by David Scott Robertson
What would Jesus do (WWJD) if He were me (IHWM)?
That Jesus Christ walked the earth is a historical and theological fact.
There is far more real, conclusive, court-admissible proof that He existed than any other man.
I don’t, however, need to review the evidence, I’ll take it on faith.
But I am curious as to what Jesus would have done if He were me given that presently my physical body doesn’t work right.
WWJD IHWM?
How long would he have tolerated this situation?
Do you suppose He would have said something like “Oh well, I guess it’s just God’s will” that I’m handicapped, disabled, dysfunctional, etc.
Ever wonder if the Boy Jesus had a cold growing up? The flu? Did He ever have the chicken pox? A fever? A fever blister?
I wonder if He ever smashed His thumb with a hammer growing up in Joseph’s carpentry shop? In all those years of working with wood did the young man Jesus ever bleed from a splinter? If so, wouldn’t that blood be as holy as the blood to be shed on the cross?
I’ve had a cold. I’ve had the flu. I had chicken pox when I was a kid complete with a fever. I’ve had a fever blister and blisters on my hands from working with wood and I’ve smashed my thumbs and probably all my fingers besides. I’ve bled like a stuck hog as my mother dug out with a sewing needle wooden splinters buried in the palm of my hands.
WWJD IHWM?
Knowing what He knew – or more importantly, knowing Who He knew – my thought is that Jesus were in my shoes would have taken the need to His Father right away.
And whatever Father said about the matter was the way it would be.
If it had pleased the Father to subject Jesus to all sorts of childhood diseases, accidents, bumps and bruises, cuts and scrapes, then that’s what would have happened.
If Jesus were like me, He would have suffered through it and made it to adulthood anyway.
But Jesus was unlike me and the rest of us.
It pleased the Father to have Jesus be…
Born of a virgin,
Born a male Jew,
Born into a culture that would by an large ignore and reject Him,
Born to die to redeem a lost race,
Born to die in the worst way possible in the era of history – brutally and cursed on a cross.
It pleased the Father to strike Him,
To turn His back on Him as Jesus became sin for a people who without Him would die in their sins without hope.
WWJD IHWM?
Good thing He wasn’t.
DSR
8/20/03