The ramblings, babblings, wanderings, and meanderings of a fellow traveler

Pastor Steve Wood                                                   February, 2010

I’m not sure why it is, but I’ve been told (via FaceBook) that this is "Doppelganger Week." While the true definition of a doppelganger has do to with some sort of "ghostly double," the point of Doppelganger Week seems to be celebrity look-a-likes. All week my FaceBook friends have been posting pictures of celebrities they bear a resemblance to.

I think my son, Caleb came the closest with his resemblance to Minnesota Twins’ catcher, Joe Mauer.

I actually went to www.MyHeritage.com and used their face recognition software to see what celebrity I look like. Their results included: actor, Russell Crowe (a Hollywood leading man? Yeah, ok. I like that one); writer and actor, Harold Ramis (he’s got much more gray hair than me!); movie director, Peter Jackson (I really don’t see that one); and martial arts actor, Jackie Chan (ok, I think they need new software!).

The one celebrity that my friends and family have mentioned to me is Billy Mays, the late Oxy-Clean, infomercial pitch man. I posted his picture on my FaceBook profile for Doppelganger Week.

All of this look alike business got me to thinking this week: Does anybody think I look like Jesus?

Does anyone think you do?

Of course, I’m not talking about growing your beard out and switching to sandals. That would be easy. Some folks might think you were a little weird, but that’s about as far as it would go.

Do people see Jesus when they look at me?

When I was a much younger minister, I served as Minister of Youth and Education for a wonderful group of folks at First General Baptist Church in Flint, Michigan. One of my duties was leading Children’s Worship each week. My phone rang on a Monday afternoon and a father asked if he could bring his 6-year old son in to talk to me. Apparently, the boy was convinced that Jesus had been his teacher the previous Sunday. He meant this literally, and was quite upset that his father didn’t believe him.

When they arrived, the boy lead his dad into my office, pointed to me, and declared, "See? I told you Jesus was my teacher!"

I was dumbfounded until I realized that I did bear some resemblance to the framed picture of Jesus that hung in the hall outside my office. You’ve probably seen dozens of these pictures. They’re the ones that depict a white, blue-eyed Jesus with perfectly coiffed hair and a neatly trimmed beard. Over the years, my children and I have come to refer to them as "Jesus’ Graduation Pictures (thanks, Patrice!)," and I have grown to dislike them for their gross misrepresentation of what Jesus probably, actually looked like.

I had the same long, feathered hair and beard that the painter had depicted.

I have to say, it made me sad to tell that little boy I was not Jesus. He was disappointed and probably embarrassed when he left my office.

I hated that.

This is not an ego thing. I don’t want to be Jesus, but I really want to be LIKE Him.

I really want people to think I look like Him.

        I want people to think I look like Jesus when my wife and I aren’t
        seeing eye-to eye.

                I want people to think I look like Jesus when I’m driving in
                heavy traffic and someone cuts me off.

                        I want people to think I look like Jesus when the line at the
                        grocery store is way too long.

    I want people to think I look like Jesus when the waitress screws up my
    order.

            I want people to think I look like Jesus when there’s barely enough
            money and nothing left-over for the fun stuff.

                    I want people to think I look like Jesus when they disagree
                    with me.

                            I want them to think I look like Jesus when they spread lies about me.

                                        I want them to think I look like Jesus when they crucify me.

I’m afraid that I often leave people in the condition of that little boy who left my office – disappointed.

I hate that.

I have been a Christian for 35 years and His minister for 29 years. In my mind, I should be better at both of those by now.

I should look a lot more like Jesus than I do.

Yet, here I am, struggling with inconsistency, doubt, fear, hypocrisy, bigotry... Ok, I’d better stop. Afterall, I’m the Pastor and pastors are perfect, right?

I’ll let you in on a secret that you may already know: Real pastors are NOT perfect, they are broken.

The same is true of real Christians, as redundant as the phrase "real Christians," is.

It is in brokenness that we begin to become more like Christ.

I know, brokenness sounds like a bad thing, a painful thing. Who in their right ming wants to be broken? Hang with me a minute. I’m not talking about broken in the sense of being useless or unable to function.

Brokenness is the best way to describe that moment when we realize how much we need Jesus (you DO need Him, you know).

                As we are broken in the recognition of our sin, He forgives us.

                                As we are broken in the acknowledgment of our fear, He encourages us.

                                                As we are broken in the admission of our weakness, He strengthens us.

                                                                As we are broken in the understanding that we don’t understand, He teaches us.

                                        As we are broken in our pain, and hurt, and depression, He brings healing.

The Apostle Paul said, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me..." Galatians 2:20 (NIV)

He also said, "I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can't make myself do right. I want to, but I can't. When I want to do good, I don't. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway... It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong..." Romans 7:18-19, 21 (NLT)

Can you relate?

I sure can.

It turns out, Paul was pretty sharp.

In our own strength we will never look like Jesus. We will always be selfish, hypocritical, conceited, scared, and weak.

Sinful.

On my own, I’m a screw-up.

I hate that.

But, facts are facts, and the evidence is irrefutable.

I need Jesus.

So do you.

If we were ever going to get it together on our own we would have done it by now.

Jesus, I need You.

That’s brokenness.

CLICK HERE to read "MORE," Pastor Steve's Blog from January, 2010.

Brokenness is the beginning of looking like Jesus.

Paul said, "...I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:10 (NIV)

In my weakness, my brokenness, I actually become strong. I begin to look more like Jesus and less like a jerk, or a hypocrite, or a failure, or a coward, or a bigot, or (insert your own work here)...

I desperately want to look like Jesus.

                I want people to see Him when they look at me.

                                I want to be authentic.

        I want to look like Jesus, don’t you?

It’s a whole lot better than looking like Billy Mays!