Is Jesus an Impossible Mentor?

Is Jesus an Impossible Mentor?


Do you set Jesus as a role model? It's impossible to be like Jesus, isn't it? He was the Son of God sent to earth and his life sets the bar impossibly high for any of us. John the Baptist said “I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:33-34)

From a Pastor: “I knew it was a mistake as soon as the words left my mouth. Sitting in my office was a young man who had been wronged by someone else in the church. Both men attended our church, and one guy really had wronged the other. But the guilty party wasn’t in the office, the other guy was—and he was full of anger and frustration because of this wrongdoing. That’s when I made my hasty suggestion:

“You could forgive him,” I suggested. “Jesus told us to do just that and He would do this.”

Big mistake.

“Well I’m not Jesus!” he nearly shouted back at me.

Have any of you ever said this? You don’t have to answer!

Note: Let’s quickly see what Jesus did day about this. Jesus talks about forgiveness in both prayer and parable. In Matthew 6:14-15 Jesus says, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” So this is really what Jesus said!

However, this was end of discussion, end of ministry time, end of opportunity to present the one of the most important lesson Jesus ever taught – forgiveness. It was the pastor’s mistake. Not for suggesting a perfectly Biblical remedy (as noted above) to his anger and frustration, but for expressing the solution as to simple and to quick without taking the time to explain this better. The pastor did in such a way the man would consider impossible. To even suggest that he should be like Jesus was not in his ability especially at this time.

It’s impossible to be like Jesus, isn’t it? Jesus was perfect. He led a sinless life. He was God-come-to-earth and his life sets the bar impossibly high for any of us. After all the Bible says that Jesus, “once made perfect….”. There is that perfect “word” right there in Hebrews 5:9.

A central problem in “cultivating” followers of Jesus today is our view of Jesus as the Impossible Mentor since he is “perfect”.

This is really weird since nearly every Believer is willing to acknowledge Jesus as a worthy role model, but almost no one seriously believes it is possible to live up to his example. Our esteem for Jesus’ life of obedience to the Father and our desire to be “just like Jesus” does battle with the deep-seated notion that it is impossible to be like him. Who would choose a mentor who is impossible to imitate? After all Paul writes that “…everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (Romans 3:23). Hmmmm!

Some other passages in the Scripture inspire and fill us with confidence. Here is one that has the “bad” and the “good”: “Because one person (Adam) disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God (Jesus), many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19-21)

Some scriptures like this, light the fires of hope in our hearts. Other passages seem too idealistic, too fantastic to find their way into even our dreams, much less our daily lives: “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” (Romans 8: 29). Is this possible? Does God really look at each one of us and see a destiny in which we look like Jesus?

Whatever our theological foundations regarding this passage, we should all recognize that it is about God’s intention for each of one us to “become like his Son.” Simply put, God desires to have more children like Jesus. Jesus is God’s only begotten Son (John 3:16), but we become his sons and daughters by adoption. The destiny of those adopted into the family of God is that we, too, should bear the family likeness. That is: we will look just like Jesus. And “..if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.” (Romans 8:17)

A pastor in a conversation with a dozen young Christians, asked them if they felt it were possible to live a life without sin for even one day. No takers. So he rephrased the question and asked if it is possible to go for an hour without sinning. Only one of them thought it was possible to stay within the will of God for a single hour. I suppose this is not to unusual since Paul says “everyone has sinned” but do you see anywhere that he says that we should just give up trying to be more like Jesus. No!

These questions are not irrelevant. They go to the heart of our life “in Christ.” If our intuition tells us that following His example is impossible, for one day or even an hour, how can we have the confidence to pursue his vision for us? The bottom line is that God has a greater vision for what is possible in our lives than we do. Perhaps the reason the Apostle Paul instructs us later in Romans to “let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think” (Romans 12:2) is so we can see the possibilities of a life lived in harmony with Jesus. A practical, day-to-day, moment-by-moment harmony capable of generating the rest and peace he promises.

Let us ponder the foundations of our commitment to be a disciple of Jesus. Here are a few suggestions for meditation and prayer:

• Is it possible to learn from him?

• If Jesus is my mentor, have I committed myself to failure with no possibility of success?

• What kind of Master would invite me to be his apprentice if he thought there were no possibility to follow in his footsteps?

The answers spoken from our heart will determine whether being “Christ like” is possible for us.

In closing let’s look at this final scripture: “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. (Ephesians 4:10-13)