Midweek Faith Lift
October 21, 2026
“What Would Jesus Do?”
Clark Ford, Guest Speaker
Good morning, everyone! I’m professor Ford, and you are in “What Would Jesus Do 101.” Some of you who signed up for this class already think you KNOW What Jesus Would Do. Anybody? Well, I think you all DO know what Jesus would do. And if you don’t, you always have Google. Here is what Google AI says about what Jesus would do and what Jesus would not do:
What Jesus Would Do
• Serve others: Humbled Himself, washed His disciples' feet, etc.
• Heal and care for the marginalized. Welcomed outcasts, healed the sick, and cared for the poor and vulnerable
• Speak truth to hypocrisy: challenged religious and institutional leaders (such as the Pharisees) when their traditions exploited people or lacked mercy
• Practice non-violent resistance: Confronted injustice through love, patience, and non-violent means (.2]
• Follow God’s will: Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane comes to mind
What Jesus Would Not Do
• Seek worldly power or political domination: Rejected Satan's temptation to rule over the kingdoms of the earth through compromise or force, and refused to use political capital for worldly leverage. [1, 2, 3]
• Condemn the broken or repentant: Extended grace, forgiveness, and restoration to sinners and outcasts .
• Condone false teaching or spiritual pride: Refused to compromise core moral truths or validate hypocritical piety. [1]
• Abandon His followers: .
• Prioritize personal comfort or self-preservation: Did not call down angels to save Himself from the cross .
So, we have a good idea about what Jesus would do. The question is, can WE do it? Do we even WANT to do it? Is this what it means to be Christian?
Growing up as a Christian, I was taught that Jesus was a model for how Christians were supposed to behave. Jesus was kind, he was loving, caring, forgiving, he put others first, he was spiritual. Jesus chose the high road instead of the low road, he was in tune with his higher self. He was giving, he put others first, he was brave, patient, and fearless. He stood up for what was right, and didn’t care about what was popular, or who was in power, or rules that he felt were unjust or unloving. And I was taught that’s how I was supposed to behave too. Or at least try. Other Christians were taught the same thing, of course, but I didn’t have to worry about other Christians, I just had to worry about myself. If I ever wondered if I was doing the right thing, I could ask “What Would Jesus Do?”
Of course, there were practical problems with this. Would Jesus let another kid bully him? Steal his lunch money? Would he willingly just give all his money to other kids? Would he not fight back if he were punched on the playground? Did Jesus have pride, or did he let other kids tease and belittle him? Kids can be little monsters. What Would Jesus Do?
So, I wrestled with this problem all growing up. Jesus said “turn the other cheek,” “walk the extra mile.” My parents gave me that advice over and over when I would get into a dispute with siblings or other kids. Even if it was all their fault! It didn’t seem fair. Wasn’t Jesus all about truth and fairness?
As I grew older, I began to understand more of what Jesus was talking about, and I tried to follow what Jesus would have done, believing that it was a higher spiritual and moral path. I know others that did too. But I wasn’t blind to what passed for normal in the real world – and by being normal, that made it OK, didn’t it? – I mean if so many people were doing it, how could it be wrong? This didn’t seem to be what Jesus would do: Cheating if you can get away with it, lying, manipulating, trying to get ahead at other people’s expense, taking advantage, being thoughtless, racism. But we’re talking the real world, right?
Where I grew up, there were many churches, but almost everyone was Christian, so I was surrounded by people claiming to be or at least trying to be “Christian.” I always loved meeting people who were kind and understanding, who would bend over backwards for you, who were genuinely good people, and trying to be good Christians. And there were many of these. And then I met a lot who weren’t.
I’m not a psychologist, but it is my observation that regardless of what heinous things people do, nobody wants to think of themselves as a schmuck. So either they are in denial or they have elaborate rationalizations. This goes for people, institutions, nations – everyone. In history we have seen wars, conquest, genocide, slavery – but nobody is a schmuck! How do they pull that off? Religion almost always plays a big role. Acts of violence done in the name of God are the will of God – especially if your people are chosen by God, which turns out to be the case over and over in history. The same thing plays out on a smaller scale in churches, communities, and families. But What Would Jesus Do?
If you ask people if they were selfish, hateful, or exploitative, of course they would deny it, and some may not even realize that they are. Likewise, Christian businesses, Churches, and Private Schools would say the same. No! they were a force for good in the world, bringing the message of Christ to everyone. In almost every case, however, it was not just the message of love and kindness, it went beyond that to include something insidiously powerful: salvation and the afterlife.
Although kings were appointed by God, the common people lived lives of unending work, poverty, and misery. The life of the conquered! This is probably because humans were just too darn sinful and didn’t deserve better. But wait, there is an afterlife! f Heaven sounded wonderful to those who lived in misery. Of course, the church controlled access to heaven. That was power. Power over people. Power over death that every person wanted. And so, Churches peddled the afterlife in exchange for institutional growth through converts and contributions. Some churches are pretty flagrant about this. And there is power in numbers, so the more people buy this message, the more powerful the church becomes. Sounds like a great racket, doesn’t it? But What Would Jesus Do? Jesus in the temple chasing out the money changers comes to mind…
Although the Christians in my community seemed to want to follow Jesus, actions speak louder than words, and some Christians I knew were pretty much doing the opposite of what Jesus would do in most circumstances. By the time I was in college, I had given up on Christianity – not on Jesus, but on the institution that claimed to be followers of Jesus, and on the community of people, and nation of people who claimed to be Christian. Christianity in the real world seemed to me to be just a hotbed of hypocrisy – or worse, a way of justifying the worst in moral and spiritual behavior instead of the best.
Wow – Harsh! And, by the way, who am I to judge? I am certainly not perfect, nor do I even aspire to be. I am just trying to seek truth. Instead of embracing the “real world” in Christian culture all around me, I have tried various ways to divorce myself from it, step away, and ask: Is this for me? What if I had been born in a different culture and just looked in on this one. Would I be impressed? Yes on some things, and no on others. I might be wondering What Would Jesus Do?
That’s exactly what Ghandi did. He was drawn to the person and message of Jesus, and spoke about Jesus often, but refused to join the Christian church. When asked why, he would say something like: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ". Many of the missionaries and other Christians that Ghandi came in contact with didn’t act like the loving Jesus of the gospels, but instead exhibited values of racism, greed, and imperialism. Values we are familiar with in western culture. Values that have been normalized as part of our real world.
Ghandi was interested in Jesus, because Jesus was kind, preached love, was meek, giving, and self-sacrificial. He didn’t see much of that in Christians. Ghandi loved the sermon on the mount. Many Christians act like the sermon on the mount is impractical, and downplay the importance of what Jesus taught. Ghandi observed Christians acting as though the idea of unconditional love was pretty much unattainable. So why try?
How did Christianity get this way? The first followers of Jesus were attracted to his spirituality and to his message of love. I can imagine that they asked themselves frequently “What Would Jesus Do?” as a way to guide their actions. Jesus was not about amassing wealth, controlling people, hierarchies, or nation-forming, and neither were the early followers of Jesus. So what happened?
We know historically that Christianity became a state religion. First in Rome, and then throughout Europe. And we know from studying history, that state societies throughout the world start small and grow large through conquest. In State societies, everyone has to join the state religion. The king was divinely appointed, chosen by God to be ruler. Whatever the King did was therefore Holy work. In these societies, the government needed the church to justify its rule, and the church needed the government for support. The two worked hand in hand. Religious zeal helped justify conquest which gave state societies more people and more resources. When religion was spread through conquest, this was holy work. That has been the story of civilization all over the world, from the beginning until now.
Christianity, before it was a state religion, tried hard to follow what Jesus Would Do. After it became a state religion, starting in Rome and then throughout Europe, it had a new role, in justifying and benefitting from the activities of the warring countries of Europe - all of which were trying to survive and prosper by forming empires. To be successful in empire forming, Christianity had to inspire soldiers to die for a cause, and inspire conquered peoples to accept a new religion. The tool used was salvation and the afterlife. Onward Christian Soldiers!
So there are two competing messages in Christianity: The message of Jesus, of love and forgiveness, and the message of survival of the church in the real world, which depended on western culture ideas of growth and economic prosperity. Many of us have tried to live up to the ideals of Jesus while at the same time embracing western culture, trying to make it all work. It is not easy. Our churches tried that too. But I don’t believe these two messages can be reconciled or exist together – they are cognitively dissonant. Something has to go. This is why Jesus gave the sermon on the mount…
We love Jesus, but we love our Western Culture too. We like success, we like money, we like power, we like comfort, we like having power over our lives, and we fear we will lose these. We spend an inordinate amount of time rationalizing how we can love all of that and love Jesus too. Jesus, on the other hand, would have us give up our attachment to the real world, and the fear that drives us, and instead embrace love of our neighbors, love of spirit and faith in the divine. We try to have faith, but it is no match, much of the time, for our fear.
When I was growing up, I wondered, What Would Jesus Think of my church? I grew up in an upwardly mobile middle-class community of postwar prosperity. People bought Cadillacs and big houses to show off their wealth and women went to church in furs. But, what would Jesus do? Roll his eyes? I certainly did. Everybody I knew wanted the good life. They wanted it all. It was some kind of sense of entitlement. I doubt if many people thought that that they were taking excess resources as luxuries that others might use simply to live. People thought: we worked hard, we earned this. Everybody else does this. How can it be wrong? But, WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? And we know the answer. We don’t like the answer but we know it. Jesus’s material focus was not on wealth, but on health. To have enough to eat to live. That was good. More than that? Not necessary. Give the extra away to those in need.
Well, EXCUSE ME, I give to charity. I tithe to the church. I do my part! Yes, we know What Jesus Would Do, but can we do it? I mean, let’s be real - We can’t give it all away! Wouldn’t we become a charity case ourselves, a homeless hippie wandering from town to town, dependent on the kindness of strangers? How would that be good? And then if everybody did that, we would be a nation of poor and helpless, starving people that would be easy to invade, and we would all be conquered and enslaved or killed for our resources. Surely that isn’t what Jesus had in mind?
No, I don’t think that is what Jesus had in mind, and either do you. What I think he had in mind was for us to focus on spirit, on the divine, on love of others, to have a spiritual focus fed by love rather than a material focus fed by greed or fear. And so that is how Jesus lived, with a spiritual focus fed by love. When I ask myself What Would Jesus Do?, in any situation I can come up with, I simply imagine that he would Respond With Love. I don’t need to construct elaborate scenarios placing Jesus in the modern world, or imagining myself at the time of Christ. I don’t worry that I myself am not Jesus or anywhere near perfect. I simply allow myself to be inspired by Jesus. For me, that is enough.
Perhaps Ghandi would have been more interested in Christianity if Churches and Christians lived more in spirit fed by love, than in the material world, fed by fear. Imagine a whole world of people living in love…