IDENTITY THEFT
MUGGED BY THE MIRROR
DR. JIM DIXON
MAY 20, 2007
PROVERBS 31:29-31, 1 PETER 3:3-4
Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” tells the story of Narcissus. As Ovid tells the story, Narcissus is young. Narcissus is handsome. He is good looking, but he’s also vain. Narcissus is arrogant, and he’s swollen with conceit. The gods became angry with Narcissus when he rejected the beautiful semi-deity called Echo. When Narcissus rejected her, the gods banished Narcissus to the Greek island of Helicon or Mt. Helicon; there he was forced to look at his own reflection in the pool. He was to look into a reflecting pool and just pine away the years, for the remainder of his life, just looking at his own image in the mirror. Ultimately, his body died and decayed into the earth. From that spot grew the Narcissus flower. That’s how the story is told in Greek mythology.
We get the word “narcissist” from the Greek legend of Narcissus. The story, as told by Ovid in his “Metamorphoses,” is only one form of the story. The story really has many forms; but in every form, Narcissus winds up being “mugged by the mirror.” How about you? When you look in the mirror, do you like what you see? Are you kind of like Narcissus? Do you like what you see when you look at your reflection? Or do you not like what you see? When you wake up and you look at the mirror in the morning, how do you feel? Either way, whether you like what you see or whether you don’t, you might be mugged by the mirror.
We live in a world that views people on the basis of externals. Today, we’re going to take a look at a different way to see people. I have two teachings this morning, and the first teaching is this: the Bible says that we are to view people internally. This is what God wants. God wants us to look at people internally, inwardly.
I want to read you a joke I read recently: “Mark, a loving husband, was in trouble. He forgot his wedding anniversary, and his wife was really ticked off at him. She told him, ‘Tomorrow morning, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from zero to 200 in under six seconds . . . and it better be there.’ The next morning, Mark got up really early before work; when his wife woke up a couple of hours later, she looked out the window, and, sure enough, there was a small gift-wrapped box sitting in the middle of the driveway. The wife put on her robe, went out to the driveway, and took the box into the house. She opened it and found a brand-new bathroom scale. Mark is not yet well enough to have visitors.”
Is it not true though? There are people who really step on that scale every day, and it’s very important to them. There are people who look at stock market results every day, and it is very important to them. If the market goes up and the scale goes down, they’re feeling pretty good about themselves. If the market goes up and the scale goes down, they have some joy. If the reverse is true—if the scale goes up and the market goes down, they don’t feel so good. It’s a sad truth, but we live in a world where many people view life on the basis of such externals.
This Friday, the movie “Shrek the Third” came out. I have not seen it—and I did not see “Shrek II”—but I did see the original “Shrek,” which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in the year 2001. The original “Shrek” was sometimes kind of gross and sometimes kind of charming, and its message was a pretty good message: “What is important is not what’s on the outside.”
Chuck Swindoll, the well-known pastor who became president of Dallas Theological Seminary, once said, “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clear down to the bone.” I think Shrek probably felt like that as an ugly ogre; but he knew that fairy tales don’t come true. He knew that ugly people don’t become beautiful. Most of us and most of our kids grew up hearing a lot of fairy tales and, perhaps, reading fairytale books. When they first heard the story of Sleeping Beauty, they knew that the handsome prince who gave that awakening kiss to Sleeping Beauty wouldn’t have done that if she had been Sleeping Ugly. Kids know that. Children read about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, about Dumbo the Flying Elephant, or the Ugly Duckling. When they read those stories, the thought occurs to them that if they look different than other kids and if they are less attractive, it might cause them pain.
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” That question was posed in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” It’s a question kids take to heart. They want to be the fairest. They notice that Cinderella is beautiful, and they notice that the wicked stepsisters are ugly. I think—at least, sometimes—through some of these fairy tales, kids are taught to view people externally and even to view themselves externally. But God has a different desire for us. God wants us to look inward. He wants us to seek inward beauty, and He wants us to look for the inward beauty in other people.
In our passage of Scripture for today from the book of Proverbs, we’re told that charm is deceitful and beauty is vain. Yet, how ironic that our culture seems to be driven by charm and by beauty. In our other passage of Scripture, 1 Peter 3, we’re told that God doesn’t want us to seek the outward adorning but the hidden beauty of the heart. The passage is addressed to wives, but, biblically, it’s for everybody. We’re all supposed to seek the inward beauty of the heart. That’s what God wants.
In the movie “Shrek,” Shrek tries to explain how there’s a lot more to ogres than people think. He says that ogres are like onions in that they have layers. And I think the message of the movie is that people have layers, and we should view them in terms of their inner beauty. People have layers, and you need to go deep to see what the person is really like. Is that not true? People have layers. I have layers. You have layers. As people peel down, do they begin to tear up like they do with an onion? If they do, are they tears of joy or are they tears of sorrow? What do people find when they peel through the layers and get to really know us?
We live in a world where a lot of people seek extreme makeovers. They’re thinking externally, but really it’s internally where we need extreme makeovers. God is wanting us as His people to seek inward beauty. This is really what spiritual formation is about. This is really what discipleship is about. We should be seeking that transformation inwardly and looking for the beauty inwardly in others.
There’s a great story that was told by Max Lucado. Actually, the story was first told in the magazine, “Guideposts.” Max Lucado tells the story in his book, “When the Angels Were Silent.” I’ve seen the story in many different places. The story concerns a guy whose name was John Blanchard. John was young. He was in the military. It was World War II. The year was 1944. He was on leave, and he was in a Florida library. He was just kind of thumbing through the pages of a book, seeing if it was interesting or not, and he noticed beautiful handwriting in the margins. He imagined that it was probably a woman’s handwriting since it was excellent penmanship; but as he began to read the comments that this woman had written in the margins, he saw that the comments were profound and showed great depth and great thought. These comments made him reflect. He thought, “Whoever wrote this, I’d like to meet her.”
He looked in the front of the book, and he saw that only one person had ever checked it out. It was a woman named Holly Maynell. He checked further and found out that Holly lived in New York City. He thought, “I’ve got to go back to Europe. I’m only here for a brief time, but I’m going to just write her a letter and see what happens. I’ve never done anything like this before, but I really just want to write her and tell her how much I appreciate the way she thinks and reflects on things.”
John did that. He wrote Holly, and he got a letter back. They began to write each other. John went overseas. They had never met in person, but they fell in love. Time passed—13 months. During the course of that 13 months before John came back to the United States and World War II was concluded, John and Holly had fallen very much in love. At one point, John asked Holly to send a picture that he might see what she looked like. She said no. She said, “If you really love me, you don’t care about that.” She said, “If you really love me, you care about whether or not you like me on the inside.”
After the 13 months, John came back. He was all excited. He was going to come into New York City. He and Holly had made arrangements to meet at Grand Central Station. They agreed that they would meet there. As John got off the train, he began to look for Holly. She had told him that she would have a red rose in her lapel. He began to walk around looking for Holly, and he was very anxious to see her. He saw a woman coming towards him. She was tall and slender; she was beautiful. She had long blonde hair flowing over her shoulders and blue eyes. She was in a pale green suit; he thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He just kind of was instinctively drawn to her.
He went over and suddenly he realized, “This isn’t Holly. She doesn’t have a red rose in her lapel.” So, he continued to look. He finally found Holly. She was standing elsewhere with a red rose in her lapel. He noticed that she was older than he had hoped for. She was perhaps older than 35. He also noticed that her ankles were kind of thick and maybe she was a little overweight; frankly, he was a little bit disappointed, but she had a kind face and a nice smile. He knew that he had fallen in love with her inner beauty, and he knew that was good enough for him.
He went up to her, and he smiled. He took her hand, and he asked her out to dinner as they had agreed to do. When he did that, the woman started laughing. She said, “I don’t know what’s going on here. Just a little bit ago this gal came up to me and gave me this red rose. She asked me to put it in my lapel. She said, ‘If some guy comes up and introduces himself as John Blanchard and asks you out to dinner, you are to tell him, ‘The person you’re really wanting to meet is in the coffee shop across the way.’”
John Blanchard went into the coffee shop . . . and you know what happened? He saw Holly Maynell, the real Holly Maynell. She was that beautiful blonde that he had first seen walking in Grand Central Station.
I don’t know whether the story is true. I do know this is true: I know that there are people out there—some of them are attractive and some of them are not attractive—who want to be valued for what’s inside. I think most of us would rather be valued for what’s inside. Most of us would like to feel that people respect inner beauty as opposed to external beauty. Of course, we live in a world that does focus on the externals. As Christians, we’re called to look inward and to seek that inward beauty.
Barb showed me a website that’s been on the web since about 2000. This website is really popular today, and it’s called “AmIHotOrNot.com.” Apparently this website gets 10 million hits a day. You send in your picture, and they rate you 1 to 10. You can get involved in the rating, I guess. Ten million hits a day. Am I hot or not? I think God would say, “Who cares?” God doesn’t care whether you’re hot or not.
We live in just a crazy culture. When you look in Scripture, it just doesn’t focus on externals. We don’t even know what most people looked like. If you look at the heroes of the faith . . . you can go through the Old Testament and the New, and almost without exception, you have no clue what anybody looked like. On rare occasions, the Bible gives us a glimpse. We are told, for instance, that Joseph was handsome and good looking. That’s why Potiphar’s wife was attracted to him. But that is kind of a rare glimpse.
Normally, you go through Scripture, and you just don’t know what anybody looked like. You don’t even know what Jesus looked like because the Bible doesn’t tell us. You can go and look at the new stained glass in our chapel. You can look at the Christ window, and you can say, “Well, I don’t know. Did he look like that?” Nobody knows because the Bible doesn’t tell us. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief; but we don’t know what He looked like. The Bible wants us to take that inward look.
This afternoon, at 2:30 in the chapel, we’re having a graduation service for the Denver Street School. The Denver Street School is a ministry that we support here at Cherry Hills Community Church. This will be high school graduates. Some of them are Anglos. Some of them are Hispanic kids. Some of them are African-Americans. Most of them are very poor, but God has blessed them. They are graduating today. I’m honored to be able to speak at their graduation service this afternoon.
Before I speak, I’m going to be introduced by my brother Greg. My brother Greg is on the board of the Denver Street School. My brother Gary will also be there because Gary and his wife Ann support the Denver Street School too. I’m honored to be there with my brothers. I’m honored to have my brothers close by. They both moved to Colorado—Greg, many years ago, Gary, more recently. Greg and Gary and their families are members of this congregation. I couldn’t be more honored and more pleased than to have my brothers here.
When we were growing up, Gary and I knew that Greg was the best looking. You can ask Gary. I’m sure he would agree. Greg was the best looking. Greg was kind of naturally tan, just kind of born tan, and almost kind of golden-bronzed. I looked more like vampire fodder, very pale. Greg was always very athletic, far more so than Gary or I. Greg was kind of a muscular mesomorph, and I was a very skinny, scrawny ectomorph. Greg was very popular in school and very popular with the girls. Greg had a great voice, and he ultimately went on to sing on Lawrence Welk. He was a singer on Lawrence Welk for a number of years, and it was there that Greg met his Barbara. Greg’s Barb had danced on Lawrence Welk—Barbara and Bobby. She danced, I believe, for 7 years on Lawrence Welk; and that’s where they fell in love.
When they were married, they were married at the beautiful cathedral sanctuary at Glendale Presbyterian Church. It is a huge cathedral, and it was packed. People were outside who couldn’t get in. They wanted to see this kind of celebrity event. The bridesmaids were the Lennon sisters, and there were a lot of celebrities there.
When Barb and I were married, we were at a little Baptist Church in Temple City, California. Barb had these large fever blisters she had cultivated for the occasion. We were getting married, and it was 100 degrees, and there was no air conditioning in the church. I was literally sweating like a pig. The only celebrity there was my brother Greg.
I remember as we were growing up, my brothers and I were all three in the same bedroom. My parents weren’t poor. We had a nice home in a nice area, but back then, parents didn’t feel that every kid needed their own bedroom. So, the three of us had our own bedroom. As my oldest brother Gary got a little older, he got a bedroom of his own. Then it was just Greg and I. We had this door in our room with a full-length mirror on it. You could just stand there and get a full body shot.
I remember one morning, Greg got up and he was looking in the mirror, perhaps checking if any more muscles had come in recently. I got up. We were both in our boxers, and I stood right next to him as we looked in the mirror. As we both stood there together, I just remember we both just burst out laughing. We both just burst out because it really did look like one of those before and after kind of deals. The good news is that all of us knew that Mom and Dad loved us all the same. We knew that. None of that other stuff mattered.
We also knew that Mom and Dad really weren’t focused on externals. It was all about the inward person, what you were becoming inwardly. I’m very proud of what Greg and Gary have become inwardly—the passion that they have for ministry, the way that they serve Christ. That’s what I desire. I think that’s what Christ wants all of us to desire: inward beauty. He wants us to look for the inward beauty of other people. This is the way to live life. You don’t want to be mugged by the mirror. View yourself and others inwardly. Seek inward beauty.
There is a second message this morning, and that is this: the Bible says that we should view people eternally. This is so important. Perhaps you’ve never thought of this before. The Bible says not only that we should view people internally, but also that we should view people eternally. This is going to affect your worldview. This is going to affect everything if you look at people eternally.
Of course, if you look at people eternally and you have a biblical worldview, you know that there are two eternal destinies. You know that people apart from Christ and the gospel are lost. If you have that eternal prospective and you view people that way, you’re going to want to take Jesus to people.
Of course, if you’re a politically-correct multi-culturalist, a pluralist, or a syncretist . . . if you believe all religions are the same and all paths lead to God, then you don’t need to take Jesus to anybody. If you believe in the Bible, and if you believe what Jesus said when He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me . . .” If you believe what the Bible when it says, “There’s no other name in heaven given amongst men whereby we may be saved . . .” If you believe that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life . . .” If you believe that Jesus died in substitutionary atonement . . . If you believe He died for the sin of the world and that He’s the only Savior (no one else died for our sin) . . . If you believe those things, then there’s a whole lot at stake. If you have that eternal view, you’re going to want to take Jesus to the unbelieving in your neighborhood and workplace, and, ultimately, to the nations.
If we view people eternally, it’s also going to affect the way we look at Christians. It’s going to affect the way I look at my brothers and sisters in Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5:16-17, the Apostle Paul tells us that “We no longer regard anyone from a human point of view.” That’s a weird statement. “We no longer regard anyone from a human point of view.” We’ve got the eternal view, the divine view. Then Paul goes on to say, “If anyone is in Christ, he has become a new creation.” So, if I’m viewing you with the eternal perspective, I’m seeing that you have become a new creation.
The Bible tells us that all people in the world are created with the “imago dei.” All people in the world are created in the image of God; but we are fallen, we have sinned, and we’ve all fallen short of His glory. The image of God, the “imago dei,” is kind of broken in each of us. I think there have been people, and there are people still, who can look at all people and see something of the “imago dei” in them. Mother Teresa was like that. Mother Teresa could just look at anybody, and no matter how tragic their circumstance, no matter how broken they were, Mother Teresa could see something of the residual image of God in them. She could see something of the eternal, something of the divine. That is beautiful.
When we become Christians, when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, the Bible says that we experience regeneration, sometimes called “rebirth.” The Greek is “anagennao.” We are born into the divine family. What an amazing concept! As we embrace Christ, Jesus becomes our brother; His Father becomes our Father; and we become sons and daughters of God, children of God.
Who are you? What is your identity? If you’re a follower of Jesus Christ and you’ve received Him, that’s your identity. You are children of God, sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of Christ. You have an eternal destiny, and it’s amazing. In Ephesians 2, starting with verse 1, the Bible says, “And you He made alive, when once you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among these, we all once lived in the passions of our flesh . . . so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, who is rich in mercy . . . even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up to sit with Him in the heavenly places, that in the coming ages He might show us the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—not of works, lest anyone should boast. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
That passage is amazing! It tells us that the devil is “the prince of the power of the air.” Have you ever heard that title ascribed to the devil? He is the prince of the powers of the air. The Greek word there is “alpha eta rho.” You can translate that as “air” or “atmosphere,” but you transliterate it as “aer”—”alpha eta rho”—like the British “aeroplane.” In the Hellenized and Greek-speaking world, this word was used to describe the distance between the surface of the earth and the orbit of the moon. If you take the passage literally, that’s what it’s saying about the devil. That’s what it’s saying about Satan. This is his domain. It’s finite. It’s limited. The prince, the “archon” of the world, the prince of the power of the air.
But then it says of you—past tense aorist . . . it’s already happened—”You have been raised up to sit with Christ in the heavenly places.” The Greek word is “ouranoi.” That word refers to the second heaven and the third heaven, the galactic systems, the cosmos and the dwelling place of God. You have been raised up with Christ to the heavens where Satan could never go, beyond his realm; and you will reign and rule with Christ forever and ever.
In Ephesians 1, we’re told that Jesus has been raised up to sit in the heavenly places above every principality and power. Then you come to Ephesians 2, and you see that in Christ this is true of all the children of God. Do you realize who you are? Don’t let anybody steal your identity. Don’t be mugged by something as stupid as a mirror. Don’t look at externals. Take the eternal view. The internal and the eternal perspective in Christ is awesome. As once God gave man dominion over the earth, so in the life to come God will give His people dominion over all the works of His hands. There will be a new heavens and a new earth. You will reign and rule with Christ.
How many of you have ever been to the Pacific Island of Kandiwata? I didn’t think so. It’s a small island. On that island there is a man named Johnny Lingo. That’s not his real island name, but when he’s talking to Westerners he goes by Johnny Lingo.
Johnny Lingo fell in love with a gal on Kandiwata whose name is Cerita. Johnny just loved her. He loved her inwardly—her beauty, her character, and her person. She was not a particularly attractive gal. In their culture on Kandiwata, there is this marriage ritual where the groom must go to the bride’s house and make a bride gift. The groom must go to the father and must offer the appropriate number of cows. This was the culture of Kandiwata. Usually, you would offer one cow for a wife if she was not exceptional. You would offer two cows if she were viewed as good quality and three or four cows if she was off the charts.
Cerita was considered a one cow, maybe a two-cow wife. (I’ve learned, by the way, not to think of my wife in these terms.) Frankly, Cerita’ s father thought, “My daughter Cerita might live with me all of her years because she’s not that attractive.” Here comes Johnny, in love with her, and Johnny offers eight cows. An eight-cow wife. Such a thing in that culture and in the midst of poverty was almost unheard of, an eight-cow wife. Later, a Westerner asked Johnny Lingo, “Why? That’s like more than you’ve got . . . How could you do that? An eight-cow wife?”
He said, “Well, how would you feel if some guy loved you and offered one cow? Would that make you happy?” The Westerner said, “So, you’re saying you really wanted to make her happy. You did the eight-cow deal just because you really wanted to make her happy?” Johnny Lingo said, “No, not really. That was part of it, but the truth is I wanted an eight-cow wife. I wanted a wife who values herself like an eight-cow wife. And I wanted others to know she is valued to me like that.” People who knew Cerita said her life changed. She began to walk different. She seemed more beautiful. Her smile was more genuine. Somehow she just kind of became a better person in that culture.
Do you understand how much Christ loves His Church? In the Bible, we’re told that the Church is the bride of Christ. How much does Christ love His bride? He left His heavenly glory to come here to woo His wife. Jesus came to woo us, and He died for us. No price is too great for Him. Do you know how valuable you are to Him and what identity you have in Him? The world will never understand.
I want to conclude with one final story, and it’s the story of Joshua Bell. It’s about something that just happened in Joshua Bell’s life this year. Many of you have heard of Joshua Bell because he’s a master violinist. On January 9, 2007, Joshua Bell performed in the Boston Symphony Hall. He brought out his Stradivarius, his 3 million dollar violin, and he played the works of the masters. The cheapest seat in the house was $100, and many people paid many times more than that.
Just three days later, January 12 of this year, Joshua Bell went to Washington, D.C. in conjunction with The Washington Post. They wanted to conduct an experiment in context and perception. So, they had Joshua Bell dress up kind of like a poor guy, almost like a street person. He wore jeans that were soiled with holes in them. He wore a baggy shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. They had Joshua Bell go down to the D.C. Metro and just kind of sit against the wall. Then they had him open up his violin case and take out his 3 million dollar Stradivarius. They had him take a few bucks and throw them into the violin case. They waited to see what would happen as he played the works of the masters in that context.
He began to play his Stradivarius. He played his Mozart and Schubert. He played all these incredible pieces on this Stradivarius, and people were walking by. Thousands of people were walking by, and people just didn’t notice. People didn’t care. It’s a different context and a different perception. Time went by. When it was all said and done, he had $32 from 27 people who put money in the violin case. This was to show how context affects perception.
I don’t know if you understand what God might be saying to us today; but in this context, it’s hard to hold onto your identity. In this context, it’s hard for us to see each other as we really are in Christ. In this context, it’s impossible for the world to understand who we are. Look at Jesus Christ when He walked the earth. In that context, He was not understood. People viewed Him as the son of a carpenter and a man of little needs. There were moments when the context changed—brief moments, like the Mount of Transfiguration when He radiated pure light and suddenly the perception in that context was totally different. They realized, “This is the Son of God.” But for the most part, people did not understand.
I would submit to you, as children of God, that something is equally true of us today. I mean, it’s true: we’re bozos on the bus and kind of messed up inside . . . but, oh, does Christ have plans for us! As we focus on inward beauty, and as we look at our destiny and what God has laid up for us, someday we will shine forth like the light of the sun forever. It’s going to be awesome. Don’t let anyone take away your identity. Don’t be mugged by the mirror. View yourself inwardly. Seek inward beauty.
I know that externally we need to take care of ourselves and try to look good. But focus on the inward. Seek inward beauty, and look at the eternal. Don’t let anybody take away what you have in Christ. Let’s close with a word of prayer.