Because . . . .

“Because it’s what Jesus would friggin do.” – Izzie, Grey’s Anatomy

Now I don’t often look for honest representations of the struggles of the Christian life on television, because as hard as you might look you’re often going to come up empty. And yet, there are those moments when pop culture stumbles upon a pretty honest representation of this thing we call life.

Take for instance the scene in which this line is yelled. For those of you who haven’t turned on a TV in the last two years, Grey’s Anatomy is a show about surgical interns in a hospital. It has all the makings of a popular show: drama, relationships, medical jargon, and lots of witty comebacks. In this specific scene one of the interns, Izzie, is helping another intern, Alex, study for his boards (doctor exams). The kicker is that Alex has recently cheated on Izzie and therefore she is understandably upset with him. All the other interns have been helping him behind her back, because, as Meredith, another intern, says, that is what you do when someone is in need, you help. And when Alex asks why she is helping him, she replies with this perfectly honest line.

So now that you’re caught up on the setting, let me tell you why I think this line is so real. In all honesty, it’s because there have been many times when I’ve wanted to yell the exact same thing, maybe not to anyone in particular but to myself .

Later in the scene you see Izzie crying, breaking under the weight of the pain that Alex has caused her and yet she stays, helping him. She looks beyond the pain he caused her, beyond the anger and hurt she feels, to reach out and help him because he is in need and because, as she so eloquently put it, “it’s what Jesus would do.”

Maybe I’m not far enough down the line of spiritual maturity to approach those moments in life when you really do have to exhibit a Christ-like character with joy and submission. For me, it’s sometimes little more than a knowledge of what I should do, but not at all what I want to do. Being like Christ isn’t easy. Heck, take a look at His life and tell me it was an easy one. No one signing up to walk the path that He walked is in for a jaunt skipping through fields of daisies. And much more, we’re asked to live a life that goes against everything in ourselves: selfishness, pride, retribution, anger.

And so I found myself watching this scene and realizing that somehow in the midst of the humor and tenderness these writers stumbled upon a truth in my life. There are moments when I don’t want to be like Christ, when I don’t want to love someone who has hurt me, to serve someone who has treated me badly, times when it hurts so much to do these very things. And yet, I find myself in the midst of doing what I can’t comprehend screaming “because it’s what Jesus would friggin do” through my tears and pain.