Blog - Mr. Rogers or the Real Jesus: Who Do You Follow?

In the 90’s of the former millennium, “What Would Jesus Do?” became a popular phrase to encourage kindness. When difficult moral questions arise that touch on hot-button cultural issues many Catholics will bandy about similar phrases. We believe that Jesus saves us and that his example remains central for our lives. We rightly want to emulate his example towards others, especially when it comes to morals, culture and politics. But we see that sentiment used in ways contrary to Jesus’ own teaching time and again. This leads me to a simple question that might sound odd: “Which version of Jesus do you use when assessing your posture towards cultural, political, economic, and moral issues?” Another way to put the question would be: “Which resource do you use to assess whether or not your ideas about how Jesus would speak, act, and teach line up with who Jesus actually is?” The importance of this question cannot be overstated. If we do not use the right resources to inform us about Jesus, we run the real risk of “baptizing” opinions about Jesus that are actually foreign to his identity. In the history of Christianity, one library of resources stands above the rest when shaping our understanding of Jesus: The Old and New Testaments, the Bible, Holy Writ, Catholic Scripture.  
If the Bible is not forming our ideas about Jesus – especially the four canonical Gospels of according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – then we are, essentially, “making things up” about Jesus. That statement might sound harsh, but this priest puts it bluntly to highlight what is at stake. If we do not spend time reading, studying, and – most importantly – praying with the Scriptures, then our ideas about Jesus and “what he would do” come not from the primary source of our faith, but from other streams of thought. I have a sense that, for many, the primary source of their ideas about Jesus come from some image in their mind of a person who never made people uncomfortable, never came across as judgmental, and who just wanted everyone to get along with warm, fuzzy feelings. For lack of a better title, I’ll call this the “Mr. Rogers Version of Jesus” or MRV. Of course, Jesus is loving, wants us to rest in the mercy of God the Father, and desires unity among his disciples. But how was Jesus loving? What form did Jesus’ love actually take? What did Jesus really teach? How did he speak and behave? If someone is not shaped by the Gospel witness of Jesus, they will be scandalized by the very non-Mr. Rogers Version that he often embodies in the Scriptures.  
The four Gospels offer us first generation accounts of the life and events of Jesus Christ. Matthew was an apostle of Jesus, and the only apostle mentioned who lived a pre-apostle profession that would have needed reading and writing skills. It makes sense, then, that Matthew would be an apostle who wrote an account of Jesus’ life. Every full text of Matthew’s Gospel that’s been discovered attributes it to him; his name was not a later edition to the text to bolster its legitimacy. Mark was a friend of Peter (Simon Peter) and was most likely his scribe. Mark travelled with Peter and therefore listened to Peter’s preaching and testimony about Jesus. Luke was a huge fan of Paul the Apostle. Luke relates in his own Gospel that he draws from many sources and witnesses in order to bring us his Gospel. And, finally, we have John’s Gospel. Most scholars agree that John’s Gospel was the last to be written. We have in the Gospel of John a mature reflection of an apostle on his life with Jesus Christ. This mature reflection does not make it a-historical, rather, it makes it a mystical account of a first-hand witness of the events of Jesus from someone who literally walked with Jesus, listened to Jesus, and spread the faith as an evangelist and apostle after Pentecost. Each of these Gospel accounts offer unique insights into Jesus Christ based on the character of the author, their intended audience, and situation in life. Whenever a group of people offer witness accounts of important events there will be much overlap and some differences. What differences exist in the Gospels actually bears testimony to their legitimacy, because if the Gospels all said the same thing, in the same way, following the same order, to the exact jot and tittle, we could assume much meddling on the part of the authors. With the Gospels we have, instead, four first generation accounts (two from known, first hand witnesses) of Jesus Christ. These four accounts have been preserved and passed on for their authenticity and authority when discovering the person of Jesus Christ. (For a great book on this topic see Brant Pitre’s, The Case for Jesus). 
If we do not allow the Gospels – and the New Testament as a whole – to shape our understanding of Jesus Christ, then why would anyone listen to us? Imagine this scenario: Someone comes up to you and says “I know all about you and what you think.” In response you ask them, “Have we ever met before?” They say, “I heard someone shout your name at a ballgame once.” Is that “meeting” someone? Then you ask, “Have you ever followed me on social media, read my blog posts, or heard me talk before.” And they say, “no.” You ask, “Have you ever met anyone I spent a lot of time with?” And they say, “no.” Then you ask, “Okay...have you ever...worked with me or even read an obituary of one of my relatives?” And they say, “no.” Then you ask, “Then how can you say that you know me?” And they respond, “You know...I think up stuff about you.” Would that be convincing? Would you agree that that person “knows” you? Obviously, not. Isn’t that what we do when we pull a WWJD without ever having spent significant, reflective and prayer time with the Bible? We might be able to quote a few passages, and we might even be able to cite a chapter and verse or two, but if we haven’t entered into the testimony of the Gospels (and New Testament), what do we really have? Opinions, and a lot of opinions shaped by our own ideas, prejudices, preconceived notions, and often weakened consciences. That’s not a great recipe for authentic discipleship, but it is an awesome recipe for hollowed out MRV’s of Jesus that spread discord in the Church. 
For many people, the fact that they don't regularly read from the Bible isn’t a deliberate choice. For many generations we Catholics built a culture of suspicion and fear around a personal reading of Scripture. This fear sprang from a lot of the discord that happens when the Bible is read and interpreted outside of the living streams of Tradition and communion with the Church. When no guidepost exists – like the Sacraments, life of the saints, doctrine, etc. – then people often make “doctrines” from their own interpretations that might not be well formed. Although this dynamic exists, it does not need to scare us away from the very Word of God. What this means is that we live humbly before God’s Word in Scripture, remain in communion with the Body of Christ, the Church, and enter the Word with childlike hearts. Fear about “not knowing enough” or “not being smart enough” or “getting confused” dissipates when we realize that the Bible is about an encounter, not about studying for a test. Jesus wants to meet you in the Word through the Holy Spirit. Even if someone told you in the past that you shouldn’t pick up a Bible, even if that person was well intentioned, it’s time to let go of that poor, fear-based advice. It is time for us to enter into the journey of the Bible and pray for the Holy Spirit to grant us the mind of Christ so that we can live like Jesus, the real Jesus, the Jesus who liveth and reigneth forever, and who isn’t stifled by the MRV box we’ve invented. 
What can we do about this? Start reading from the Gospels daily.  If you read a chapter of the Gospels every day you will get through all four Gospels in four months. You can do that three times a year...and then, keep going, do that again and again and again. Pick a letter from the New Testament and read a little bit from it throughout the year – literally a few verses at a time.  Spend time meditating on those few verses while walking the dog, driving to work, or on the 15 minute break at work while pretending to listen to your coworker. Underline the passages that console, challenge, or that you like. Don’t worry as much about the stuff that doesn’t make sense, the words of Jesus that are clear will be challenging enough. After a few reads of the Gospels, you’ll start to pick up on notes in your Bible about the Old Testament and you can pursue those to learn even more in the Old Testament. Pray over the words of Scripture. If you find reading difficult – which many people do, no shame in that – find an audio version of the Bible and stick with it. There are plenty of Audible versions of the Bible and YouTube has posts of audio versions of books of the Bible online. If that appeals to you, but you get intimidated by the internet, get a grandchild or computer-proficient friend to find it for you and tell them why you’re doing it. If you want a straightforward and lean Gospel to start with, go to Mark. What you will find when you enter into this discipline with prayer and patience will transform you, because through the living Word of God we encounter the risen Christ through the Holy Spirit. The Church asks us to read the Bible in the same Holy Spirit through whom it was written, and prayerful meditation with simple study can be a great way to follow this invitation. Without this essential habit in our life can we really respond honestly to the question “What would Jesus do?”