W.W.J.D.

MON., NOV. 24, 1997, 10:55 AM (P)
35,000 FT., HEADING WEST

These initials, that you have “encountered” before but which were reintroduced on Sunday by Karen, represent a desire of young people to try to discern what I, as Jesus, would do in a contemporary situation of choice. In one sense this should be answerable by any serious Christian, but in an equally strong sense no one could equivocally know how I would act in this present earth scene. So, as you soar westward to rejoin your loved wife, you’ll certainly hear what I, Holy Spirit, have to say about such a translation.

The topic in the Forum you were in yesterday sorta centered on sexual issues in the youth scene, and how these affected parents, even grandparents. So let Me use some of these as starters. First, of course, there is no account of My life, as Jesus, between the one incident when I was 12 and My baptism by John at about age 30. You can take the Scriptural observation that I “continued to grow in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man” as an indication that I didn’t have any adolescent problems. Or you can wonder, from the one recorded event at 12 years of age, whether I was irresponsible and disobedient… for “good reasons”. (Like, was I grounded, like your grandson Rob after his Halloween “caper”.)

It has been premised that teenage then was not as teenage is now… that I wasn’t “tempted” to do what today’s teens must decide about. Was I just naturally and spiritually “good”, so I didn’t have urges toward actions that now bother your culture and parents of these young folk? Or was I really tempted, abetted by male hormones (which must have “come from” Me, Holy Spirit), and had the spiritual power to resist and live “cleanly”. Or… again… was I just an ordinary boy and young man before My baptism, without the spiritual powers that were in evidence during My active ministry? I won’t give you answers, but I’ll just say that in order for Me to have the “human experience”, with validity, I had to be “normal” for My age and culture. (When you pass on over you may have a chance for more appropriate answers… if you’re still interested).

The Scriptures indicate I seemed to like women, but I had no close contacts with any. (The suggestion of special interest in Mary Magdalene is intriguing, though, isn’t it!?) I had a group of male disciples, which must have seemed both normative and strange, at that time. So, I never married, never had children (later, teenagers), and never reached what would be called, by age, “mature adulthood”. (And by “Noah’s standard” I didn’t even get to adolescence).

So, what did I do? I created wine out of water at a wedding feast, making it possible for more guests to enjoy the festive time, in a somewhat tipsy condition. Would I have done the same if some would have had to drive fast, powerful automobiles home? Hmmm.

I stopped the stoning to death of a prostitute, talking with her about her life. I then invited any man who had not sinned to cast the first stone, suggesting that sexual sins were no more horrific than non-sexual ones.

My only anger seemed to come out against the Pharisees, the “good people” of My heritage and religion. I wanted motivations and intents to be spiritual, rather than just religious. My forgiveness seemed to be in shorter supply when dealing with “those who kept the law”… than when I was with or talked about “real sinners”.

Now hear some comments about you, now among the young elderly, much older than I was, as Jesus. Remember that I was gregarious, at times… and at other times I pulled away from people, for contemplation and perspective. You can still be gregarious, but increasingly you need solitude in which to realize the important features, of life lived already and of that still ahead. You probably won’t have any opportunity to die, as a martyr, benefiting all of humanity… but you might have a chance to not prolong your life, for the benefit of even a few others.

You’ll never know how I would have been as an old man, in His 90’s, forgetting the ending to some parables and telling others interminably. Would the Christian story have been “better” with such an ending?