Would Jesus snap, tweet or post to his friends on Social Media?

We seem to be at a crunch moment in society in regards to Social Media. We are like the poor Samaritan who has donned his rucksack, put on his walking boots, packing a spare water bottle and bag of sherbet lemons for the trip, and is about to set out on the fated journey along the road to Jericho. Should he set off or should he stay behind? With hindsight we know the outcome for this poor traveller, yet the future is unknown to him. Likewise we stand, poised at a moment in history, unsure what to do.

On the one hand society looks to increase pressures on schools to ban mobile phones and to social media companies to prevent young people accessing them. On the other, as an emerging writer, I am constantly told that the only way to make it in the modern world is by harnessing the power of social media. This isn’t just advice given to pen weary writers, the church itself has embraced this medium as a way of bringing itself (in some cases with a little reluctance) into the 21^st Century. But it leaves us with a fundamental question. What would Jesus do? Would he have embraced the medium to reach out to the poor and lonely or would he have shunned it as another vice of a decadent society?

As a Religious Studies and Politics teacher I get to have these debates quite frequently. The great thing of working with your people, actually I should’ve said one of the many great things, is their ability to question and debate. Although these debates don’t always go the way they were planned as the below conversation shows.

Halfway through my lesson I heard Asha N turn to her partner and ask, “Do you have Snapchat?”

Nicole H looked up and shook her head, “No, I think social media is pointless.” Asha agreed with her and nodded.

How sweet, I thought to myself. How long before they were blocking each other, sending inappropriate gifs and spreading as much gossip as it is possible to get into 280 characters. They won’t remain this naive for long.

I was about to move on when I heard them continuing their discussion, whilst the rest of the class were looking for the odd ones out from the sheet of key terms in front of them.

“I think social media is wrong, it should be banned.”

“Not all of it, my Church has a Facebook account.”

“My Dad says that if Jesus was here now, he would turn their computer desks over,” she paused, “You know like he did in the temple… but with computers.”

“He couldn’t have turned over computer tables.” I found myself smiling as I listened in. “In those days they were huge, like the size of a sofa and he would have needed help to turn them over.”

I nearly choked at this point as they both nodded to each other.

“Sir!” Asha N put her hand up, whilst looking around surreptitiously as if not wanting the others to hear what she was about to say. I hoped it wasn’t about the history of the PC. “Do you think Jesus would use social media?”

The class went silent. I looked at my watch. We only had 10 minutes of the lesson left. Did we have time to take on one of the 21 Questions? This is a relatively new entry as you may appreciate and is now at number 17. I looked around, there were some keen students with their hands raised. I decided to leave it to them.

“I think he would be on X because it’s like a cross isn’t it,” Cate T waded in.

“Or Snapchat because of the ghost thing,” Jermaine contributed.

“I reckon he might like TikTok cos he liked fishing didn’t he.” Diego added. This conversation was losing me.

“Tumblr,” someone shouted out.

“Bless you I replied,” instinctively. This got a laugh though I haven’t a clue why.

“What was he on last time?” Asha asked looking as confused as I was feeling.

“What last time?” I queried.

She looked at me as if I was the one saying ridiculous things, “You know when he kept visiting the blind people hospital, giving everyone leftover bread, telling them to go last or eat more fish, then died and came back dancing.” I think she was attempting to summarise Jesus’ life and ministry into a sentence and a half. Though I am not sure where the dancing came in unless she was also forced to endure that horrific song, you know the one, I am not going to write it in here. It still haunts my childhood memories.

“There wasn’t any social media when Jesus was born,” I explained.

Pause, confusion, looks of horror.

“Did he invent it then?” She looked admiringly, forget performing the greatest miracles in the history of the world. If Jesus had invented social media, he would be a legend in her eyes. I hate to disappoint any child when it comes to feeling a sense of awe and wonder at the Son of God, but I felt the truth needed to be addressed.

“No.”

“Oh,” followed by a disappointed, “Well why didn’t he?”

I was about to attempt an answer when Alex B shouted out from the back of the room.

“He’s definitely on Instagram.”

“Pardon?” The class fell silent and all eyes turned to Alex.

“I follow him.”

“Jesus?”

“Yes.”

“The Son of God?”

“Big guy with beard.” He nodded profusely.

“Jesus is not on Instagram.”

“Sir you are so behind the times, of course he is. Everyone is.” At that point he got a phone out of his bag (a phone he shouldn’t have in school) and proceeded to show me Jesus’ own account. I didn’t know what to say. I was utterly speechless.

“So, he did invent it?” Asha re-entered the debate, looking excited once more.

“No, no, no and no.” I really wished I hadn’t started.

“Sir?” Asha N raised her hand again.

“NO!!!” I almost shouted.

“But.”

“NO.”

“It’s just…”

“Just what?”

“There is someone at the door.”

Excerpt from 21 Questions by J.B Harper copyright 2025

Conclusion

So would Jesus use Social Media if he were with us on Earth at the moment. Of course in answering this I am assuming that there isn’t Social Media in Heaven. Surely there isn’t Social Media in Heaven! Please tell me I won’t have to worry why Beth hasn’t messaged me back yet or if the meme I sent to Dan has somehow caused offense, once I pass through the pearly gates. I suppose the question we have to ask ourselves is can it still be used as a force for good or have we moved too far down the road for it to be saved? I think I will go back to my students and ask them for their final conclusion, after all I don’t think I know the answer myself. Alternatively I could do what all good Christians do and ask my church leader for some quick advice. I might just send him a quick message on Facebook now to find out.