Would Jesus Do That? (Part 3)

 I am back after a break, as my work life has been so busy and the barrage of national and worldwide events has been so intense that it has been hard to find the time and emotional bandwidth to sit down and reflect. I have been covering the practice while my colleague recovers from an illness even while continuing with my own rounds of chemotherapy every three weeks. From mid-July through the end of August, I experienced such a host of side effects from my treatments that I drew a diagram of a human body with arrows pointing to all the parts that were affected along with the details and presented it to my oncologist. As I had hoped, he agreed to reduce my dose two weeks ago, and I have been physically much better since then! This has been a really tough year!

Last Sunday, I told my pastor and others that my prayers have become much more soulful in this season. Examples: "Help!" and "Give me strength for this day." I have fought back against discouragement, working harder than I have been intending, not having the downtime that I had expected while completing treatment for breast cancer. The end of treatment is four months away, and the show must go on. Thankfully, the team at the practice have held me up in the work to serve our patients, and we are already giving out flu shots and other vaccines and working to hire an additional physician to work with us.

As for the quesion I have been chewing on, "Would Jesus do that?", there are many recent actions by public officials and our fellow citizens which brings this to mind. "Would Jesus do that?" applies to matters of public health, online discourse, political events, and how we eat, which car we decide to drive, and how we care for children and other vulnerable members of our society. It is almost too much to take on all of this in the consideration; thus, perhaps the question itself may lead down a wrong pathway of attempting to imitate Jesus, to simply apply a moralism, rather than to bow before Jesus as our powerful King (we used to say "Lord") and commit ourselves to doing as he would as acts of worship, sustained only by the power of the Holy Spirit which he has poured out upon his children. 

"Would Jesus do that?" could still be an important question, though, in restraining that sinful instinct that would veer us into unbecoming behavior. Here, I think of how tempting it is for people to be divisive and dehumanizing, especially when interacting with strangers online. This week, with the death of Charlie Kirk, came the example of jumping to conclusions, false accusations, and sowing of division by some leaders with the loudest microphones. I was dismayed to read an article posted by "The Gospel Coalition" suggesting that influencers "on the left" expressed glee at Kirk's death. I saw no evidence of that. Until two days ago, I had never heard of Charlie Kirk, and now the whole world seems to have an opinion about the man. Jesus would not engage this way. Jesus would condemn political violence, even as He Himself was a victim of it. At the same time, Charlie Kirk was no Jesus. 

Jesus would not have tried, as Kirk did, to summarily dismiss the existence of systemic injustice against African Americans in our present day. After all, the Bible has numerous examples of systemic injustice: the Egyptians enslaving God's people, Haman's murder plot to annihilate the Jews, the mistreatment of women, Assyrian and Babylonian conquests, and the Roman occupation during Jesus' time. Of course, Jesus has always called his followers as individuals to "go and sin no more," yet the result of our collective sinfulness as a human race is that unjust systems have been created. This is not the only contributor to the failure of society nor of certain subcultures, because cultures are also sin-sick and in need of deep healing which only Jesus can provide. Thus, while I mourn the death of any human being due to any form of violence, I do not specifically mourn Charlie Kirk as if he was God's man or some kind of example of Christ to others as some people seem to think. 

What about RFK, Jr.? He has been at the top of my mind. I am glad that national physician organizations are calling for his resignation. Now there are babies dying of whooping cough, which is preventable by vaccinating everyone who spends time with newborns. Children who come down with measles are dying or afflicted with permanent and devastating brain damage.  Vaccinations against measles need to be adopted by the vast majority of people in a population to prevent it from spreading. Would Jesus stand by as this non-physician official uses his microphone and his power to tell the public deadly lies about vaccines? Worse, to put policies into place to prevent people from getting vaccinated? I am not sure that Jesus would say to RFK, Jr, as He did to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan." I do not think Jesus would use the words that I would be tempted to say to RFK, Jr. if I ever met him. Yet, I do think Jesus would call out RFK, Jr, for his lies and for cheating people of their health. Jesus held people responsible for their actions, calling upon people to "repent and believe."

During His brief ministry here on Earth, Jesus went around miraculously healing people of incurable and devastating diseases. As a doctor, I stand in awe of Jesus' healing powers and so cannot help but to proclaim that Jesus was and is on the side of healing. Christians believe that when Jesus comes again to rule the Earth, there will be no more sorrow, sickness or death. Thus, I have to think that Jesus would promote vaccines and other proven remedies for disease. In fact, I believe that it is the grace of God that has allowed modern science to advance so quickly to reduce the misery of so many illnesses and lengthen life-expectancies. In the past 20 years, US life expectancy has increased by nearly 20 years!

Other reflections like "Would Jesus eat that?" or "Would Jesus drive that car?" will have to wait for the next time around. I am hoping it will not be too long before I can write again. Meanwhile, I am recommitting to working sacrificially for our patients and the team at the practice, to being a part of solutions to address systemic injustice and individual sins, to telling the truth, to loving my enemies, to opposing violence of any kind against any person, to truthfulness, to confronting the kinds of lies that cause suffering and death, and to provide true "evidence-based, gold standard" healthcare including vaccinations. I recommit myself as an act of worship.