Marsha, Marsha, Marsha! Anyone growing up watching the Brady Bunch remembers that line. Jan seemed to never be able to compete with her older sister Marsha. It was made in funnier on the Very Brady spoof movie where Grandma (Florance Henderson) comes to visit and says something to the effect of “Marsha, you’re so pretty!,… And Jan, isn’t Marsha beautiful?”
I think anyone who has siblings can identify with poor Jan. You’re always being compared to your brothers and sisters. Any of us would hear it. My sister was 1st Chair in band and all A’s. And, my little brother was compared to me.
But sometimes we aspire to be like our older siblings. I remember thinking my older brothers were so cool. They had motorcycles, fast cars, and every teacher in school knew them. I would only get told I was just like my brother when I got in trouble, but good or bad, back then I really looked up to them.
I’m sure every single person with a brother or sister has experienced sibling rivalry. It goes all the way back to Cain and Able.
Now picture you’re James, the brother of Jesus. Oh my gosh. Could you ever imagine what that was like? If you think Jan Brady had it bad, how many times would you hear “Why can’t you be more like your brother Jesus?”
Wow, you could never play Farris Bueller and tell mom you were (cough, cough) sick on a school day with a big test that you wanted to get out of.
“Jesus, come heal your brother. He’s sick again!”
Everybody would invite your brother to parties.
“Jesus, I brought 10 gallons of water to the party… do your stuff!”
Grocery day would be better that double coupons at the Kroger’s when Mom would only need to buy a couple fishes and loaves at the market and let Jesus do the rest.
And constantly you’d hear “why can’t you be more like your brother, Jesus!” Oh my gosh, they wrote an entire book about how to be more like your brother.
It says in John 4:3-5 :
3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
James couldn’t even use his name instead of yelling Marsha, Marsha, Marsha; number three on the Commandments says you can’t do that!
But James did look up to his brother. He was one of the early ones Jesus revealed himself to after he had risen. He really did want to be more like Jesus. In Galatians 2:9, Paul says James is one of the 3 Pillars of the early Church in Jerusalem. James wanted so much to defend his brother’s teachings he died for them.
We all need to be more like our brother Jesus. There’s even a name for it; it’s called being a Christian.
Lots of people say their Christian but living it is the harder thing to do. To be Christlike, first you have to learn how. And yes, just as I had joked about with the story of James, there really is a book on how to be more like Jesus. What a best seller it is. Just since the dawn of the printing press it is estimated there were 5 Billion copies of the bible made, with an untold number being written before that. And it is still the best seller with 20 million copies sold just in the US each year.
So yes, the instructions on how to be more like Jesus is out there. That doesn’t even include all the books written to teach you more about the Bible. Jesus is the most documented person in the history of our planet.
But just owning a Bible isn’t going to do it. It doesn’t read itself. We have to study.
John 1:1 (ESV)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 Timothy 3:14-17 (ESV)
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Once you learn, then you have to live it. Now that you learn it, you need to employ the lessons and try to mimic Christ in your actions and words.
Ephesians 5:1-2
5 Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. 2 Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us[a] and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.
When you really want to imitate Christ, start with forgiveness.
Jesus taught forgiveness. The Old Testament taught an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. A wrong was met with a measured response and equal retaliation to keep the peace.
But Jesus taught us to turn the other cheek. Love those who would do us harm.
In Matthew (18:21-22) it says:
Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven."
I don’t think that was meant to give us a finite number of forgiving’s. It’s not like you’re good for 490 transgressions but at 491 is when you feel my wrath! I think Christ meant if to tell us that we should forgive without limits. And that is the most important way in which he changed the world. This is because forgiveness isn’t just between us and our fellow man, Forgiveness comes from God.
We have all done wrong. We all have sins that would prevent us from returning to God’s kingdom. But Jesus brought redemption with forgiveness, and in the parable of the man indebted for ten thousand talents and begged for and received forgiveness, but when he was released, he demanded the 100 denarii owed to him by his servant.
When the master heard this, he said:
Matthew 18: 32-34
‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ 34 And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.
To be like Jesus, we need to forgive as he has forgiven us. The message is so important He even included it in the Lord’s Prayer.
Another way we need to do to imitate Christ is to love each other the way Christ loves us.
In John 15:9 Jesus says:
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
Think how much you’d love someone if you were willing to sacrifice yourself for their sake. I know we all feel we’d do that for our family members but what about total strangers. Would you give your life for those outside your family as well?
There are lots of stories of this throughout history. One story was Johnny Wactor, a General Hospital actor. He was walking a coworker to her car late at night when he came across a group cutting the catalytic convertor off his car. When they pulled a gun, he died putting himself between criminals and the coworker, giving his life to save her.
We can be like Christ if we fed the hungry. When Jesus saw the crowd still there after his preaching, he performed the miracle of the fishes and the loaves. He fed thousands. He was caring for their physical needs. We can take care of those needs as well. Giving to food banks is a great way to do this. They have the infrastructure and volunteers to carry out the tasks but they need us to pay for the actual goods that they need to feed the hungry. Just take for example the Network of Christian Ministries. They feed 750 families a week here in Richardson.(1) But they couldn’t do it if their shelves were bare. That’s where we come in. By giving to places like the Network of Christian Ministries, or the Dallas St. Vincint De Paul with its army of 800 volunteers, we can reach out and feed the thousands just like Christ did. And because it comes from these charities, it comes from the heart of those who volunteer and contribute.
Also, by helping the sick we can be Christlike. We are all imitating Christ when we care for the sick or those in need. That is just another one of the many acts of love we can share with each other.
Another requirement is given to us in Roman chapter 12 where it tell us”
Romans 12:2
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
We cannot fall into believing the world when they tell us right is wrong. This is what is coming in the last days. In 2 Timothy 2:1-5 (NIV) it tells us:
1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
Bucking this trend is Olympian and world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. In a world filled by secular messages, she gives glory to God.
She battled fear before she learned to give it to God. Now she’s sharing how all of us can do that too. She said:
“Do you ever feel as if you’re being chased by fear and anxiety? I’d like to share some lessons I’ve learned in my faith journey, lessons I’ve framed through verses from Proverbs,” McLaughlin-Levrone wrote. “I hope they will help bring you the peace, freedom and joy they’ve brought me.” Proverbs 3:5 : “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”
“God had delivered me from fear, replacing it with faith,” McLaughlin-Levrone concluded. “Faith that if I used the gift he’d given me to the best of my ability, win or lose, I would glorify him. In racing and in life, God gives you exactly what you need to run the race he has for you.” (2)
Lastly the best way to be like Christ is by loving God first and foremost in words and in action.
Be more like your brother Jesus. The best way to do that is a challenge put forth in a sign I read once derived from Philippians 1:28-30. The sign said “Live your life in such a way that people who know you but not Christ will want to know Christ because of you.”(3) If you do that, then you’ve accomplished God’s commandment.
Amen.
1. https://richardsontoday.com/network-of-community-ministries-serves-residents-in-new-location/.
2. https://www.ncregister.com/cna/olympic-track-star-sydney-mclaughlin-levrone-credits-god-for-success
3. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1994/04/courage-to-hearken?lang=eng
