What would Modern-Day Jesus do?

In a time of turmoil and cloudy truths, a look within might do us good

I often find myself pondering how Jesus Christ would feel about the current American timeline, especially since the ideal of the Christian way of life is so often blended together with the ideal of the American way of Life.

I’m told, after all, that America is a Christian Nation, founded on Biblical principals and the teachings of the one true God and his son, Jesus Christ.

As sides line up in preparation for competing public displays of power this weekend, the country seems like a sort of tinder-box poised for ignition. The President is using the U.S. Military to throw himself a Putin-esque birthday celebration on Saturday, with a display of power and strength that feels like hubris and bravado. He has commandeered the California National Guard and deployed active duty U.S. Military on U.S. soil. In response, there are more than 1,500 “No Kings” protests scheduled to take place around the country to remind the president that he, in fact, is not a king, and that no number of executive orders can compel the country’s citizenry to accept otherwise. And in response to that, news outlets are hyping up reports that law enforcement is on “standby” for potential unrest, while failing to mention that is standard operating procedure during most legal public assemblies.

In this post-Truth environment, it’s increasingly difficult to discern what is real. It all feels a little like we’re playing a dangerous game of chicken, to see who is going to throw the first hard punch, who’s going to fire today’s shot heard ‘round the world, who’s going to finally unleash the fury that we all sense is in waiting.

A lot of people have a lot to say about it. Countless pundits, even people in key leadership positions, organized political parties, and elected officials are acting as if their primary role is that of Internet Troll.

I wonder if modern-day Jesus’ sermons would include many of the ideas and thoughts I read and see on social media? Videos and memes declaring that a person’s value lies on whether they stand on my side of the line on every issue I care about. Statements that revel in the cruelty of separating children from their parents, kidnapping kids from school, and capturing people who show up for scheduled immigration hearings. Comments that eagerly anticipate violence, so hopeful that somebody or another who doesn’t see the world the same way can learn a lesson by way of a broken skull.

Would Jesus, I wonder, share today a message of compassion? A message of elevating the best of humanity, even through the most difficult challenges and circumstances? Would he remind us that there’s no greater commandment than to love our neighbors as ourselves?

Or would he share a message of fear, anger, and hatred? A message of compliance and fealty to a ruler of men? Would he share a funny meme about how people got what they had coming to them? Post some snarky and clever comment on the social media site formerly known as Twitter?

I think we all know what Jesus would do.

And I’ll dare say I think he might be disappointed in a great many of those who fervently proclaim to hold Christ in their hearts while striving to follow his example of boundless love.

Truthfully, I don’t really need to imagine what Jesus might say as the events of today unfold. I can read his words from a different time of turmoil, when he led a political and idealogical revolution that challenged those who wielded the power structures of the day.

There’s the Sermon on the Mound, where we hear Jesus teach about humility, love, and dignity. It’s where we learn that the meek, the peacemakers, the merciful, the pure of heart, inherit God’s kingdom. And where we learn to love our enemies, to bless those who curse us, and to respect people who are different from us.

Or the parable of the “Sheeps and the Goats,” or “The Judgement of Nations,” from Matthew 25:31-46

31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32  And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33  And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34  Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36  Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37  Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38  When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39  Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Then there’s the story of how Jesus responded when asked what should be done with a woman caught in adultery - a trap designed to get Jesus to betray his own teachings on mercy by approving the stoning, or stand charged with blasphemy for betraying to laws of Moses, which called for the woman’s death by stoning.

Jesus moved next to the woman, stooped down on the ground with her, and started drawing in the dirt with his finger. He stood up, and said “He that is without sin among you, let him cast a stone at her.”

He again stooped down and started writing on the ground.

The accusers dispersed without lifting a single stone.

That has always been one of my favorite passages from the Bible. It speaks to my heart in so many ways. I’ve long been well aware of my own sins, and these few paragraphs help remind me that I’m not alone in my imperfections.

I’ve always been fascinated, too, by the fact that Christ lowered himself to the ground and wrote something mysterious and unknown in the dirt.

I like to think getting on the ground was a gesture showing that the best of us is the same as the worst of us. That we all can, and should, see another as equals regardless of our sins or our stations.

There’s been much written about why, and what, Jesus might have written. One version is that it was simply a way to show his disdain for the religious leaders of the day - who seemed most concerned with preserving the systems that served them.

Another is that he wrote out the full text of the law, which required both parties to the adultery to be stoned, and that failing to produce the man in this situation was a violation of the law. Still another interpretation I read supposes that it was a symbol - that God’s law was written in stone to command the hard hearts of the Old Testament. But Jesus wrote, with his hand, the new law of compassion and forgiveness into the earth.

Maybe my favorite interpretation is that he was writing out the names of the woman’s accusers and their sins for everyone to see as they considered sentencing her to death.

I grew up in Pentecostal Churches, reared on fiery sermons filled with often competing and confusing messages of God and Jesus Christ.

One version was fire-and-brimstone, judgement, damnation, and an angry, vengeful God. The other was love, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, supporting one another and caring for those who were less fortunate or in hard times.

I always knew which Jesus spoke to my heart.

It’s not the one I’m hearing from the world today,

Or from the people who tell me they know the best way.

We have a lot of problems in this so-called Christian nation right now.

I suspect we’ll endure quite a number more before it’s all through.

But the biggest in my view

Is how many have been led astray

From what Jesus said is most true.