Imitation of Christ

Imitation of Christ

The fifteenth-century devotional classic The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis, according to some sources, is the most widely read devotional work among Christians outside the Bible. Clearly the idea of imitating Christ is appealing to pilgrim souls who long for union with God.

To identify Christ as God incarnate puts him, in a sense, beyond imitation. But to read the Gospels is to recognize in them not only his godliness but also a consummate model of human wisdom, compassion, and spiritual attunedness. What he taught was not solely or simply doctrine, but a way of being. His teaching seems to me best summarized by his earliest instructions to the disciples he called: “Follow me.” “Come and see.” “Listen!”

And, one might add, “Watch!” Watching him as he moves through crowds, heals the sick, quietly multiplies loaves and fishes, not so quietly cleanses the temple, confronts his scheming enemies, joins friends for meals, goes off alone to pray, and weeps over Jerusalem is instructive on many levels. One is that Jesus’ goodness can’t be catalogued; his responsiveness to the need or challenge of the moment is reliably surprising.

I have some misgivings about the popular question, “What would Jesus do?” It seems to me slightly presumptuous to imagine we know what Jesus would do on any occasion, given the startling ways he turned the law to his own profound purposes, violated conventional expectations, reframed the commandments and upended class-based notions of human worth.

“What did Jesus do?” on the other hand, seems like a useful question to keep raising. It sends us back to the Gospels to look again and reflect anew as life throws us its curve balls. And perhaps even more pertinent might be “What is Jesus doing?” How is the one who promised to be with us always in the Holy Spirit–blowing where it will, poured out on all mankind–moving among us and within us?

Imitating the Christ we see in the Gospel stories might include some of these directives, for instance (I select the ones that I myself most need to review…):

— Don’t be so goal-oriented you can’t stop on your way someplace and pay attention to someone’s need—say, a woman no one else will pay attention to who approaches you embarrassingly in the midst of an admiring crowd.

— If you want to know which of the urgent pleas for help to pay attention to, pray without ceasing. Keep, as it were, one ear tuned to God so you can hear the call of the moment. Then give that plea your complete, wholehearted attention.

— Don’t advertise. Do what you do and move on. Encourage people to pay it forward.

— Love your friends, spend time with them, forgive them when they don’t “get” you, be willing to confront them for the sake of deeper, truer relationship, and pray for them, holding them in God’s fierce embrace even if they do stupid and treacherous things.

— Don’t do stupid or treacherous things: love your enemies and outsmart them. Give them opportunities to wake up and wonder.

— Be festive. Enjoy weddings and dinner invitations. Share the food that’s available. And also find times for fasting, praying, being alone, listening for God’s voice in whatever wilderness you can find.

— Talk with foreigners and immigrants—Samaritans, Syro-phoenecians, or those closer at hand. Let yourself learn what they have to teach about compassion, humility, hospitality, humaneness.

— Don’t mistake religiosity for faithfulness or the map for the territory. Remember that The Way is a person.