I recently had an experience that still troubles me deeply and all I can think is, “What would Jesus do?”
This saying has been run into the ground so much that it has become a cliché. Perhaps it is the WWJD bracelets, t-shirts, and bumper stickers that made the question easy to ignore. More likely, the saying became so benign because the people who displayed this Christian propaganda didn’t ask themselves this question nearly enough.
“And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?' But when he [Jesus] heard it, he said, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners'” (Matthew 9:11-13).
Jesus is a liberator; he frees the oppressed and heals the afflicted. The sinners and the rejected. The ‘other.’ If God desires mercy, and we are to be like Christ, then we are not to reject or exclude.
It’s not our job to judge or decide who is ‘in’ or ‘out.’ It is our job to love completely and openly, without fear of whether we will look like ‘good Christians’ or not.
No matter what happens, I will defend those who are rejected. I will seek out the lost and the lonely. I will give people the benefit of the doubt. I will not allow my comfort level to dictate my level of hospitality. Why?
That’s what Jesus would do.
