For several years Christian missionaries have been striving to be “incarnational”. Jesus “became flesh and dwelt among us”, and we should therefore strive to do likewise. Hence modern missionaries have been adopting local cultures are trying to “be Jesus” to the people in the neighbourhood. However, according to J Todd Billings writing in Christianity Today, the Bible does not actually tell us to be incarnational.
The incarnation – the act of Jesus becoming flesh – is something unique to Jesus. We cannot literally become incarnated as we are already flesh. But apart from the literal issue, there is the question of whether we are supposed to do what Jesus did or whether instead we are supposed to do what Jesus told us to do. While the Bible does tell us to imitate the example of Jesus, it never tells us to live our lives by reference to the What Would Jesus Do question.
More troubling than the semantics is when we take upon ourselves the role of “being Jesus” to people. Our role is not to redeem people, but to point people to Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit. If we are the only Jesus that people see, then those people will never get to see the real Jesus. We are no more than servants and witnesses; it is only through the work of the Holy Spirit that people can meet Jesus.