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Pastor’s Message
WWJD?
Dr. Adrian Smith
What Would Jesus Do? A few years ago, many Christian teenagers started wearing bracelets displaying the letters WWJD—abbreviating the question, What Would Jesus Do?
Those wearing the bracelets were hoping that the four letters, WWJD, would remind them to imitate Christ in all situations. Imitating Christ. Surely, this is the pattern for the Christian life, isn’t it? Indeed, a famous devotional work even has the title, The Imitation of Christ (by Thomas à Kempis, in the15th century).
During the season of Lent, the Church encourages the imitation of Christ via the practice of fasting. The fasting season of Lent lasts for 40 days (starting with Ash Wednesday), in imitation of Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11). At the end of his fast, Jesus was confronted by the Devil, who schemed to lead Jesus astray via three temptations. In each case, Jesus resisted the temptation by quoting scriptures that he had memorized. And this is another way that the Church encourages us to imitate Christ—by memorizing scripture, for use in our own private spiritual battles against the Tempter.
WWJD bracelets; fasting during Lent; memorizing scripture just like Jesus—what is the common denominator of these practices? Is it not the tendency to view Jesus as a moral example? (Before I continue, let me pause and affirm: Jesus certainly is a moral example; fasting can be a beneficial spiritual discipline; and memorizing scripture certainly is!) But now permit me to inject a note of concern. If Jesus is primarily a moral example, in what sense is he a savior or redeemer? (Modern ‘liberal’ theology, prevalent in the mainline denominations, essentially reduced Jesus to a moral example!)
Let us revisit the Lenten narrative of Jesus in the desert—but situate it in the bigger story of the Bible. The scriptures Jesus quoted against Satan came from Deuteronomy 6 and 8—passages where Moses is retelling the episode of Israel’s failure in the desert (from the book of Numbers). When their faith was severely tested in the desert, Israel failed. When Israel failed, was it because they had not memorized scripture? Hardly—they had received the word of God, via Moses, in the book of Exodus; and, in an oral culture, where few could read, they would have memorized scriptures from Exodus! Memorizing scripture is a wonderful practice—I do it regularly—but, in my own experiences, just like Israel, I often prove powerless against the cunning of the Devil. So, should I primarily be striving to imitate Christ—or is my greater need for union with Christ, as a true deliverer, not merely an example?
If we read the story of Jesus’ temptation as part of the bigger story of the whole Bible, we might see something thought-provoking. The 40 days of fasting echoes an episode from the life of Moses (Exodus 34:28). Moses also fasted 40 days and nights. Look, now, at the context of Moses’ fast: he is on Mount Sinai, receiving the words of the covenant, the 10 commandments, for the second time! The 10 commandments were given in Exodus 20. But, in Exodus 32:19, Moses shattered the two tablets of stone, because Israel’s idolatry of the golden calf had broken the covenant! Moses’ 40 day fast, a couple of chapters later, was in the context of God graciously renewing the covenant, by re-writing the 10 words of the covenant on new stone tablets. Can you ‘connect the dots’ to Jesus fasting in the desert? In resisting the Tempter, Jesus is keeping the covenant that Israel, and Pastor Smith, failed to keep! Jesus is more than an example—he is our victorious champion in the spiritual battle we all fight and so often lose. In conclusion, maybe we need to reconfigure our practices of fasting and of scripture memorization. Does our fasting draw us closer to Jesus, the only source of spiritual power? Do the scriptures we memorize, the words we interiorize, unite us to the Word of God—Jesus Christ?
adriansmi@gmail.com
214 543 8029 (cell)
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