Wanna Live Like Jesus? Then Don't!
According to Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, the apostle Peter requested that he be crucified upside-down because he was "unworthy to die in the same manner as my Lord." Whether the story is historical or not (the fact that Peter was executed in Rome is historical), the moral of the story is clear: even if you are crucified for Jesus, you will never be crucified like Jesus.You could choose to live for Jesus. You will never live like Jesus.
Ed Dobson, former pastor and vice president of spiritual formation at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Mich., just spent a year of his life living as Jesus did.
No, he didn't.
Having read through the four Gospels each week during his 52-week Jesus-imitation-quest, it seems that Dobson never got what those amazing books were trying to say.
The issue is not whether Jesus would have voted for Obama (as Dobson did, because that's who Jesus would have voted for), or whether He would have voted at all, or whether Dobson's occasional trips to the local bar to have a beer and talk about God paralleled Jesus' feasting with sinners.
The issue is cosmically bigger than that.
I wonder how Dobson went about agonizing over his vocation to endure the wrath of humanity's sins and thereby save humanity from them.
Dobson learned that he had to pray for and bless the invisible people responsible for his son's friend's death in Iraq, and said he found that task to be "very, very difficult." Thank goodness he was never faced with the task of praying for and blessing the very real people responsible for his own unjust torture/execution, as they were standing right in front him, laughing.
I'm not saying that Dobson would have had to have been executed in order to carry out his quest to live like Jesus. I'm saying that Dobson couldn't have carried out his quest to live like Jesus.
Nor can we. From our position in the ongoing story of God and humanity, trying to answer the "What Would Jesus Do?" question is an exercise in missing the point.
"It is finished. "
"Follow me."
Get it?
Peter was not living like Jesus. He might have done a few things that Jesus did, but that was incidental. Peter was living for Jesus, in the path cleared by Jesus, in the world inaugurated by Jesus.
That got Peter crucified.
Kinda like Jesus, but entirely unlike Jesus.
Peter got it.
Dobson didn't.
Grace and Peace,
Raffi
Raffi, I rarely disagree with you but I will on this one. But let me know if I've misread you.
One of the significant reasons (a both/and to your idea) is to show up the true humanity, and what life is designed to look like when lived in relationship with the Father and empowered by the Spirit.
Jesus also called us to take up the cross, for many reasons. To follow Jesus is to live the live He lived.
Jonathan,
I knew a man who claimed that he and his wife hadn't argued for over a decade. If I believed him, I'd think I'd have to conclude that there was no love there. I know there's love there, so I guess he's just trying to come off "all Christian."
That's just a long way of saying of course we're gonna disagree (but like you said, probably rarely). And, yeah, I guess this is one of those rare times. You're not misreading me. I'm a gib proponent of not trying to "live the life He lived," as you say, but to live with the life He gave; or, to put it my buddy Paul's words, to live "in Christ," not like Christ.
Maybe it's just a pet peave of mine. I don't know.
Grace and Peace,
Raffi
Indeed.
The point isn't to do the things that Jesus did. That kind of project seems like some kind of self-promoting deal. "Look at how much I'm like Jesus."
I'm with you, Raffi. I'm not called to walk around healing lepers and hanging out with the drunks, I've got a life to live according to my gifts and calling.
Thanks Wickle.
OK, so that's Raffi 2, Jonathan 1.
Anyone else on Jonathan's side? Otherwise, I win!
I agree with you both. Trying to be like Jesus we can show the world what the Kingdom of God is like. At the same time the idea that I can't be like him is freeing. I can try, and when I fail, I don't have to feel so crappy about it.
Thanks for this post. I agree there are lots of ambiguities in trying to be like Jesus. Peace to you today.