Jesus in Disguise

"Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it."

     -Hebrews 13:2

One of my favorite Christian songs I listen to is called "Jesus in Disguise" by Brandon Heath. It's a discussion of a hypothetical where Jesus entered our world and instead of a grand show of force and glory He concealed His identity and dwealt amongst us in plain sight.

    One of the lyrics in the Chorus says "you were looking for a King you would never recognize." I often wonder how we would treat Him if He were amongst us as just a run of the mill dude. 

How would we engage with Him, and what would we do to Him. I have come to understand a truth about God, and that is He often puts us to the test. He tests our ethics. He tests our soundness of mind. He tests our patience and our resolve. He tests our resilience.

Many times we fail these tests, and He knows this. He does it not in the same way your science teacher would test you, but more in the way of reminding you that you are not the one in charge and who are you to dictate the desires and behavior of the creator. Kind of a "put you in your place" strategy.

I feel that if Jesus were to be in our world again as just a man, we would treat Him rather poorly, to put it in mild terms. He would do this, though, for a purpose. To humble us and knock us down a peg or two. Nothing quite as humbling as having to swallow a heavy guilt. 

I feel that Jesus would probably suffer something quite atrocious here in this culture, because we already treat the lowly amongst us with much disdain and contempt. We aren't a very forgiving place when it comes to those who slip through the cracks. Jesus said it Himself, "whatever is done unto the least of my brethren is done unto me."

In fact I've noticed that the most Christlike people amongst us are not treated very well in many parts of the world. Even many Christians have a hard time recognizing Christlikeness in someone, let alone measure up to it themselves. Oftentimes meekness is equated to weakness and treated accordlingly by humanity

In a sense, we are tested as to how we'd treat Jesus whenever we are presented with a situation where we must interact with a lesser, at least a lesser in our eyes. How we treat them is how we treat Jesus, because Jesus is reflected in the least of us, and He was a defender of the least of us.

For me, I wouldn't be surprised if God would put us to the test, to see how we would treat Jesus disguised as a commoner, not in glory as a King. In a way we face this test every day when we treat each other however we treat each other.

Such a test would probably be a pretext for judgement, as it would defy common conventions and predictions of His return. Kind of like the story in Greek mythology where Zeus disguises himself as a vagabond and visits a rich village by the sea and when rejected by the prideful people he responded to their arrogance by flooding the village.

God could possibly do such a thing because...God can do whatever He wants to. He's not bound by the notions and assumptions of His behavior by humans.

So not only does the statement of hospitality I quoted at the start remain quite true and pertinant,  how you treat people is also a reflection of how you'd treat Jesus. A valuable lesson for anyone trying to follow Him. Be wary of who you treat poorly. You could be entertaining Jesus in disguise.