What Would Jesus Say?

A few years ago the letters WWJD were all the rage in evangelical circles.  Those letters of course stood for What Would Jesus Do?  The implication was simple: whatever Jesus did we should do the same.  The problem was that determining what Jesus would do sometimes seemed tricky.  What one person thought Jesus might do seemed to be the very opposite of what someone else thought He might do.  WWJD proved not to be an easy thing to figure out at all.


Perhaps a better question would be WWJS: What Did Jesus Say?  Perhaps the words that Jesus spoke give us a better insight into what Jesus did and what we should do as well.  In Matthew 4:17, Matthew summarizes the preaching of Jesus in a single sentence.  He says the whole of three years of preaching comes down to this one relatively simple expression.  Matthew writes: "From that time on Jesus began to preach, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.'


The phrase kingdom of heaven is rendered the kingdom of God in other Gospels.  Matthew, writing to a Jewish audience with deep cultural concerns about taking God's name in vain, was probably trying to avoid unnecessary use of God's name and thus substituted the word heaven.  This might confuse us into thinking that Jesus was speaking about some future time and future place.  But Jesus was not.  He was not preaching repent so that some day you might be ready for an eternal kingdom.  Jesus' preaching was more than that.  He was preaching that God now is breaking into history and all need to be ready.  All need to turn from disobedient and selfish actions to be ready to be a citizen of and participant in God's kingdom.  


The kingdom of God is here now.  God is spreading His rule and His reign in this world.  And we participate in that reign and rule only as we have faith in Jesus and only as we turn from our sin and obey His Word and command.