What Did Jesus Do? Vs. What Did Judas Do?

Did you possibly wear a W.W.J.D. bracelet or wristband in the late 1990s? They were the bee’s knees for a time among Christian youth groups. My twin brother Tom and I wore them to the gym for a time. A leather “What Would Jesus Do?” bracelet looked kinda cool glazed in weightlifting chalk laying over your wrist wraps while benching. “Cool” being a relative term!

We’d witness but not be nerdy about it, or so we thought, by wearing our “What Would Jesus Do?” bracelets while working out. Any moral imperative to motivate others or yourself to honestly ask “What Would Jesus Do?” in situations at our gym was soon lost, however. 

The gym comedian among the guys we trained with, Tyler, boldly asked one day, “Hey, you look-a-likes where do we get some of those, ‘Who Wants Jack Daniels?’ bracelets from? The women talk to you a lot easier if you’ve got one of those on in a bar. Hook us up man!” 

No amount of theology or threat was going to rescue what W.W.J.D. was intended to stand for from then on. In fact, we became the “Who Wants Jack Daniels?” twins. A powerful testimony for the Lord. We somehow felt that we had betrayed Jesus once again but couldn’t really put our finger on how we had done it this time. 

I sometimes wonder if Judas thought the same thing in his relationship with Jesus. He committed history’s most despicable act. Judas sold the Savior for thirty pieces of silver. But was it about the money? Or was he weary of waiting for Jesus to bring about the destruction of Rome? Maybe his betrayal was more forcing Jesus’ hand to act mightily than a money grab. 

Judas knew he betrayed Jesus but perhaps somewhere along the way, as we often do in our sin, he didn’t even know why he was really betraying Jesus. Coins clanked across the stone walkway in the temple having become blood money. Jesus climbed up the hill of Calvary. Judas climbed up the hill of regret. So close to Christ’s cross Judas was but so far away in his heart. 

Maybe we do well this Lenten season to resurrect the question “What would Jesus do?” only change it that we might learn from Jesus how to avoid what Judas did. Don’t have a bracelet made but what if W.W.J.D. was W.D.J.D.? “What did Jesus do?” The sad reality was that a lot of people who wore “What Would Jesus Do?” bracelets in the 90s acted like Judas because they first of all didn’t know what Jesus had done or remember what he had done. So think with me a bit about this: “What Did Judas do?” vs. “What Did Jesus Do?”

What Did Jesus Do? Jesus lovingly made it clear you can’t worship two gods at once. "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24). Loyalty is indivisible. You can’t parcel out pieces of ultimate allegiance. Notice how insightful Jesus is. Adoration for one feeds contempt for the other. Love one god and you will hate the other. If you love money - value money and what it can buy above all else - you cannot love God. You will hate him - perhaps quietly or privately or hypocritically but you will hate him.

What Did Judas Do? Judas loved money more than Jesus. “Then one of the Twelve - the one called Judas Iscariot - went to the chief priests 15 - and asked, ‘What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?’ So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver” (Matthew 26:14, 15). Randy Alcorn writes, “Satan works on the assumption that every person has a price. Often, unfortunately he is right. Many people are willing to surrender themselves and their principles to whatever god will bring them the greatest short term profit.” This Judas did. 

You, however, know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich yet for our sake he became poor! Take the world but give me Jesus. Lost but found. Blind but seeing. Dead but fully alive and forgiven by faith in him. This also is what Jesus did and now the power to not love money more than God as Judas did is ours thanks to Christ’s redemptive work. 

Instead of surrendering our cravings for more we now love to give of our treasure to Jesus and his Kingdom. After all, he so loved the world that he gave and it was his joy to do so. Bob Hope once said, “Laughter is an instant vacation but giving is a two week cruise without pay.” Never is this truer than when the Holy Spirit inspires us to believe what Jesus did to save and cleanse us by his grace. 

This silly well-worn story never gets well-worn. A mother was preparing flap jacks for her boys, Kevin, 5, and Ryan, 3. The boys began to bicker over who would get the first flap jack. Mom saw the opportunity for a moral lesson. “If Jesus were sitting here, he would say, ‘Let my brother have the first flap jack. I can wait.’ Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, ‘Ryan, you be Jesus!’ 

When Ryan knows, remembers, and believes in what Jesus did he doesn’t Judas his brother Kevin. No, he says enough to the monster of more and gives selflessly, lavishly, and joyfully to his brother. “Go ahead you have the first flap jack. I’ll be Jesus.” You and I my friend will lovingly give in the same manner with far more than flap jacks when we remember, believe, and live out what Jesus did for us.

I take it back. Get bracelets made. Hand them out as you wear yours proudly. Choose a color that pops. Have them say: WDJD vs. WDJD. When someone asks you what that means you already have your opening line to share the gospel. Let me tell you “What Did Judas Do as opposed to What Did Jesus Do.” God bless your witness.