Inscrutable and Impenetrable Me

There are many masks in the world. Tribal ones, theatre ones, ballroom ones.

And then there are the ones we wear every day. Mind you, not everyone deserves access to the Authentic You. It is one thing tossing pearls to pigs, but it is something more painful besides having those pigs in your bedroom.

My deeper thought today though, is that in covenant, we should be Real People. Preachers and elders need to be authentic and honest. Apostles like Paul said “You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness.”
(1 Thess 2:5).

The word here for “mask” is prophasis, which means “to cause something to shine in front of others”. A false light. A deceptive look. Psychologists tell us that body language is 80% of communication!

To the Corinthians, Paul also writes on the need for absolute authenticity, to move in the ministry of reconciliation…. “We have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.” (2 Cor 4:2-3).

How disastrous for us to “veil” the gospel to those who are living, or who want to find that Life! This is what all forms of deception do, simply because our lives are the message - or not. And we all have heard the story of the man who had mumps but preached on measles – his hearers caught the mumps, did they not?

I have a friend who is a famous Christian author and preacher, and an exceedingly humble man for all his success. He once said this, that he “would rather be embarrassed now than a thousand times over on the day”…

“Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.” (1 Cor 4:5)

What are some of the masks we can avoid, as we seek to live in the scripture “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18)?

• Happy-Happy Mask. Smiling mouth and smiling eyes. Happy all the time. Come on, no-one can be happy all the time! I know I can get melancholic, so I don’t want to put my “stuff” on you, but hey, “Jesus wept” (the shortest verse in the Bible!) and was a “man of sufferings”. There is a time to mourn. Bad stuff can happen to good people. Paul sometimes “felt the sentence of death”, all of creation still "groans in labor pains" (sustenazo); David had to speak to his soul; Elijah got depressed… There was a cartoon I saw that made me laugh (and churn) - a pastor returns home and his wife welcomes him across the threshold, saying, "it's OK honey, you can stop smiling now - you're home"!

• Happy-Brutal Mask. Smiling mouth but cold eyes. I am happy and I will correct your unhappiness. The man whose empathy cord has been severed. The man who has a quick fix for the unhappy, who is the answers-guy, and who gets annoyed when people persevere in their unhappiness or unhappy ways. The man who whips up the crowd; who takes another’s sadness as a personal challenge. A man who is never weak, never vulnerable, never without an answer, never one to ask questions (that would surrender his power). When we who are elders wear this mask, the people can never truly get close to us, and never will share their deeper lives with us. For us who wear this mask, only Suffering can produce the character needed to rip this mask off. And other genuine friends, who can reach in through the fixed stare and unyielding rightness. 

• Help-Me Mask. The fine-tuned melancholic look.  The man without faith in Jesus. I sit in the church and in my marriage, and have defined all others as my helpers, professionally speaking. My sufferings do not produce perseverance and character, but pleas and the perceived need for other characters. Of course we need each other, but I truly believe that in this time, Jesus is turning our faces towards Himself (and away from self-pity and all the other self- sins!). We get enslaved when we are more dependent on man than on our Messiah. He is within us, man is without. He is ahead of us, man is around us. He is over us, man is our peer. He is Truth, man is a flawed lens. He is grace, man is inconsistency. 

• Holy-Man Mask. The sanctimonious Face, as though every sin is a stench to me. I am a man above temptation, a man without a shameful memory. And therefore a man without a close walk with Jesus. I cannot pretend to be without sin, and without any vulnerability to its power, and be close to Jesus at the same time. We still drag these fallen tents around. We all have shameful memories, even fresh ones. But it is by the Blood, our frowns find forgiveness, and that forgiveness works into forgetfulness. And yet I am fairly certain that God did not intend for us to be happy in receiving mercy for ourselves, and then not be merciful (just ask the servant whose friend owed him 6 month's wages, if and when you see him in heaven). Eugene Pedersen writes so powerfully of the first need in pastoring being empathy. So many of us "ministers" react in disgust at a saint’s sin, instead of confessing that we are sinners too. Of course, we are all becoming more holy by the Spirit’s power and graces, but it is “increasingly and approximately” as far as process goes. And one day we will be like Him, when we see Him face to face! 

There’s many more masks to be sure - whenever something is feigned. Caring masks and “How-Are-You?” masks - when you know you are only ever meeting the uber-cordial, ultra-nice persona. The force-field aura reserved often for pastors and wives. Anointed-Look masks - creating acolytes is search of Deeper Powers.  Remorseful masks (a friend once said that if you want to know if a man is really repenting from something, agree with him that he did need to change! (not that I am recommending a "ministry of removing other people's masks", as the Bible commends us to remove our own first)). 

Finally we could make a good call on the "Poker Mask" - when I look like I am in an unending, 24-7 lifelong poker game. Unreadable, unfathomable. Lose nothing, gain nothing.

Let’s drop the masks, and be the real us. Christ set us free from the shackles of the law, where that Law forces an external code upon an unchanged heart. Christ changes our hearts; Christ sympathizes with our weaknesses; Christ exhorts us to walk in the light. If Christ wants to come in and sup with us in our hearts, would He also not want us to be real and open-hearted towards others as well? One of the non-Christians’ greatest complaints about modern day Christianity is its unauthentic feel. Let’s turn that around, from today!