Copying Jesus
Every parent, at some point, has a conversation with their child that goes something like this:
Parent: Why did you do that?
Child: Because Johnny did it.
Parent: And if Johnny jumped off a bridge, would you also?
From a very young age, humans learn to emulate the things they observe. It’s just the way we are wired, we observe things and then we try them ourselves. To put it in a very crude way: monkey-see, monkey-do!
Emulating Jesus through Acts of Love
Do you remember those WWJD bracelets? They were all the rage for a while when I was at school. The idea behind them was simple: they were to remind us to try and emulate Jesus! Seeing it would remind you to ask yourself What Would Jesus Do? in every situation.
I believe that of all the people we could observe and try to emulate or copy, Jesus is as good as it gets. And in fact, emulating Jesus is truly the ultimate goal of our Christian lives. Some people think the ultimate goal of becoming a Christian is getting to heaven. But there’s so much more to it than that! God’s desire for us is transformation – transformation into the likeness of Jesus.
There is perhaps no other word to capture the essence of Jesus than the word love. The Bible says that GOD IS LOVE. This that means that JESUS IS LOVE.
You’ve probably heard the old story of the four businessmen who were rushing through the airport to catch their plane, when one of them inadvertently kicked an apple cart over.
Apples flew in all directions, but in their hurry, the men just carried on running to make sure they didn’t miss their plane.
But one of the men glanced back and saw that the owner of the apple cart was a blind girl, and she was floundering as she tried to gather the apples up… so he stopped. He turned around… And he came back to help her.
She was crying softly, her face wet with tears, people swirling all around her as she groped about for her apples.
The man knelt next to her and helped her gather the apples together, put them on the table, and reorganize her display. He set aside the damaged apples into a separate basket. Then he opened his wallet and gave the girl some money to pay for the damages.
As he turned to walk away, the girl called out after him.
“Mister” she said… “are you Jesus?”
Love Like Jesus: Emulating His Example
Because Jesus loved… we should love. Or, to put it in biblical language, “This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:5–6)
Today, love like Jesus. And maybe somebody is going to see the way you love and ask “are you Jesus?”
