I have never been a fan of the WWJD (“What Would Jesus Do”) phrase. It sets up the idea of Jesus as merely an exemplary human from the past that we are supposed to copycat, as opposed to someone we can be in dynamic relationship with in following today.
In addition, the Biblical accounts of Jesus show him as a first century middle eastern man reacting to a very specific set of situations in a very specific culture that we cannot easily translate to our modern western world. While certainly the integrity of his character would remain the same, beyond that it becomes a guessing game of how exactly Jesus would react to every modern situation. The result is that we often manipulate him to be the kind of Jesus we want him to be and to justify our preconceived notions.
There is in the West, after all, on one far end of the spectrum a “social Jesus,” that stands as proof that the central point of Christianity is that we are to do good works by demolishing all power structures and setting up a future utopia with a completely equitable society. On the other far end is “American National Jesus” whose teachings led to the foundations of building the greatest nation the earth has ever seen. Followers of American National Jesus, of course, feel that we have departed from those beginning principles and that our central priority right now is to fight against all those “woke” social Jesus people in order to live out the freedoms that Christ truly intended.
In all my years of both studying and getting to know Jesus, of course, I have found that he is not always as predictable as we would like him to be, and that he is not so easily boxed in. In truth, that is one of the things that so much attracts me to him.
And that is why when my wife suggested the title “WWWJD: What Would ‘Woke’ Jesus Do” for a recent article I wrote for Baptist News Global, the idea of it really intrigued me. Baptist News didn’t end up going with that title, but I wanted to include the article here for my Honestly Thinking readers because, while Jesus can’t be boxed, I think there are certain things about Jesus’s character that remain true for all situations and that should challenge both ends of the spectrum in terms of the gospel we share and how we truly love our neighbor.
Please read the article here.
In a Facebook post I also followed up the article with the following words: Continue reading
