On the way to the work, a small red truck passed me and my eye was caught by a five inch black with white lettered sticker in the bottom left corner of the rear window: Jesus would slap the $#&! out of you. The hyper-pervasive “What Would Jesus Do?” question from years ago quickly came to mind. Apparently the driver felt like someone needed to actually answer that question.
The natural reaction to this kind of judgment on those of us who follow Jesus would be defensiveness. “How dare someone curse in a statement on Jesus?” would likely be our first thought because we all know that cussing is one of those unforgivable sins found somewhere in the Old Testament. That might be followed by a judgment or two of our own on the character of someone who would “attack” Christians in such a “violent” manner.
I have to admit that this sticker did for me what no “What would Jesus do?” sticker, pen, t-shirt, wristband, or poster ever did: It made me think. Would Jesus want to slap the %#&! out of me?
I began to examine how someone like the driver of this truck would view me and how I represent Jesus, both good and bad. I asked myself what it is that I do that might cause Jesus to want to slap me. I came up with a short-list pretty quickly.
I am an instructor for counseling skills in Wake Forest’s online counseling degree program and one of the primary skills needed is a healthy penchant for self-examination lest your own issues become a hindrance to your clients. Self-examination is not that much fun; however, the best students are those who can look at themselves and honestly assess where the hang-ups are so they can become better helpers of others.
The Bible is full of instances of God desperately trying to get His people (not those who do not claim Him), to examine their sins, arrogance, self-aggrandizing, and misrepresentations of Him lest He take a leave of absence. The exiles to Assyria and Babylon? Rough slaps for sure. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Ouch! “All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Feel the burn.
Perhaps we all need to remember that we are both sinner and saint, as Martin Luther declared of himself. If for some reason the driver of a little red truck with a Jesus would slap the $#&! out of you sticker is reading this, thanks for the slap this morning.