’s Got Talent, and onto the stage came a girl in her teens, and her mother and father. They had come to sing. As Simon Cowell was asking them about their background and if they had ever sung to a big crowd before, the mother said that she had. She had been a Christian singer and had put out some albums produced by a Christian Record company. However, she lost her job. Seems that she, who had been single at the time, had become pregnant, and because of that her record company dropped her.

Is that what Jesus would do?

The crowd, who I wonder the percentage of those whose lives were guided by the Christian faith, groaned at what happened to her, and maybe you, too gave out a groan as you read of her plight. But truth to be told, I have heard and seen the record company’s decision often carried out by those who bear Christ’s name. “How can you call yourself a Christian after what you just did?” “Look who just walked into the church. What is he doing here after what he did?” “We can’t let that person come to our church. People will leave and no one will come.” “She’s not even sorry for what she did. She doesn’t belong here until she is.”

What would Jesus do? What is the clear answer?

Well, maybe someone wiser than I has also seen the unclarity of WWJD, and offered a different question, the question that I offer to guide the Christian life, and that question is “WDJD?” “WHAT DID JESUS DO?”

Jesus broke bread with Judas on the night that Judas betrayed him. Jesus went to the house of Zacchaeus, a thieving tax collector. Jesus told his disciple to put away his sword when the crowds came to arrest Jesus. Jesus stopped and talked to lepers, and he healed them, whether they were thankful or not. Jesus loved his disciple Peter, even though Peter denied him three times. Jesus, who was without sin, threw no rocks at a woman who was caught in adultery. Jesus died on a cross, took sin and death to the grave, and left them behind in the grave when he rose from the dead on Easter morning. These are some of the things that Jesus unquestionably did.

So, if you are one who finds yourself heavily burdened by the struggles of this life, or by the boulders you have sinfully placed upon your shoulders…..and don’t we all find ourselves so burdened to a greater or lesser degree in our lives…let me invite you not to ask “WWJD?” and find yourself guessing and caught in a swirl of answers. Instead, ask “WDJD?”, “WHAT DID JESUS DO?”, and you will find a certain answer: Jesus loved people just like you, embraced them with that love, welcomed them into his life, died for them so that nothing else might have the breath to put a claim on them, and rose from the dead and breathed new life…eternal life…into them. That is what Jesus did…..for that singer who got pregnant…and for you!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (GGAP)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Like

Comment

Share