“Should” is not in Jesus’s vocabulary

I can’t think of a single time when Jesus said to someone “You should be praying more” or “You should be giving more” or “You should want to go to church instead of watch the Colts play” or “You Pharisees should really be nicer to folks”, etc. It’s just not the way he related to them. I can think of three ways he does address those kinds of issues:

1. He cuts straight to the heart and revealed the root issue – “You love your traditions more that God”, “You can’t believe me because you fear what men think”, etc. It seems like this is the primary way he dealt with pretense and religion.
2. He gently woos us. He shows us a better way. He reveals that he is the most beautiful, loving person ever to exist and that his way is simply more desirable than the way we’re living. He opens our eyes and hearts so that we want what he wants. Like you might say he writes his law on our hearts or something…
3. He speaks and things change. Jesus was the voice that created the universe. When he says “go and sin no more,” it not only commands but also brings into being. Jesus doesn’t say “Be a good boy, Johnny”, he shows up and John falls on his face like a dead man.

Of course, there are commands in scripture. One could say that the 10 commandments are “shoulds.” I would argue that the spirit there is more like “here is life if you want to choose it” than “you should be different than you are”, though. See “should” presents an area that needs change, but leaves you on your own to make that change. It communicates “come back and talk to me when you’ve got it together.” I think most people learn “should” from their families or religious upbringing or both. That’s just not how Jesus works. It’s not how he’s worked in my life and it’s not how I see him work in Scripture.

What do you think? Can you think of other ways he related to people?

Mark