What Would Jesus Do?

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Permalink Reply by Peter Delaney on July 15, 2009 at 12:12pm

I think he would refuse to eat them and suggest using our natrural resources better and get the schools involved in growing their own gardens especially in cities.

What would Jesus do if he saw people confessing his name but rejecting each other?

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Permalink Reply by Lynda Keen on November 22, 2009 at 12:58pm

He would tell them a story, a parable illustrating their behaviour, what was wrong with it and what they should be doing instead. Then He'd leave them to work out for themselves the moral of the story and apply it to their own lives.
Next question, one for Advent: what would Jesus do if He saw the current commercialisation of the celebration of His birth?

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Permalink Reply by Reginald Jay Townes on September 22, 2009 at 11:08am

Well, I'm not really sure what a school dinner is. Is it some sort of fund-raiser to bring money to the school? Do you have evening school there in the UK, and the children are provided with a "school dinner"? What ever the case is, Jesus loved dinners! I would dare to say that his most favorite social pass-time was eating and drinking. So much so, that he was even severely criticized by the pious religious leaders of his day for what they believed to be his excessive dinner engagements with people of questionable reputation and character. The Pharisees even asked why his disciples "never go without eating and drinking" while the Pharisees were given to prayer and fasting. (St. Luke 5:33-39)

Jesus enjoyed fine wine and good food. And with no great surprise, his first miracle was at a wedding feast where there was undoubtedly good food and wine. His first miracle was bringing into existence a wine that would rival a 1787 Bordeaux Chateau Lafite. When the wine provided by the caterers had ran out, at his mother's request, he instructed the servers to fill some empty jars with water which promptly became exquisitely fine wine as they began filling them. The caterer-in-charge not knowing where the wine came from, but sure it wasn't his, found it so exquisite that he went to the groom and praised him for his most excellent selection and said that he had indeed "saved the best for last". Take notice that the miracle happened only after the servers obeyed and began the motions and actions required of them! (St. John 2:1-12)

Jesus' second miracle, not surprisingly, involved food. Having pity for about five thousand men--not including women and children, that he had been teaching, and not wanting to send them away in the evening hungry and tired he showed us how God is really concerned with our physical well-being and our daily needs. The disciples approached him and complained that there was not enough food to feed such a large crowd and that all there was were five loaves of bread and two small fishes. Jesus gave thanks, broke the bread, divided the fish, and told the disciples to start passing them around. And all were fed and there were even baskets left over. As one person took and passed to the other, the food multiplied. Take notice that the miracle happened only after the disciples obeyed and began the motions and the actions required of them! (St. Matthew 14:13-21)

Jesus didn't only use the dinner setting to satisfy the "epicurious" tastes or the daily caloric necessities of his followers, but he also used the dinner engagement to address the emotional and spiritual needs of those that were interested in him. He often dined with wealthy crooks and thieves that were tax collectors which the religious leaders as well as the Jewish citizenry hated and despised as traitors to their people and robbers of the poor. But it was at the dinner table, eating and drinking with Levi and Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10, 7:27-32) that he was able to win their hearts and save their souls. Jesus had invited himself to their respective homes to dine with them and they accepted, took him in, and dined with him. Take notice that the miracle happened only after Levi and Zacchaeus obeyed and began the motions and the actions required of them!

Yes, Jesus loved good food and drink, and never passed up a dinner invitation...but he loved people both great and small, religious and sinner, rich and poor. And he never passed up the opportunity to use the dinner to reach their hearts and their souls. He even accepted a dinner invitation from Simon, a Pharisee. While dinning with Simon in his home, he took it upon himself to ask Simon to invite in a known prostitute who was searching for him and found out where he was. I know Jesus asked him to let her in because a known sinner and woman of ill-repute would never be invited in by a Pharisee. As she cried and anointed him, he touched her heart and changed her life and opened Simon's eyes to the real meaning of Love and God's forgiveness. They found their miracle at the dinner table after they searched and invited. Take notice that the miracle happened only after Simon and the sinner-woman obeyed and began the motions and the actions required of them!

After his resurrection, Jesus even chose to appear and make himself known at meals. After having resurrected, he walked with two of the disciples along the road to Emmaus. Unrecognized by them, he encouraged them and offered them scriptural proof that the Jesus that had been crucified in recent days had to suffer that fate but was indeed alive again. They invited him into the house to stay and eat with them. And the Jesus they did not at first recognize, gave thanks and broke the bread. And it was then that they recognized him "in the breaking of the bread". (Luke 24:13-35)

Jesus was not only fond of the dinner engagement but was known to make wonderful things happen at breakfast. Again after the resurrection, unrecognized by the disciples who had been fishing all night and had caught nothing, Jesus came to them as a new friend on the shore of the lake, who told them to let their nets down on the right side of the boat. When they did this they caught so many fish that they couldn't get the net onto the boat and had to literally drag it back to shore. When they arrived on the beach Jesus had a charcoal fire going and had already started cooking breakfast with some fish and some bread. He asked them for some more fish to throw on the grill and they recognized him. They didn't dare to ask who he was and were just happy to savor the moment and enjoy the "breakfast on the beach" with their old friend. Take note that the miracle happened only after the disciples obeyed and began the motions and actions required of them! (St. John 21:1-14)

Jesus not only enjoys being the guest at dinner, but also being host. "When the hour had come for him to be glorified by you, his heavenly Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end; at supper with them he took bread, and when he had given thanks to you, he broke it, and give it to his disciples, and said, 'Take eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' After supper he took the cup of wine; and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and said, 'Drink this, all of you: This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.' " (Book of Common Prayer USA- Holy Eucharist II- Eucharistic Prayer D- p.274).

Christ invites us to dine with him; the rich and the poor, the saint and the sinner, the tired and the hungry, the crook and the thief, the confused and the afraid, the religious and the prostitute. He invites us to his table so that he may have the opportunity to take care of our physical as well as our spiritual needs. He wants us to dine with him so that he may touch our hearts, heal our bodies, save our souls, and provide for our daily needs. How often do you attend the Eucharist? The Lord's Supper is the center of our faith and worship. It is there that we recognize the resurrected Christ "in the breaking of the bread" It is at this supper that Christ comes to us and makes miracles happen like he did at all the other dinner engagements. In faith, bring all of your problems, worries and concerns to him; to his table. Don't ask who he is or if he is really there! Just savor the moment and enjoy a meal with an old friend. All he asks is that you do it for the remembrance of him. Take notice that the miracle of his recognized presence and our changed lives will happen after we obey and begin the motions and the actions (doing and remembering) required of us!

To keep the order of the questions, I will repeat Peter Delaney's question: What would Jesus do if he saw people confessing his name but rejecting each other?

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Permalink Reply by Lynda Keen on September 22, 2009 at 11:20am

Thank you for a very considered answer, RJ. We could also mention the Last Supper, of course.
'School dinners' are lunches that children can get in their school canteens.
We've had a big debate about them recently because the food provided is mostly junk food and our children now have obesity problems. A famous British chef, Jamie Oliver, took on the task of making school dinners healthy by returning to traditional British meals, which are really well balanced because they use natural ingredients rather than processed ones.
The government has embraced his suggestions though are reluctant to give adequate funding. Parents pay for the school dinners but they're also subsidised by government cash and the government don't want to spend more. They spend a few pence per dinner and claim they can't afford more but instead spend billions of pounds on making war in Iraq and Afghanistan; obviously much more important than our children's health.

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Permalink Reply by Laura Sykes on March 11, 2011 at 10:32pm

What would Jesus do if he read the Anglican Covenant?

 

I think he would weep to think that we had managed to keep the Anglican Communion alive for 2,000 years (I know the chronology is debatable, but we believe ourselves to descend from the early Church, do we not?), only to seem now bent on hurling ourselves over the cliff like the Gadarene swine in an act of collective hysteria.

 

The Lambeth Quadrilateral of 1888 provides for

...The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the Unity of His Church...

 

If it ain't broke, why fix it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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