What Would Jesus Do?

I was picking up a pizza last night, and the car next to me had a bumper sticker on it that said, "Jesus would slap the s*** out of you."

Really? You want to go there? Show me one person that Jesus actually did that to, in his 30+ years on earth. It amazes me that people who haven't taken the time to actually read the Bible - which, after all, is the record that we have of what Jesus did and said while here - have the nerve to try to guess what he would do.

And, for the record, that goes for "both sides of the aisle."

So, what would Jesus do? Well, first, he would love people. That's what he did; that's what he told the disciples to do. When he was asked about the greatest commandment, he combined "love God" and "love your neighbor" into one commandment and said that summed it all up. Second, and related to the first, he would point people toward God. You see, love doesn't mean letting someone do whatever they want; I love my kids, but I don't let them do whatever they want. I try to teach them what's right, teach them how to make good decisions, and pray that by the time they're adults some of that has sunken into their heads.

People who want to say that love means letting people do whatever they want are fond of quoting Jesus' statement, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." (John 8:7, NIV) However, they forget to add Jesus' comment to the woman who was at the center of the controversy: "Go now and leave your life of sin." (John 8:11, NIV)

So, Jesus didn't slap the you-know-what out of anybody. Can we just stop trying to discuss the vital issues of life through bumper stickers and soundbites? Or has our collective attention span diminished to the point where that's as long as we can focus?