“What would Jesus do?” This phrase brings me so much 90s nostalgia. It takes me back to Vacation Bible School, youth group, and making beaded WWJD bracelets at summer camp.
It’s also a question that has been swirling in my mind since Easter Sunday. We are now in the liturgical season of Easter, 40 days until Ascension Day and then another 10 days to Pentecost. These days reflect the earliest days of the church.
So much happens after the women find the tomb empty. Before his death and resurrection, Jesus spent an incredible amount of time preparing his followers for life without him physically present. Of course, they didn’t get it at the time.
So as they were holed up at home after his death and forthcoming resurrection, the inevitable question they would forever be faced with was: “What would Jesus do?”
After the grief, the joy, the hope of knowing that in the midst of chaos we are still found: how do we know we’re doing what Jesus would do?
This is the eternal question for us as followers of Jesus. One that we should be asking all the time, and yet it has been pushed to the front of our minds and actions.
This liturgical period of Easter is our reminder: we don’t stop with the resurrection, this is just the beginning. The beginning of the church’s life and work. The beginning of something new, as shaky and uncertain as it may be.
Easter is not the climax of our faith, it is the commencement. It is so much more than a verbal proclamation of belief. The hope of the resurrection is lived out every day in the lives and actions of Jesus’ followers. His message before his death was clear. Soon, you will be the representation of me on this Earth. How will you live that out?
Pretty messily, if we take the early church’s example, and that of the church throughout history. Yet, the call to live out the gospel never leaves us.
We are living through the uncertainty of the early church right now. Likely questioning ourselves, trying to hold our communities of faith together, sharing all that we have to ensure that none go hungry. Everything all at once is a question.
Yet, we should keep the one question that matters at the forefront of our minds: “What would Jesus do?”
pyocablog.wordpress.com 