Jesus would rather be serving than on a pedestal

I came across a provocative advertisement for a small-group study the other day.

It is a DVD-based exploration of Jesus. The title tickled my imagination: “Saving Jesus.”

One of the presenters, Amy-Jill Levine, speaks of a culture war and Jesus as one of the weapons “that gets tossed about … by both sides.” (If you want, you can check it out at www.livingthequestions.com.)

The title, “Saving Jesus,” reminds me of an image I saw more than 30 years ago of Jesus on a pedestal. It challenged me then, and still challenges me, to admit when Jesus is out of touch – and cannot touch me – because I have put him on a pedestal.

I don’t believe Jesus ever wanted to be worshipped. I do believe he wanted to be followed.

How can we follow a man stuck on a pedestal? All we can do is admire and worship him from below, or get on the pedestal with him. And if we’re up there, we can’t really practice what we preach.

The following e-mail story was passed along to me four times in the last few weeks. Whether it is a true story or not, its twisted humor nails the ongoing dilemma we face when we profess a religious faith but fall short of its practice:

“A man was being tailgated by a stressed-out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

“The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection. … As she was still in midrant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer.

“He took her to jail. After a couple of hours, the policeman approached her cell and opened the door. He said, ‘I’m very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him.

” ‘I noticed the “What Would Jesus Do” bumper sticker, the “Choose Life” license plate holder, the “Follow Me to Sunday-School” bumper sticker, and the Christian fish emblem on the trunk. So I assumed you had stolen the car.’ ”

Ouch! (And I also say “Right on, officer!”)

But the woman deserved it. Her faith posture was totally disconnected from her actions.

In real life, we may be more subtle in how our actions contradict our religious beliefs. Even so, those beliefs we hold dear need to be held up to the light of … of what?

Our beliefs needs to be compared to the very best that our faith tradition has to offer. For Christians, the “very best” test is whether our actions and attitudes reflect beliefs that are Christ-like. It seems pretty obvious to me.

But the e-mail story clearly shows that “What Would Jesus Do?” bumper stickers sometimes have absolutely nothing to do with the actions of people who proudly display the question (in whatever form).

It’s a very good question. It can be a great question when you give two answers: one for what Jesus would do in “this situation,” and one for what you will do because you want to use Jesus as your guide, your model.

You might be tempted to label the woman driver as a hypocrite. I’m not so sure.

“Hypocrite” comes from a Greek word that means “play acting.” This woman wasn’t just playing a part. She actually may be unaware of just how far apart her faith-profession and her actions are.

A person who doesn’t see the difference between his religious belief and his un-Christ-like action needs that Jesus more than he may be able to admit.

Ironically, the person may be out of touch with Jesus because Jesus is still up on the pedestal.

I think Jesus wants our help to climb down. He could do it himself, but since we put him up there, we need to take some responsibility by helping him down.

Of course, I might be wrong about Jesus being alone on that pedestal. It could be that we’re up there, too. From there, all we can do is tell people what to think, what to feel or what to do.

We can’t practice what we preach from a pedestal. Neither could Jesus.

He wants down from that perch so he can love and serve others.

What is that you really want to do?