if it were up to me

I was in a school play when I was in the 3rd grade. I really don’t remember what it was about, but I do know that it was a Christmas pageant. Therefore, I do know that it was about Jesus being born at some level. But, as all pageants go, there is always more fluff around the story.

I remember I was a shepherd. My costume design was, well interesting really. I wore an old Dallas Cowboys bathrobe inside out, so that no one would see the big Dallas Star. I had a pair of sandals on. Then I had a hand towel wrapped around my head. Yep, I know, we are talking about some serious costume design.

There was one song called, If It Were Up to Me. It was a bunch of kids singing solos about how Jesus would have come to earth, if only it were up to them. No surprise, that I was not one of those kids who sang the solo.

For my part, I did have several supporting roles in my elementary school acting career. I played Grumpy Bell in The Little Bell that Wouldn’t Stop Ringing. I was the Prophet Moses in some Easter Cantata in which I wore a huge white beard, which made an 8 year old kid look like a pre-pubescent Gandalf. I played an Israelite kid named Joad in some play about being in the Wilderness after the Exodus. I did have one solo singing the lyric, “If I were an octopus, I’d thank you Lord for my good looks” (not so obviously typecast) in the totally not famous musical Agapeopolis (what does my exact recollection of my elementary stage career say about my need for embrace and identity?).

So anyway … ahem … These kids sang their little part about Jesus coming to earth. One lyric that I can remember was:

If it were up to me,
I think that he should go,
As some kind of great hero,
Someone everyone would know,
He would be the greatest of all time,
He would never have to stand in line,
You see,
If it were up to me.

At that point the kid singing it would nod their head with a big “stage smile”, while putting their thumb to their chest. Their parents sit, smile proudly at one another, look around to see who noticed that it was their child singing these lines of heresy, and snap photos.

So now, 20 plus years later I sit and think … thank God it was not up to some sniveling kid in New York to decide how Jesus came. I have often quoted Philippians 2, the somewhat famous passage in which Paul writes a hymn about the crucified and risen Jesus. Over the weekend I heard a comment about Jesus that led me to think of this passage differently.

Paul says that Jesus, “… did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.” Rather Jesus embraced suffering. Jesus embraced death, scorn, mockery, crucifixion, and abandonment by his own father. Jesus did not come and say, “Hey ya’ll sorry about not being able to help you out, but I’m, uh, well, I’m God you know.” He came as a man walked around in the midst of the poor. He saw, identified and embraced the suffering in our world. Then, as only he could, he carried the cross and took our sin and shame on himself.

He embraced suffering.

Now he calls his people to follow him. Jesus says to men and women to follow him, to look like him, and to do the things that he did. This means that we must be men and women, who like Jesus, identify with others through the embrace of their shame and suffering. We need to live in the shadow of the suffering Jesus. We must live each moment aware of the grace that his suffering meant.

If this is the case, then we cannot look at the poor, the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, or anyone else who does not have a voice and do nothing. If we follow Jesus, then to identify with all men and women and embrace their suffering cannot be an option.

This is hard isn’t it? After all, if it were up to me, I think that I should go, as some kind of great hero, someone everyone should know … Rather may God send us. May we carry his cross each day for the good of our world.