How would Jesus live if he were me? JesusMavis
When I read the article below, I was struck by the sentences:
We can hardly imagine what it would look like for Jesus to function as a computer programmer or lab technician or construction worker or graduate student, not to mention a mother or father, a husband or wife. Can you, for example, picture Jesus attending an NBA basketball game or playing softball with the local team or sitting in the break room with other Wal-Mart employees?
I have to admit that, yes, my imagination is “so stunted that [I] have effectively locked Jesus into first-century Palestine with its robes and sandals and overall agrarian culture.” It’s like the line in my favorite movie, “Room With a View,” when Lucy Honeychurch says to Cecil Vyse, “Do you know I think you’re right, when I do think of you, it is always in a room.” I could say to Jesus, “Why yes, when I do imagine you, it is in robes and sandals walking on a dusty road in a desert country where I’ve never been.”
What would it look like if Jesus were me? If he were a girl, born to my family, grew up in the Air Force, became a teacher for a little while, then an office admin, an HR rep, a database designer, a wife, a mom of 3, and now a retired woman in her mid-60’s? You might think this is another way to say, “What Would Jesus Do (WWJD)?” but it’s more than that. What if Jesus were me?
When JesusMavis was sitting in a conference room with a bunch of other department managers, what would JesusMavis say when her opinions were questioned? When JesusMavis is dealing with a child going through whatever life is dealing out, what does she do for or with that child? When JesusMavis’ life has problems, deaths, illnesses, and loved ones doing well and not so well, how does she respond? When JesusMavis is getting older, retired, and living alone with her husband, how does she fill her hours and minutes?
The Grace in Discipleship
by Richard J. Foster
Jesus Christ calls all peoples everywhere to be his disciples. And disciples are those who intend to live their lives as Jesus would live them if Jesus were them.
Shrouded in the Mists of History
But the practical doing of this is obscured to us today for Jesus is shrouded in the mists of history. By saying this I am not referring to the problem of the quest for the historical Jesus. Quite the opposite. Our problem is that the modern religious imagination is so stunted that we have effectively locked Jesus into first-century Palestine with its robes and sandals and overall agrarian culture. We can hardly imagine what it would look like for Jesus to function as a computer programmer or lab technician or construction worker or graduate student, not to mention a mother or father, a husband or wife. Can you, for example, picture Jesus attending a NBA basketball game or playing softball with the local team or sitting in the break room with other Wal-Mart employees? (italics mine) Yet these are precisely the kinds of things we need to imagine if we expect to live as his disciples in the modern world.
An Overall Way of Life
In saying this, I am speaking of an overall way of life, not just about times when we are on the spot or are trying to make a critical decision. If I am a magazine editor and ask the question, “How would Jesus live if he were me?” I am not primarily asking about what kind of articles I will publish in my magazine though that question will be asked and answered. But more to the heart of the issue I am asking questions about my leisure time, about recreation, about sleep, about prayer, about solitude, about reading and relationships, and a host of other things. Then as a disciple I will order my life according to an overall pattern that conforms to the way of Christ.
“But how will I know the right pattern?” you may ask. Well, first of all there is no “right” pattern. Different personalities, situations, and needs demand different patterns. Besides, it is not nearly as hard as you think. A simple, unvarnished reading of the Gospels will give you an overall way of living that Jesus felt important while among us in the flesh. Of course, that was done in the context of first-century Palestinian culture, but with very little effort, you can easily make the conversion to your situation. Then, too, Jesus is truly alive and teaching his people. If, with humility of heart, you genuinely seek his way, he will guide you.
The Grace in Discipleship
And this is the great grace in discipleship to Jesus. When we seek him with all our heart, we are found by him. From our human perspective it seems like we are following hard after God: seeking, striving, pursuing. In reality, we are pursuing God only because he is first pursuing us. As Frederick von Hugel says, “God is always previous”. So our discipleship is really one of reflex action, of God seeking us, of prevenient grace.
This reality is a great encouragement. Jesus is ever with us, our everliving Savior, Teacher, Lord, and Friend. His invitation to be his disciples is all grace and mercy for we are invited to be yoked to him. And as we learn to fall in step with him, he will show us the way and give us the resources to live that way.
Peace and joy,
Richard J. Foster