Looking Like Jesus

 

Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn’t have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him.

Isaiah 53:1-3 CSB

When it comes to picturing Jesus in our minds, Hollywood has really done us a disservice. They’ve given us an endless parade of handsome actors with compelling eyes, dramatic gazes, and dynamic facial hair. But Isaiah paints a different picture. Apparently, to look at him, Jesus wasn’t all that attractive. He didn’t have an impressive form or appearance. He was like someone people turned away from.

Besides, what he looked like wasn't the point. His appearance wasn't what made people pay attention to him. What he did and what he said were the magnets.

Jesus said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?”

Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

John 6:67-69 CSB

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Truth is...It would be good for you and me to also put little to no importance on our physical appearance. Instead, let's look like Jesus by living lives of compassion and service and speaking words of encouragement and truth.

What If You Knew When Jesus Is Returning?

 

I don't remember in which Billy Graham movie I heard him say what I'm about to write, but I certainly remember the sense of anticipation and urgency that welled up within me as I heard him say it.

The Bible says that no man knows the day nor the hour of Christ's return. But what if you did?

What if, through some miraculous means, God endowed you with the knowledge of exactly when Jesus was going to part the skies and return in triumph?

And more to the point, what if you knew he was coming back next month? What changes would you make on your bucket list? What activities would you want to experience before Jesus called an end to time?

Or what if you knew he was returning to judge all of mankind next week? Would there be people you needed to mend fences with? Would there be words of love and appreciation that you made sure you said?

What if God told you, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Jesus Christ was coming back tomorrow? Who would you tell? What would you say?

What about one hour from now? Who would get your first phone call?

What would you do if you knew Jesus was returning in five minutes?

One minute?

By the time you could count down from 10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2...

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Truth is...None of us know, so all of us should be living as if it could happen at any -

Does God's Voice Sound Like Morgan Freeman?

 

 

It's not every day that Hollywood makes a deeply truthful theological observation, so I thought I'd better not let this one disappear into movie history unnoticed.

The movie was Evan Almighty  -  the 2007 sequel to Jim Carrey's film, Bruce Almighty. In Evan, God (played by Morgan Freeman) contacts Congressman Evan Baxter (played by Steve Carell) and tells him to build an ark in preparation for a great flood.

As might be expected, Evan's wife (Lauren Graham) has a hard time wrapping her head around this major change in her husband.

It's at this point the following conversation takes place:

Just to make sure you didn't miss it, here's the main point:

Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If they prayed for courage does God give them courage or does he give them opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for their family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?

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Truth is...Sometimes we are the answer to our own prayer.

Bonus truth...Now you know why I never ask God to give me patience. (wink)

May I Never Know About Jesus Instead of Actually Knowing Him

 

It's a questionable thing when authors put words into Jesus' mouth that Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John haven't already reported on.

The hit TV series, The Chosen, does it well and clearly communicates that they are using their imaginations to tell the stories of those who were Jesus' first followers. They're not trying to convince anyone that it's a documentary and humbly present their bingeable show as encouraging entertainment, not canonical Scripture.

Conversely, in THE IMITATION OF CHRIST: Classic Devotions in Today's Language, by Thomas à Kempis (Compiled and Edited by James N. Watkins), there are passages specifically labeled as being The Christ talking to The Disciple. The good news is that, so far in my reading at least, these Kempis-written Jesus words have not contradicted anything Jesus actually did say.

The reason I bring it up at all is because I have been dumbstruck by a single sentence coming from the pen of Kempis but attributed to Christ. It has laid me flat and whether they are really the words of Jesus or not doesn't make any difference.

Some have much of me on their lips, but little of me in their hearts.

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Truth is...As someone who has been talking and writing about Jesus for...well...a long time, I dread the possibility of Jesus saying that about me. "Search me, O God, and know my heart today."

It Takes More Than Success to Be a Successful Person

 

I recently saw a video clip of Rainn Wilson (the actor best remembered as Dwight in the U.S. version of The Office) talking about a period of great disappointment in his life.

He said that he was living his dream life: living in New York City, making a living as an actor, and collaborating with wonderfully-talented people. On paper, he seemed to have it all, but in his heart, he was miserable.

Getting everything he ever wanted and finding that it wasn't what he needed set him on a course to rediscover faith in God and a life of growing spirituality.

And then...today...when I picked up Thomas a Kempis' The Imitation of Christ (compiled and edited by James N. Watkins) and read the following words (written as if Christ were saying them), I was reminded of Wilson's experience:

Why are you consumed with futile sorrow? Why are you weighed down and wearied with unnecessary cares? Desire my good pleasure, and you will suffer no loss. If you seek after this or that, and go here or there according to what seems advantageous to you or what fulfills your own pleasure, you will never be at peace nor free from care. In everything, something will be found lacking, and everywhere there will be somebody who opposes you.

Therefore it is not gaining or multiplying of this or that thing which brings you satisfaction but rather the despising of it and cutting it by the root out of your heart. You must understand the worthlessness of money and riches. You must not chase after honor and fickle praise. These things all pass away with the world, and they bring no joy if the spirit of devotion is missing. Neither will you experience peace if it is sought from anyone or anything but God. If you do not live in me, your life is without true foundation. You can change without me, but you cannot better yourself without me.

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Truth is...The more I look at me and not Jesus, the more miserable I will be.

Clowning Around With the Gospel

 

Godspell holds a unique place in the history of musical theater. I mean, there aren't a whole lot of Broadway musicals birthed as someone's master's thesis that feature a group of childlike clowns acting out Biblical parables to a pop music score...while being led by Jesus in a Superman shirt.

At the time Godspell was gaining popularity, it also collected a few distractors who thought the play was belittling the teachings of Jesus. Ironically, the intent was the exact opposite.

Consider the following account of how John-Michael Tebelak came to write the show, taken from Carol de Giere's book The Godspell Experience: Inside a Transformative Musical.

While searching for material for his thesis project, Tebelak read through several miracle plays and passion plays, but felt them to be "very heavy." Then, one afternoon, he read the four Gospels of the New Testament in one sitting. "Afterward, I became pretty excited because I found what I wanted to portray on stage...Joy!"
       Tebelak resolved to attend a church service, and it was there that a spiritual experience, or rather lack thereof, completed the inspiration for the new musical. On a snowy Easter morning in 1970, Tebelak arrived at the Anglican Cathedral in Pittsburgh wearing his standard overalls and scraggly Afro haircut. The people sitting near him were complaining about the snowfall upsetting their plans.
       He explained later to Dramatics Magazine, "An old priest came out and mumbled into a microphone, and people mumbled things back, and then everyone got up and left. Instead of 'healing' the burden, or resurrecting the Christ, it seems those people had pushed Him back into the tomb. They had refused to let Him come out that day."
       As Tebelak left the service, a policeman who had been sitting a few pews in front of him wanted to frisk him for drugs. "Apparently he had thought I was ducking into the church to escape the snowstorm. At that moment  -  I think because of the absurd situation  -  it angered me so much that I went home and realized what I wanted to do with the Gospels: I wanted to make it the simple, joyful message that I felt the first time I read them and re-create the sense of community, which I did not share when I went to that service."
       For Tebelak, associating Biblical material with clowns didn't mean he was making fun of religion. Rather, he wanted his project to be an antidote to lifeless and boring spiritual experiences; clownlike performances were a means to an end.

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Truth is...Father God, while I am glad that Godspell exists, I pray that the way I live my life, express my faith, and worship with my church family will never come close to mimicking the joyless experience that motivated its creation.

A Parenting Tip from Mayberry

 

Opie Taylor had befriended a hobo that was temporarily visiting the environs of Mayberry. The hobo was harmless enough. He had no evil agenda other than to live off the land, even if that land included pies that someone else had baked or bubble gum that wasn't paid for.

It seems that Opie's association with the transient was having a negative effect on the young lad's moral character, so Opie's father, Sherrif Andy Taylor, decided to have a little chat with the hobo.

The hobo, of course, defended his lifestyle choices and even suggested that Andy ought to let the boy make decisions for himself.

Andy's answer to that suggestion isn't Scripture, but it sure contains a lot of wisdom:

"No, I'm afraid it don't work that way. You can't let a young’n decide for himself. He'll grab at the first flashy thing with shiny ribbons on it. Then, when he finds out there's a hook in it, it's too late. Wrong ideas come packaged with so much glitter that it's hard to convince them that other things might be better in the long run. All a parent can do is say 'Wait' and 'Trust me' and try to keep temptation away."

Truth is..."The heart is deceitful above all things" (Jeremiah 17:9), but "[God] will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you." (Ezekiel 36:26)

The Oz Is Strong in This One

 

The young farmboy from Tatooine got off a lucky shot at an exhaust port and now he thinks it's his destiny to become a mighty Jedi..."like [his] father".

He travels to a steamy swamp of a planet. (Why do we assume the whole planet is like the small part of it we see at any one moment of the story?) He searches for and finds the Jedi master, Yoda, and convinces the small, green creature to train him in the ways of the Force.

The farmboy, Luke Skywalker, eagerly drinks in the instruction of the...well...the puppet.

Yes, the future mighty Jedi who will bring down the evil galactic empire is getting his understanding of the "energy field created by all living things" from a piece of foam and latex.

If it weren't for Frank Oz, the Muppet performer behind Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Bert, Grover, and countless other personalities, Yoda would be nothing more than a lifeless prop.

In the same way, without the Holy Spirit empowering us to be Christ's ambassadors, we would have no spiritual vitality whatsoever. We would be of no use to anyone seeking after Truth.

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Truth is...When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! - Colossians 2:13 (The Message)

Where Do My Loyalties Lie?: Top 25 Jesus Quotes: #13

Something about watching romantic comedies makes us relationship gurus.

We can see potential threats to fidelity and loyalty from a mile away...within the unrealistic confines of one of Hollywood's steadfast genres.

• "No! Don't go out with him! Can't you see he doesn't really care about you?"
• "That guy better stop hanging out after work with her..."
• "What are they THINKING??!?"

But when it comes to real life, we struggle a bit.

In fact, we struggle so much that it wouldn't hurt to get the 13th quote about Jesus (on azquotes.com's top-25 list) put on a pair of contact lenses so it was always in front of us:

"Beware of anything

that competes with your loyalty

to Jesus Christ."  -  Oswald Chambers

Truth is...Whether it's commitment to a sports team or loyalty to a job or even dedication to a particular idea about Jesus, anything that takes precedence ahead of allegiance to the actual person of Jesus is a foundation of shifting sand.

P.S. You are invited to have Chambers' "My Utmost for His Highest" daily readings actually read to you by checking out the "My Utmost for His Highest Daily Reading" Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/UtmostReading)

Or...you could subscribe to this blog's author's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/deweyroth/featured)

Wise Words Ignored By Their Speaker

Every so often, Hollywood comes up with some words of wisdom that have the potential to change lives for the better.

The example I'm thinking of right now is a short line spoken by a fictional character named Lance Clayton:

"If you're that depressed, reach out to someone. And remember, suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem."

Truth is...the movie was 2009's World's Greatest Dad and the actor playing the part of Lance Clayton was Robin Williams...who committed suicide August 11, 2014.

Oh, if only Williams would have truly allowed the scriptwriter's words to sink into his heart. If you're on the brink yourself, learn the lesson he didn't. Call 800-273-TALK or 800-NeedHim.

There's Truth in Them There Works of Fiction

Josh McDowell saved me.

Well, no. Of course that's not true. Christ's sacrificial death on the cross wiped my sins away and His resurrection released me from my slavery to sin itself...but reading Josh McDowell's book, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, turned my belief in those things from something I was raised with into the fundamental core of my personhood.

Since that time in my freshman year of college, I have had a strong appreciation for apologetics ("systematic argumentative discourse in defense [as of a doctrine]") and it was with great interest that I purchased a book edited by Josh McDowell's son, Sean, titled Apologetics for a New Generation.

In the chapter written by Brian Godawa, "Storytelling and Persuasion", Godawa describes his love for the linear-thinking logic of classical apologetics but how today's culture demands a more imaginative approach than "If P then Q". And he uses some big names to back up his idea that maybe telling stories is a better way to share the Gospel than diagramming sentences:

       I looked closer at Jesus' ministry. Did He teach dogmatics from a pulpit? No. Jesus taught about the kingdom of God mostly through parables  -  dramatic stories. To Him, the kingdom was far too deep and rich a truth to entruat to rational abstract propositions. He chose stories of weddings, investment bankers, unscrupulous slaves, and buried treasure instead of syllogisms, abstraction, systematic, or dissertations. Jesus could do abstraction. He preferred not to. And He remained an enigma to the unbeliever. He did not explain His imaginative stories and metaphors to those who did not have ears to hear.
       Indeed, stories and parables may be superior means of conveying theological truth than propositional logic or theological abstraction. As N. T. Wright suggests, "it would be clearly quite wrong to see these stories as mere illustrations of truths that could in principle have been articulated in a purer, more abstract form.".... Theologian Kevin Vanhoozer writes in his book The Drama of Doctrine, "Narratives make story-shaped points that cannot always be paraphrased in propositional statements without losing something in translation." Claiming that the "ultimate meaning" of the parable of the Good Samaritan is simply that we should love or help the marginalized does not contain the full truth that comes only with telling the story with all its characters and emotions. If you try to scientifically dissect a parable, you will kill it, and if you discard the carcass once you have your doctrine, you have discarded the heart of God.

Truth is...Movies may have more impact than intellectual discussions, and there is truth in some works of art that is far deeper than will ever be memorized and recited.

An Unfunny Funny

Lio is one strange kid.

GoComics.com has an accurate description of the comic strip, Lio: The world of Lio is filled with the extraordinary - monsters under the bed, wild reptile pets, robot inventions, weird science - but it's all commonplace for this most uncommon first-grader. Mark Tatulli renders this pantomime strip in pen-and-ink style, giving the artwork a dark, spidery feel to match the strip's dark humor. Lio explores the twisted realm of a kid's imagination - at once bizarre, creepy, and fun.

And in a recent Sunday installment, you could add Good Example to the list of descriptors. It starts with a television set that seems to have become self-aware...and very, very honest.

And then little Lio shows amazing maturity in how he responds to this Truth.

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Truth is...even with the lack of advertisements on Netflix, it's a little disingenuous for me to hold this up as a good example when I'm typing this between binged episodes of Blue Bloods. 

Speaking Truth To Beauty

With thanks to Delanceyplace.com, for their quote from Marilyn and Me, by Susan Strasburg:

Susan Strasburg, daughter of famed acting instructor Lee Strasburg, had her star turn on Broadway originating the role of Anne Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank. Nominated for a Tony Award at the age of 18, she became the youngest actress to star on Broadway with her name above the marquee title. Here she recounts seeking feedback from award-winning actor Sir Laurence Olivier:

"As much as I loved doing Anne Frank, it now overwhelmed me. After a year and a half, the high emotional pitch of the performance had taken a toll on my energy and psyche. I was getting every germ that floated into Manhattan. I was losing weight, unable to eat. The year before, [Lee Strasburg student] Marilyn [Monroe] had brought Laurence Olivier to see the play. Afterward he'd been very complimentary. As we were taking publicity photos, all smiling our best airline stewardess smiles, I'd pleaded, "Please, Sir Laurence ..."

" 'Larry,' he'd insisted. 

" 'Please ... Sir ... Larry, tell me what you really thought.' He cleared his throat. 'Well, dear child,' he'd said precisely, 'half the effort would have had twice the effect.'

"I was devastated. My smile evaporated, as did his. The flash popped, and the moment was stamped indelibly on film, and on my ego. Marilyn came to my defense. 'She does that because she cares. She wants the people who came to see her to get their money's worth.' I was grateful to her. 

"It was true I'd asked, but he didn't have to tell me. He was supposed to be an English gentleman. I knew how the actress felt who had screamed at my father backstage after her opening night, 'How dare you come back here and tell me the truth?' "

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Truth is...sometimes the truth hurts. No wonder the apostle Paul encourages us to speak the truth in love. (Ephesians 4:15)

The [Rob] Lowe-down on Being a Star

Rob Lowe isn't necessarily my first go-to person for good advice or universal truth, but there's a quote from his book, Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography, that reminded me of something Jesus said.

After years of working with, or getting to know, actors like Jodie Foster, Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Mike Myers, Jennifer Garner, Sally Field, George Clooney, and many others, I can tell you that stars are almost always the most gracious people on set. It's part of the job and they know it. You don't survive to become a star if you have a bad attitude.

In my twisted way of thinking, this seems to be a real-life example of the Golden Rule: "Do to others what you would have them do to you." (Matthew 7:12) And the good news is, it reaps benefits in the here and now.

Truth is...Jesus' "advice" is practical, authentic, and beneficial. We would all do well, whether we accept Him as the Son of God or not, to listen to - and live out - what He had to say.