To Be Rather Than To Seem Advent-Christmas Series: Making the Ordinary Extraordinary

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1 To Be Rather Than To Seem Advent-Christmas Series: Making the Ordinary Extraordinary Is 53:1-3, Matt 13:54-57 {Installment III: Jesus Comes With An Ordinary Appearance and Heritage } Through the centuries there's been no figure painted more than Jesus. What's ironic is that all these paintings must go by nothing more than imagination. There's no record of what Jesus looked like in the Bible. When I was growing up, I can remember a painting on my parent's wall and my grandparent's wall. It's an image that has become commonplace in our minds. When we hear the name Jesus, chances are the image from those paintings is what comes to mind. If it's not the paintings that come to mind, then it's the image of the way Jesus is portrayed in movies. How often Hollywood will recruit someone tall, dark, and handsome to play the role of Jesus. Whenever anyone is planning a stage production, the character of Jesus must be someone who is striking. Why is this the case? Do we feel guilty if we portray Jesus as less than physically appealing? The temptation is to think if Jesus was spiritually attractive then He must have been physically attractive. A group of family members were talking about seeing a stage production of the Gospels in Pigeon Forge. It was amusing to hear the women mention how they could barely focus on the story because of how good looking the actor was who played Jesus. No doubt the production team who put this performance together held auditions and thought long about how was right for the part. They just didn't hire the first person off the street. The question is, did the actor do justice to the real Jesus? There's only a single passage in Scripture that hints at what Jesus might look like. The prophecy from Isaiah indicates that Jesus did not have an appearance that would have provoked attention. There was nothing about Him when He entered a room that would make people do a double take. One scholar of history has produced an interesting angle that leaders have a distinctive appearance. There is something about the looks that casts a mesmerizing aura. If a person possesses this quality there is a mysterious quality that will provoke our attention even before we hear them speak. In fact, it is through possessing this quality that we will have enough interest to listen to them speak. If a person doesn't look right for the part, then we will not have the attention span to give them a chance. How a person appears dictates whether we think their ideas will matter. Is it any coincidence we live in a world where the cosmetic industry is a billion dollar business? People value appearance so much so that we're willing to spend whatever it takes to get it and whatever it takes to keep it. Not long ago, a famous Hollywood personality made headlines because she was the 1

2 face of nationally known cosmetic company. People wondered if she had maintained her good looks from the use of the company's product. An expose story revealed that she didn't use the company's products at all. No, the cost of maintaining her appearance was over six figures a year. The cost of maintaining her appearance was about three times the average income of someone living in America. In other words, most of us would have to work three years just to maintain her cosmetic expense for one year. Looking good is a never ending job. We know that appearance is valued and we start very soon attempting to keep up. It doesn't take long before we realize there are certain brands you just don't wear in public, not if you want to be included in the groups that matter. Remember when 20/20 did an experiment to test whether appearance matters? They put a good looking woman on the side of the road beside a stranded car. A hidden camera then observed to see how long it took before she was assisted with a stop watch running. They repeated the test more than a few times. Then, they put a plain Jane on the side of the road and performed the same tests. The results told us what we already knew. Of course, you might say we're talking about men so that makes sense. Well, they performed a similar test at a women's health club where they had a good looking delivery boy come to the door with heavy packages. People dropped what they were doing much quicker to help the better looks. It doesn't take long before we notice the gravitation and so the inclination is find ways to keep up. In addition to appearance is also our background and heritage. Jesus was known condescendingly as The Carpenter's Son. It became a description of mockery. What could someone of his background possibly have to say that is worth hearing and worthy to subscribe to. Jesus didn't look right for the part. Jesus didn't seem right for the part. He lacked the appearance and the pedigree. In order to keep up in this world, we have to dress up our appearance and we have to dress up our heritage. We'll stretch the truth on our resume. We'll stretch the truth when he comes to our personal story. The need in all this is to come out looking worthy of world's acceptance. A good friend of ours has a daughter that was entering middle school. She arrives home from school sobbing in tears. The mother is concerned that something serious has happened. From the display the mother wondered if she was injured. It turned out the only thing injured was her self esteem. Once the daughter was able to talk, she revealed another student had made fun of her purse. There was no way she could go back into the school with the non-designer brand she was carrying. Another parent who took their son to school, pleaded with his father to let him off a block from the school parking lot so he could walk the rest of the way. One of the classmates had made fun of the 2

3 family car. It's not easy living as the Son of a Carpenter and all that comes with lower class images. These days we call it Peer Pressure and it's a serious influential force. It is the primary mechanism in driving adolescents to experiment with drugs and alcohol. No one wants to be associated as unappealing. We will pay whatever it takes. We will do whatever it takes. There is no greater fear than the perception one is unattractive, unappealing, and unacknowledged. Jesus entered the world as one who was viewed from the start as not looking right for the part. There was nothing outwardly glamorous that would attract us to him. To have a handsome actor to play this role does Jesus a disservice and takes away from the mission He accomplished. The way He saves us is bound with the identity He embraced. By His life, He showed there is an attractiveness that runs deeper than the surface. He came to make available an attractiveness and an identity that is deeper than that which quickly fades. Beauty is much more than vapor. It may come as a surprise to find out that during WWII there were more Christians who lived in Germany than in any other nation in Western Europe. As Hitler rose to power, Nazism quickly attracted national acclaim. In 1934 Christian leaders gathered to discuss what the right response should be. They decided it was important to get on the right side of history. They decided it was to no one's advantage for the masses to view them as bafflingly out of step with the mainstream. What came out of this meeting was known as the Barmen Declaration. The Christian leaders who were at this meeting decided they would accommodate, compromise, and conform to what was acceptable at the time. They figured it was more advantageous to be seen as on the right side of the tracks than to be viewed by society as on the wrong side of the tracks. How interesting. And so comes the temptation that Christmas comes to liberate us from. We wear two different kinds of masks. Our lives are layered by the masks that we wear to conceal our appearance and there are masks we wear to conceal our heritage. Scripture announces to not conform to the powers of the world but to be transformed. We are to possess the sense of identity to realize we are already accepted, affirmed, acknowledged by the one presence that matters. Even as we wear these masks the security we really seek eludes us. We may gain the acceptance of the masses but at what price. There is high cost of high maintenance. All of the layers we surround our lives with come at the cost of a heavy heart. What we gain from worldly acclaim comes at a high price. Christmas comes that we might have the freedom from laying aside all the false masks. When we moved to NC, I was immediately struck by the state motto. It is a Latin phrase, Esse Quam Vederi. It might be one of the best mottoes in the entire nation. With such a motto it enables 3

4 us to depict the Christmas message 365 days out of the year. This phrase is translated, To Be Rather Than To Seem. In a world that is so given to putting on masks, we tend to settle for what seems to be pleasure. We tend to settle for what seems to offer happiness. We tend to settle for what seems to offer the affirmation, acceptance, and acknowledgment we desperately seek. We tend to settle for what seems to be honorable and excellent. Unfortunately, the world only offers us style over substance. It offers us image over integrity. Whatever we thought we were getting only seems to be the case and fades quickly. The heart longs for what is genuine. Jesus comes as one unglamorous in order to replace what seems to be with what is real. In a world so given to trends, we waver like the pendulum of a clock from one fad to another. The heart longs for something that is fixed and firm. We long for a beauty that doesn't spot, fade, or wrinkle. Consider how much of our lives is given toward the attempt to make ourselves attractive and acceptable on the world's terms. How much of our energy is devoted to the pursuit of securing it and keeping it. How much of our energy is devoted toward the jealousy and envy of those we suspect are doing it better. Jesus entered the world as one who offered a deeper, ever lasting beauty. It's the beauty that delivers us from the fear of keeping up. It's the beauty that delivers us from the resentment of falling behind. He exchanges what seems to be for the real. Last year when we did Financial Peace, there was one episode the majority of the class found the most thought provoking. Dave Ramsey noted how often he is surprised when he finds out who is really wealthy. We live in a culture that capitalizes on the image of appearing a certain way. Wear this. Drive this. Eat this. In reality those who are accumulating genuine wealth aren't interested in image. They aren't interested in merely appearing a certain way. The genuinely wealthy see through the poor value of things that fade quickly. Those who aren't wealthy are willing to settle for the appearance of wealth. Eat like the wealthy. Dress like the wealthy. Drive like the wealthy. All the while we dress ourselves up in attire that is fading the moment we put it on. All of the concealment we wrap around our lives compound with unbearable weight. Jesus announced that if we'd take on His life that He'd give us rest but it's not an easy yoke to accept. His yoke appears from a worldly perspective as unappealing. His yoke appears from a worldly perspective as placing us on the wrong side of the tracks. Remember the rich young ruler who came to Jesus? This young man was a good person in many ways. There were many respectable qualities he possessed. This wasn't someone like a vicious King Herod. Even so, this young man was missing the kingdom. He was missing it because he was willing to settle for what seems to be rather than what is 4

5 real. He was missing it because he was willing to accept a life of image over a life of actuality. He settled for the shadows rather than enjoying the real thing. How often in life we place ourselves in a similar position. Otherwise good people settling for image. How ironic that Christmas has become so materialistic. We surround our lives with things when the gift of Christmas was designed to set us free from the relentless wheel of dressing ourselves up in appearance. With inverse affect, Christmas gets bigger and we feel smaller. We spend more but we walk away with less. In a hundred & one ways, we are captivated by the force of acclimating. Whatever is required to gain acceptance we will acquiesce to the powers that be. We might not sign a Barmen Declaration but we're eager just the same to be viewed as representing the accepted class. We'll gauge the temperature of whatever that accepted category is and then we will walk like it, talk like, think like it, and dance like it. Jesus lived with an authenticity that was powerful. Who is this the Carpenter's Son? What is this person doing befriending whores, tax collector's and thieves? It was at the moment the popular crowd showed up and in one of the most ironic instances in the Gospels, Jesus announces why Christmas came. Those who represented the acceptable class came to question Jesus why He was associating with the unacceptable class. Jesus announced that He was a physician and only those who were aware of their affliction would with enthusiasm receive what He has to give. There was no one in the company more in need of His cure than those whose hearts were overlayed with excessive weights. At least those who were part of the unacceptable class knew and made no pretense to pretend otherwise. There was nothing they could do to dress themselves to hide it. For those who were immersed in image, they had their reward. Some were desperate enough to desire something more. There were the ones who were sick and tired of being sick and tired. They would rather be fulfilled than to seem fulfilled. They would rather be satisfied than to seem satisfied. They would rather be excellent than to seem excellent. One of the most fatal results of sin is that it causes us to settle for the superficial surface. We tend to dwell on the top soil of life. All of our values are formed on the surface. All of our decisions are formed on the surface. All of our ambitions are formed on the surface. All of our pleasures are formed on the surface. To receive the gifts Jesus has to offer requires us to go beneath the surface. It requires us to journey beyond the superficial top soil we call the real world. The heart calls out for something more than what wavers with the trends. At least Mary was one who come to realize that. She entered into a room with a luxury item she had spent so many years wrapping around her life. She had attempted to conceal herself behind false 5

6 appearances that everyone could see through anyway. Don't you know who is touching you? the critics said. She took the entire flask of that expense image dressing fragrance and poured it onto Jesus' feet. It was her way of moving beneath the surface. For too long she had lived in a world that was too flat. For too long she had settled for the shadows. For too long she had tried to chase the wind. For too long she had slaved for the vapor that only fades. Rather than a life that seems accepted, she wanted a life that could live with the confidence of knowing we're accepted. Rather than a life that seems affirmed, she wanted a life that could live with the courage of knowing we're affirmed. Rather than a life that seems she wanted actual. They say the definition of insanity is to keep repeating something even if it's long established that whatever is repeated isn't working. How often we are like the rich young ruler. We feel the exhaustion of pursuing a life of image. All of the weights we dress around the heart are under an unbearable load. There's a desire for something more. There's a desire for something this life can't provide. There's a longing for something none of the objects of glamour can address. We hear that Christmas has come so that we might lay aside those weights and receive the rest only Christ comes to give. The rich young ruler was not a violent man. He was not a vicious man. He was not an aggressive man. Still, it says he left quietly, passively, and worst of all very sad. It does the heart no favors to keep repeating something that isn't working. More of the same isn't going to help but will only produce more discontent than we started with. Come unto me all that are heavy laden and I will give you rest. There is much we are attempting to carry that we think will provide all the longing heart desires. Unfortunately, all of those attempts, no matter how sincere, and no matter how well intended they may be, it ends in the same place with grief rather than gladness. The gift of Christmas is that we might live lightly. That we might lay down all the false ways we attempt to secure what only Christ can give. This year the only portrait we want to see of Jesus is the one Isaiah offers. It is a portrait of the one who comes and there is nothing about his appearance that would provoke our attention. This season we want the unglamorous Savior to take our weight of what seems to be and replace it with the true. 6