What Did Jesus Do?
I remember Christian bookstores. I feel like there may be one or two around but they have mostly gone the way of Borders and Kmart: an endangered or extinct species in most places. But there was a time when I could go to a Christian bookstore and load up on all kinds of spiritual stuff.
An overwhelming amount of stuff. You could get all kinds of Christian stuff you didn’t know you needed. It almost seemed like it was begging for you to buy it.
You could get the latest CCM CD (Contemporary Christian Music Compact Disc) or the latest Christian self-help book. You could find a book to help you be a better husband for Jesus, a better employee for Jesus, or a better housewife for Jesus. You could probably even get better abs for Jesus.
And the one thing you could count on at the Christian bookstore was an exorbitant amount of Christian trinkets. You had necklaces, mugs, figurines, and rings. There was even a Christian mint called Testamints. If you bought this stuff, you crossed over into a bonafide evangelical churchgoing Bible thumper. You signaled to the world that you were on the Jesus team.
Especially if you had a WWJD bracelet on your wrist. WWJD stands for “What Would Jesus Do?” This phrase was lifted from the text of a book called “In His Steps” by Charles Sheldon. The bracelets were a reminder to ask yourself, “What would Jesus do?” if He were facing your situation. It became sort of a mini-movement within evangelical Christianity, mostly typified by teenagers wearing a WWJD bracelet.
It kind of fizzled out in the early 2000s, but the premise still lingers. If faced with a moral challenge or difficult problem, just ask the question: “What would Jesus do?” You can’t go wrong with following the example of Jesus. I get that. On one hand, it totally makes sense.
At the same time, one of the things I noticed is that we never asked, “What Did Jesus Do?” It makes the question proactive. You are not saying, “What would Jesus do in this situation or challenge that I’m encountering?” You are saying, “The things I know Jesus did are what I’m going to do.”
Now this is not saying we should all wear robes and sandals. It definitely doesn’t mean dying on the cross for the sins of the world. There are some unique things Jesus did that are off-limits to us. But there are plenty of other things we can discern from Jesus’s life and ministry that are paths we should be pursuing.
For some reason, “What did Jesus do?” is never asked when it comes to ministry, leadership, or disciple-making. Instead, we ask “What did the big megachurch best-selling book author conference speaking pastor do?”
And that’s where we get off track. Most of the things a megachurch pastor does are nothing close to what Jesus did. In actuality, they are what Jesus didn’t do.
Here’s what Jesus didn’t do:
Jesus didn’t gather a group of religious people to set up a worship service. This is par for the course for most folks who go into church planting. He didn’t recruit people to teach kids, lead worship, or greet people at the doors. There was no launch team. There was no searching for a venue because the world (Galilee) was his venue.
Jesus’s main objective was not to start a worship service. He gathered disciples who lived with Him and learned to live like Him. He aimed at something bigger than an hour and a half out of the week.
He didn’t intend to attract more religious people to these worship services to gain more self esteem or clout in the eyes of other rabbis. Jesus was not interested in transferring religious people from one religious activity to another. He put it very plainly that He came to seek and save the lost.
Jesus didn’t sit down and write out a five-year plan. When you look at Jesus’s movements in the Gospels, they seem rather spur of the moment. “Let’s cross over to the other side.” “Let’s go through Samaria.” While I do believe He was very intentional, there is nothing that looks like the planning of corporate America.
Jesus came with a purpose. One purpose. And that one purpose brought everything into focus. Who needs a plan when you have an all-consuming life mission?
Jesus didn’t preach a sermon every Sunday inside a worship service. Jesus preached outside. He announced the Kingdom to those outside the synagogue. He healed people in the streets. He preached to anyone who was passing by. Now, there were times when He visited the synagogue, but most of His preaching and teaching happened beyond the four walls of a religious service. This message was so important that He needed to directly address his target audience: the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Jesus didn’t spend a large amount of time preparing a sermon with books and commentaries. He wasn’t holed away somewhere at a desk. Jesus was on the move. This is not to say that Jesus didn’t study. On the contrary, His life was saturated with the Word of God. But He didn’t spend most of His week nailing down the finer points of a sermon outline and delivery. His messages came from the heart. His sermon came from his life.
Jesus didn’t have flyers to pass out. He didn’t tell his followers to invite other people to his church. He told His followers to make disciples. Jesus wanted His disciples to invite others into the Kingdom. He didn’t create an amazing brand and graphics to attract people to His cause. The cause was the brand. Jesus invited people into something bigger than a religious organization. He invited His disciples into something that would change the world. You don’t need a carefully crafted marketing push to do that. Word of mouth spread so fast that people naturally came looking for Him. Some volunteered to follow Him without actually counting the cost.
While I can’t say that doing the things Jesus did not do has gotten us zero fruit, I do want to ask: Is it aiming toward the right destination? With so many pastoral scandals, church members who don’t actually follow Jesus, and a younger generation rejecting Christ, our methods demand some examination. Some reflection is in order.
What we need to do is what Jesus did.
Here’s what Jesus did:
Jesus went to a community and served the people. He healed the sick. He exorcized the demonized. He fed them. He raised the dead. Wherever Jesus went, He blessed the people who were around Him.
Jesus announced the Kingdom. He let the people know there was another way to live. He preached that things were different and God was changing things. In other words, He had Good News for people. He proclaimed the Good News to whoever would hear it. He didn’t invite people to come to a set-aside two hours of religious ceremony and then hear the Good News. He just preached it.
He related to the people where they were. He went to their parties. He went to their wedding receptions. He went on the boat with the disciples. He wasn’t confined to a synagogue. He was in touch with the people so much that the religious people criticized Him for eating with tax collectors and sinners.
Jesus invested in a few so He could reach the many. Jesus chose 12 disciples. They were with Him 24/7. They saw how He moved and operated. He gave them opportunities to serve … and to mess up. He brought them along with one purpose in mind: for them to continue to do what He was already doing.
Jesus didn’t give all the answers or explain everything right away. Jesus allowed His followers to figure it out. He left room for the Holy Spirit to work with them. He answered questions with questions. He didn’t sit them down for a 12-week session on the ins and outs of the Kingdom. He lived the Kingdom, invited them into it, and trusted God to sort out what needed to be sorted out.
Jesus gave them a mission and equipped them for it. He equipped the disciples by sending them out to “practice.” He gave them instructions on how to go about announcing the Kingdom and finding people of peace. He briefed them on what to do when they encounter opportunity and when they encounter resistance. He gave them feedback and kept their eyes on the main thing.
And so I’ve been on this journey to not just ask “What Would Jesus Do?” but actually seek to do what Jesus did. No, I don’t walk around in sandals and a robe and I am not dying on the cross to atone for the sins of the world. Instead of thinking the main way I can reach people is to start a church service I’m taking a different route. Slowly but surely I’m seeking to bless people in my sphere of influence. Along the way, I’m sowing the seeds of the gospel and investing in those who respond by equipping them to disciple others.
While I might not have everything 100% correct about what Jesus did, one thing for certain is that the Church as a whole has a lot of room to grow in actually imitating Him and His ministry. As John Wimber once said, “We have no ministry but the ministry of Jesus.”
Editor’s Note: If you want to take some next steps in Doing What Jesus Did, check out our training page.