What we see when we look at what Jesus did and why he did it.

Photo by Eran Menashri on Unsplash

Many remember the WWJD bracelets of the 1990’s. The fad was meant to be a reminder to those who wore them to act in a manner worthy of the gospel. The phrase actually is much older than the bracelets. It was the title of a book written by Kansas minister and writer Charles M. Sheldon in 1897. Sheldon was known for his social activism and the phrase “What Would Jesus Do?” helped spur many to imitate Christ.

Though the bracelets are for the most part a thing of the past, the words have had more staying power. People even today, when faced with a moral dilemma, will rhetorically ask Sheldon’s famous question.

While this question can be helpful, I have often found that, instead of hypothesizing, reading God’s word and asking the question, “What did Jesus do?” is more beneficial. As I have been meeting Christ in his word over the last few weeks, I have been learning much from what he did and why he did it. I have found that Jesus was not a people-pleaser.

In Mark 6, Jesus came to his hometown and began preaching in the synagogue. At first the people marveled at his teaching, but before long they remembered that he was only the son of a carpenter and started to grumble. Then it verse 5 it says, “And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.” This curious verse almost seems to imply that Jesus was impotent to perform miracles and heal people. As if his power were contingent on the people’s faith.

But that is not what was happening in Jesus’ hometown at all. As one writer wisely put it, “the ‘could not’ is one of principle more than power. Working miracles in the absence of faith was impossible because it would have directly contradicted Christ’s message.”

If I were in my hometown and my family and friends were questioning the authenticity of my claims, I would do whatever I could to prove to them that I was telling the truth. If I were the Son of God and people didn’t believe it, I would give them a light show of miracles and power. Jesus’ ability to control himself instead of give in to the demands of the crowd, reveals that he was more concerned with his Father’s will than with pleasing the people.

In John 6 we see another example of Jesus choosing God’s will rather than the pacification of a mob. This time in the synagogue in Capernaum Jesus preached a hard message, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” It is written that shortly after speaking these words, “…many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.” Had I been one of his disciples there that day, I would have thought Jesus was crazy. But as he put it earlier John 6:38, “…I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

This last verse too, reveals another aspect of Christ’s devotion to his Father’s will. Not only was he not a people-pleaser, he wasn’t even a self-pleaser. When Christ came to earth he had one focus, fulfilling his Father’s will. In Philippians 2 it says that Jesus did not even count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

In the garden, the night before he was betrayed Jesus gives us one more example of his unwavering devotion to his Father’s will. Through tear-stained eyes and with blood dripping from his forehead, Jesus prayed the most perfect prayer in the history of mankind, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42). As Desiring God writer Jon Bloom so eloquently said of this prayer, Jesus “expressed in these…words a humble faith in and submission to God’s will that was more beautiful than all the glory in the created heavens and earth combined.”

Our culture preaches a “follow your heart” “be true to yourself” gospel. It is a gospel that is completely at odds with the way Jesus lived in complete submission to his Father’s will. Jesus wasn’t a people-pleaser who gave in to the demands of crowds nor did he preach sermons filled with rainbows and butterflies. If we want to know what Jesus would do, we can learn by reading what he did do. He didn’t pander to crowds, he didn’t follow his heart. He surrendered to his Father’s will, and because he did, we are forgiven. SDG

John Thomas is a freelance writer. He has written for Mere Orthodoxy, Christianity Today, and Desiring God. He writes regularly at medium.com/soli-deo-gloria.

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