Would Jesus be a Christian?

Tonight was a pretty good night. I went to a KU basketball game in Kansas City, but they lost to Syracuse. Even though the Hawks didn't come up with the win, it was a great experience. There were a couple of drunk guys who got beat up by some cops. Another guy bought a $10 hot dog, and my little brother spent about 75% of the game staring at his cell phone texting random people, probably girls. Overall, the night was awesome. The atmosphere of 16,000 fans screaming and cheering for their respective teams is amazing and indescribable!

As I was laying in bed reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller, a thought crossed my mind. It was more like a question than a thought, "Would Jesus be a Christian?" I know this questions is redundant, "Would Jesus follow Jesus?" But i think it is a question that needs to be addressed.

First, the term "Christian" should be defined. A Christian literally means a follower of Christ. There are great mature Christ-followers that i know. There are people like Robin Sigars, Bill Westling and Dave Kiger who i respect tremendously for their relationships with Christ. Unfortunately, there are people on the other side of the spectrum who have no business calling themselves Christians. I am not one to judge, and I am far from having a mature healthy relationship with Christ. But today in general most Christians in America can be categorized as nominal. They do not live out their faith. They are self-absorbed and live to please themselves. So how would most Americans define "Christian?" They see Christians as people who are normal people who live like everyone else, but they have religion in order to make their consciouses feel better.

So with this definition of "Christian", would Jesus be a Christian? NO WAY! Jesus did not teach self-absorption but self-abnegation, not selfishness but selflessness. So what can we do to change the definition so Christ would want to be part of his own following? I believe John the Baptist said it best, "He must become greater; I must become less." Before we can become selfless, we must first realize our lives do not belong to us. God has given us life, so we have no reason to go through life looking out for ourselves but for others. If God was human.....wait he was 2,000 years ago, and what was his life devoted to? It was devoted to helping others. Jesus became less in order for God to become great. So what kind of Christianity would Jesus belong? Christianity where selfishness does not exist, but true devotion to others.