Over at The Fire and the Rose, D.W. Congdon has an excellent and provocative post. “What would Jesus drive? What would Jesus buy?” is the question. I fired off a comment that Jesus wouldn’t drive anything and a couple other people chimed in with agreement. But D.W. raised an excellent counter-point.
It seems to me that you (and other commentators thus far) are essentially saying that one cannot be a Christian in suburbia. And as much as I would like to say that Christians should not drive and should worship where they live, this is simply an impossibility on any kind of large scale.
. . .
But we live an hour away from the city, because of where I go to school. We have one car. I take the school shuttle so she can have the car. She drives an hour each way to her school. This is certainly not ideal, but it’s the best we can do. My wife, Amy, is working in the inner city, but in order to do this work, she needs a car to get there.
What would you say to her? Would you question whether she really needs a car? What do you have to say to the many Americans who actually do need cars to do things that are really worthwhile and need to be done?
The Christian ideal is to emulate Jesus. But the Jesus that is held up before us like the carrot on a stick is a first century Jesus. What are we supposed to do with that? Sure, the easy stuff is still easy — don’t kill, commit adultery, steal, blah, blah, blah. But Jesus doesn’t say anything about, for example, the environmental impact of our daily lives or the globalness of our culture and society. Sure the clothes we buy in WalMart that were made in China are cheaper for us. But what about the cost of transporting that shirt halfway around the world? Does that matter? Of course Jesus didn’t drive. He walked everywhere because his “parish” was small. (Or was his parish small because all he could do was walk?)
As D.W. asks, is it wrong to live in a place where you cannot commute to work by bus or bike or foot? If we all claim that Jesus would not drive, then what does that say about what we should be doing? There are people in the San Fransisco East Bay area who drive an hour or more each way to work. Some of them do this because they simply cannot afford to buy a house close to where they work. But what are they to do? There are not enough jobs in the area where they live.
The real question I’m asking is: “What would Jesus do … Today?” Answering what Jesus would have done 2000 years ago is a moot point. It doesn’t matter. The Old Testament Law is no longer “valid” for us today — we are not stoning homosexuals and adulterers. Things change. No matter how hard we try to keep things as they were, “as they were” was a change from what they were before that! Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek,” but what does that mean today? What does it mean to be meek today? Can you be both meek and a CEO, CFO, CIO, CTO, police officer, inner-city school teacher, politician, or mega-church pastor? I’ve posted on this before, but the early church sold all their property and gave to those in need. Why don’t we have to do this today if the early church is the gold standard? “Well, because things are different today,” you’ll no doubt say. “Exactly!” I’ll say. “Things are different but our Jesus hasn’t changed one iota. He’s still wearing sandals and walking everywhere with no money, home, car, savings account, IRA, or job.
How does this help me TODAY??
Ken,
Thank you. You’ve said what I wanted to say very well: “How does this help me TODAY?” That’s exactly what I want to ask. I certainly think Jesus calls us to a costly grace and a discipleship shaped by the cross, but I also think our lives are much more complex today than an appeal to first-century lifestyles can possibly acknowledge. Thanks for this excellent follow-up post. I look forward to continuing the conversation.
I believe the Jesus of today would do whatever would make the most sense for both him and the world in the context of whatever situation he was placed in. I think the point to the question, “WWJD?”, is not to answer with something that the 1st century Jesus would say, or to come up with some sort of stereotypical answer such as, “Sandals, man!”, but to cause the recipient of this inquiry to question their action, to think about it, before doing it.
Jesus was all about concern for the way he was affecting others and the places he lived in and traveled to. The man was *always* thinking, pondering, and concerned. I don’t know as though he made any action without considering the consequences and ramifications of it.
Thusly, to reinterpret the question WWJD in the context of a modern society, it might go something like this:
“What would a person such as Jesus, who was concerned with promoting good, humility, and wisdom in the world and impacting it in a positive way, do if he was presented with this situation in this context?”
I think that is the more appropriate interpretation and allows for a person’s individual circumstances.
Nathan and D.W.– Sorry for the much delayed response.
Nathan– I agree with your paraphrase of the question, but it’s still a question. And also, not getting me much closer to an answer.
The “problem” as I see it is that we are faced with issues and circumstances that those alive in Jesus’ times were not. Plus, culturally and politically and technologically and yada yada yada, we are very, very, very, very different. So, one of the challenges is to apply Jesus’ teachings to situations he was not specifically addressing — e.g. terrorism, abortion, stem cell research, pollution. HOW do we decide what Jesus would do since he never addressed these issues?
The other challenge is to figure out if what Jesus had to say about situations we are faced with today still apply. I mean, if someone breaks into my house to steal my big screen TV, should I really point out my blu-ray player and help him carry it to his van? Should I really turn the other cheek? Does that apply to terrorist attacks? Should we really sell all we own to follow Jesus?
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