So You Want To Be Like Jesus?

You hear it a lot in Christian circles – “I just want to be like Christ” – in some form or another. And I, too, am one of those with that aspiration. But it occurred to me recently that perhaps we don’t really grasp the full meaning of that statement. In our pursuit of friends, love, relationships, career, family, money, status, success, happiness, respect, appreciation, justice and fairness, youth and so much more – do we really want to be like Christ? Do we really grasp everything that this entails? Who was Jesus, anyway?

Do you want youthfulness and beauty? Attractiveness? “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (Isaiah 53:2b)

Do you desire friends and acceptance by your peers? “He was despised and rejected by men….” (Isaiah 53:3a)

Do you fight for justice and fairness for yourself? “He was oppressed and afflicted yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter….” (Isaiah 53:7)

Do you want happiness and peace? To be able to enjoy life to the fullest? “…A man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering….” (Isaiah 53:3b) “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer….” (Isaiah 53:10a)

Do you want a nice home, in a nice neighborhood? “Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’” (Matthew 8:20)

Do you want to be respected by those you work with and those you love? “Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.” (Matthew 8:34)

Do you want loyal friends? In Matthew 26:69 – 75 one of Jesus’ closest disciples (friends), Peter, publicly disowned Him at His time of greatest need – when he had been arrested and put on trial for His very life.

Do you want friends who will support you when you need it most? In Matthew 26:36 – 46 Jesus’ disciples could not even stay awake with him as He prayed for His Father to spare His life – the day before He was to die an awful death. In Mark 6:1 – 6 Jesus’ disciples fled when the Roman soldiers and Jewish leaders came to arrest him.

Do you want to be respected by your peers? In Matthew 27:11 – 26, Jesus’ own people, the Jews, turned on Him and called publicly for his crucifixion.

Jesus never married - and this in a time when people married in their teens and began having children almost immediately.

Jesus didn't have a career or a formal job. He could have. We know He was a carpenter. And as the perfect Son of God - I'm sure he was pretty good at what He did and could have done quite well with it as a career!

So – do you really want to be like Jesus? Do you want what the world says is success, or do you want what Jesus lived? In my own life – dealing with a divorce, dealing with financial issues, dealing with a loss of status, and a difficult job – this is not exactly what I had in mind when I first thought to strive to be Christlike. I would, of course, love to have a big house again, live in a nice neighborhood again, have a complete family again, have a well-paying job again, and all the things that the world says define success and who you are. But I am trying to learn to be content with what I have – all of which is more than Jesus had in his relatively few years on earth - years which I have already surpassed.

Materially – I already have more than He ever had – I have two paying jobs. I have a place to live. I have my own transportation, beautiful children, friends, some material things, etc. But He had joy and peace that I have yet to fully experience. And I look forward to achieving that goal.

So – what is it we really want? To be like the Christ the world sees – “a good guy”? Or to be like Christ actually was – a totally selfless and wholly dedicated servant of God? It doesn't mean that you'll have to live the life that Jesus lived and give up the many things we treasure. But it does mean that you must be willing to. Like the story of the rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16 - 30), you must be willing.

We each need to make up our own minds. But know what you’re asking for!