Category: What Would Jesus Do?

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. Rev. 12:10

Satan goes to God to make accusations against me. First, He tempts me to sin, and when I give in, he has material to work with. He entices, then he prosecutes. He reports my sin and demands that the sentence of the Law be carried out. Oh, how he dreams of justice without mercy!

But when Satan arrives in heaven to accuse me, He meets Jesus. He is clothed in righteousness, standing in the presence of His Father on my behalf. “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.” Hebrews 4:14

Jesus is ready with my defense. He does not deny that I have sinned. He answers with something greater. He lifts His wounded hands and says, “She’s forgiven. She’s justified. She is Mine.”  This is the moment when the accuser loses his footing.

Having lost  his legal case against me, he’ll then come directly to me to make the same accusations.  If I forget my defense, I become vulnerable to condemnation. Satan is cunning. He knows how to mimic the voice of my conscience. He knows I want to please Jesus. He knows I take sin seriously. So he slips in and speaks in tones that sound almost righteous, as if shame is a holy thing.

Conviction and condemnation are not the same things. The Spirit convicts in order to restore. Satan condemns in order to crush. But the blood has spoken, once and for all, at the cross.  So what is my strategy when the accuser comes?  I do not answer Satan with my feelings, because my feelings fail me. I answer him with this ~  I have been bought, cleansed, pardoned, and declared righteous before God.  Be gone!

Jesus, Your mercy is stronger than my failure, and Your righteousness is my covering.  Amen

God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. I Cor. 1:27

There are people who say, in response to everything said to them, “I know it!”   It’s a poor relational skill as it kills any desire to have a conversation with them. Their need to know it all drives their behavior in every single relationship. This person is usually very vocal in meetings and controlling within a committee. It doesn’t take long for him/her to get under everyone’s skin. The shy person withdraws and avoids them if possible. The extrovert might fall into the temptation to argue and correct them. Neither response is productive nor is it like Jesus.

Jesus did not avoid arrogant people. The Pharisees get a bad wrap for collectively being on Jesus’ bad list. Not true. I can forget that Jesus grew up in synagogues and was constantly in the company of Pharisees. When He was twelve, He stayed in the temple to be in their company. And when He was in active ministry for the last three years of His life, He usually went where they were. Many were close-minded but some believed. Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was a division among them. John 9:16

To those who rejected Him, Jesus ~

Exposed their hearts.  The strongest language Jesus ever used was directed against them. He said they were hypocrites not practicing what they preached.   The Pharisees tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.Matthew 23:4

Recited the scriptures.  He told them they didn’t know God.  So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “He who sent me is true, and him you do not know.  John 7:28

Extended an invitation to his enemies to believe.  “If anyone, any Pharisee, any chief priest, any officer trying to arrest me, any offended person—if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”  John 7:37

Do you remember when Jesus lamented?  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”  Matt. 23:37    Jesus loved them. Even the spiteful, hateful, and arrogant.  He came to serve even the Pharisees rather than be served. 

Give me Your steady heart, humble enough to serve, strong enough to speak truth, and free enough to love without needing to defend myself. Amen

Have you ever said, “If only Jesus would come and tell me what to do!” I have. I reason that if I just knew what it was, I could easily go do it. I said that just last week to my husband.

“What would Jesus do?” has become a Christian idiom. Rubber bracelets were made to wear on our wrist, ever a reminder to consider Him before making decisions. The good news is ~ in so many instances ~ we do know what He did. We see him with the shamed. He restored their honor. We see Him with the disciples. He was a patient teacher. We see Him with family. He made them accountable to God. We see Him with His enemy. He discerned the smokescreen because Satan is a liar. In many of these interactions, a character trait of Jesus was revealed, or a pattern of behavior established. We can ask God for wisdom to interpret it for our particular situations. He promises an answer. He gives liberally.

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For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. I John 3:8

That is a thought provoking verse ~ that Jesus came to earth to destroy the works of the devil. Wait, didn’t he come to die to redeem mankind? Yes. But God’s over-arching mission was that the works of the devil might be destroyed through Jesus’ incarnation, through His survival as a toddler under Herod’s murderous rampage, through the crucifixion of the innocent Lamb, and through His resurrection unto glory. Throughout His ministry, Jesus didn’t ignore His enemy. He engaged him by often imposing limits on his freedom. (“Do this, not that, go here, not there. Be quiet!”) He engaged him, too, by the relentless deliverance of people from sickness and demon possession.

And, Jesus engaged Satan in the desert ~ ever giving us a template for how to handle temptation. (Luke 4) Jesus looked behind Satan’s smokescreen, identified the real intent, and quoted appropriate scripture.

• Satan said, “If you are the son of God, turn this stone to bread.” Behind the smokescreen was ~ “Prove you are God and fill your stomach now.” The issue was not hunger but getting Jesus to do something God didn’t tell him to do.
• Satan said, “I’ll give you all this authority and its glory.” Behind the smokescreen was ~ “Waiting is hard and I’ll give you kingly rule early if you worship me.” Satan’s desire for worship was what originally caused him to defect from his place in heaven.
• Satan said, “Throw yourself down and see if angels will take care of you.” Behind the smokescreen ~ “Let’s just see if God takes care of you.” This time it was Satan who quoted scripture, “For He shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.” Psalm 91:11 Jesus was savvy and quoted Deut. 6:16 back at him. “You shall not test the Lord your God.” What did that mean? ‘Testing the Lord your God’ means to doubt God’s care and goodness.

There are numerous ways for me to deal with my enemy as well. When I obey God, trust God, step out in faith, and when I believe His Word over my own instincts, all of these destroy the works of the devil. In intercessory warfare, when I rise up to use my authority in scripture, limits are placed on Satan’s activity once again. And when I ask God for the spiritual eyesight to see behind the smokescreen of each temptation so that I can quote appropriate scripture back at him, his works are destroyed.

Lord, our enemy is not acting like a defeated foe. But he is. He acts like he has all power. But he doesn’t. With Your Word, make my mouth a sharp sword. Amen

When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother told Him, “They don’t have any wine.”  “What has this concern of yours to do with Me, woman?” Jesus asked. “My hour has not yet come.”

How did Jesus relate to ~ 4.) His Own Family?

You know what it is to have access to someone else’s ear so that you can plead someone else’s case, right? That is what is happening here. Jesus and His mother were guests at a wedding and the host ran out of wine. Mary knew Jesus could do something and presumed upon His divinity. But Jesus exalts his sonship to His Father above his sonship to his mother. Jesus showed allegiance to God’s will over His mother’s will. He felt it necessary to make the point that no physical relationship on earth controlled him and His family would have no special advantage.

How about James, the half-brother of Jesus?  He grew up in the same household yet failed to recognize his brother’s divine nature.  Family ties and sibling issues obscured his vision.  (Often, what is right under our noses is veiled to us.)  I’m sure that as James grew older, he was haunted by a certain conversation he had with Jesus’ as his brother’s public ministry was about to begin.  “If you want to be known publicly,” James said, “then go to Jerusalem to the Feast of Booths.  Do your works there so that your notoriety grows.”  The undertone of slick marketing was not lost on the Son of God. It wasn’t until after Jesus death and resurrection that James’ spiritual eyes were opened.

Jesus had to work against the assumption of His day that His family of origin had an inside track of influence. Recall the time in Luke 11 that a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to Jesus. ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed! But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

Or another time, in Mark 3, the people called out to him while he was speaking in a house: “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.’ And he answered them, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers!’ Followers, not family, have a saving relationship with Jesus.

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:26 (Hate means preference.) But this is not an easy way to live.

Families struggle with issues of loyalty where faith is concerned. If all are not believers, there’s no friction like kingdom friction. The clash between God’s kingdom and Satan’s kingdom can bring about declared war inside the family unit. The only One who has ultimate rights to my life is the One who created me. My love and loyalty to my family is always trumped by my allegiance to my new Father.

This transference of power and influence takes guts – continually. Give your children the courage to count the cost. Amen

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” John 4:10 

How did Jesus relate to:  1.) The Shamed?

How do I try to connect with someone who lives with crippling shame? I read the Gospels with wonder when I see that Jesus knew just what to do. He did the will of the Father by removing shame and restoring honor. “I [God] will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.” Zeph.3:19 Peter, well acquainted with shame after denying Jesus, wrote  “Whoever believes in him [Jesus] will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe.” I Peter 2:6-7

Jesus built bridges of honor as he related to those who were alienated by shame. He reached out to the woman of Samaria and established honor by crossing two lines of bigotry; gender bias and racial discrimination. His final act of bestowing honor was to ultimately reveal that He was the Messiah, His first public admission.

Jesus built another bridge of honor with the woman caught in adultery. Her accusers cited the Law of Moses. They wanted her stoned. Jesus was silent, curiously writing something in the dirt, giving everyone moments of personal reflection. The accusers went silent and the sound of stones hitting the ground could be heard. Ultimately, he offered the woman mercy and gave her honor that was undeserved. It was reckless mercy to the Pharisees.

Those who suffer most from shame are the ones who are scared to tell us their stories. They have probably experienced bias. They feel unclean, unworthy, and cursed. I cannot tell them about Jesus unless I treat them without prejudice. I must build a bridge of honor by extending unconditional love. This does not mean tolerance and overlooking evil. It means being like God who loves the sinner but hates their sin. The ones in shame, even undeserved shame, look for confirmations of their unworthiness in the eyes of others. (I did it for years!) And how well I know, from personal experience, that if we come preaching, attempting to fix them with scripture ~ and all with an attitude of being above them, shame is deepened and honor becomes more elusive. Legalism cements shame.

I remember today that, before salvation, I was covered in my own shame and sin. I was unworthy and yet Jesus extended mercy to me. As I see one bent over under the yoke of shame, I am humbled by the memory of my own deliverance. Tragically, the ones most bowed down with shame don’t often come through church doors. They won’t run toward those they fear will further condemn them.

So, who is near me crippled with shame? Time for me to take a step back and let go of unsuccessful methodology. I ask Jesus to give me His heart for that person. I ask Him how I should build a bridge as artfully as He did. I may not even need words. Like Jesus who sat on the edge of the well in Samaria, He just showed up and began a conversation about life, not religion. Both the Samaritan woman and the woman caught in adultery – ultimately lifted their gaze to behold the love of God.

Someone near me, too scared to look at Jesus, just might get the courage if they can see His love in my eyes first. I must always build the bridge of friendship and honor strong enough to support the truth.

Honor instead of shame, Jesus. You gave it to me. Show me how to reach out to the person You’ve brought to my mind right now. Amen

To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24

Do you remember the old TV show called The Newlywed Game? Three sets of couples competed against each other to see who knew their spouses the best. First, all the husbands went backstage and the wives were asked questions about their men. “If your husband got bad news, he would react in what way? A, B, C, or D.” Those who scored the most points won the game.

What if we were asked to guess what Jesus might like, or how He might act? How well do we really know Him? That’s the purpose of this next series. Why is it important? Because whomever it is we know and worship, we’ll emulate. It’s instinctive. No one wants to be like someone they dislike. The better we know Jesus, the easier to stay on the path of sanctification.

Tomorrow, we’ll begin. How did Jesus relate to those who lived with shame? How did He relate to imperfect disciples?   How did He function in the relationship with His Father, or with His enemy, the devil?

What do you think will be your reaction to Jesus’ interactions with certain people? Will you love Him more, or less, or not care? And how will you and I change as a result of walking alongside Him in review?

Not ironically, this takes us to what it means to be yoked to Christ. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:29

I am praying for us ~ that God will open our eyes to see, believe, and worship. 

We will be astonished by You, Jesus. Warmed, convicted, inspired, perhaps even stumble. Give us grace for this journey. Amen