There’s a waitress in a restaurant in Indianapolis where I eat with my Dad when I go to see him. The first time she waited on us, she looked at me and said: “Did anybody ever tell you that you look like John Lennon?” I laughed out loud. Now every time we go in there, she calls me John. My Dad gets a real kick out of it.
The reason I laughed is because, as a matter of fact, I have been told I looked like John Lennon before. Several times over the years, someone has made that remark to me.
The first time, I was sitting on a bench in the mall at Terre Haute, reading a newspaper and waiting on my wife. I became aware that someone had stopped right in front of me, and I looked up…right into the smiling face of a pot-bellied fellow in overalls, grinning at me. He said, “Anybody ever tell you you look like John Lennon?” Since this was the first time, I could have honestly said no. Instead, engaging my lightning-swift wit, I opened my mouth and said: “Uh-h-h-h-h…?” Then he looked over his shoulder and in a very loud voice, he called out, “HEY, HONEY: C’MERE! THIS GUY LOOKS LIKE JOHN LENNON!” Then he turned back to me and said, “I hope you don’t mind me sayin’ you look like John Lennon?” By this time, the shock was wearing off a little, so I said, “Well, I guess it’s okay to look like a dead guy.” And he said, “I don’t mean it like that, but you sure do look like ‘im!” Then he grinned at me again and sauntered off…leaving me shaking my head, and laughing to myself.
I have been told that same thing from time to time over the years. Two or three times, someone has told me I look like Eric Clapton. Once, in Monterey, California, I was wearing a ball cap and sunglasses, and a young teenage guy came up to me and asked if I was Steven Spielberg. I was so surprised, I just said.”Ah, …no!” (I wish I’d just put my finger to my lips and said, “Shhhhh!”)
Sometimes people meet me and say, “We listen to your church service on the radio. You don’t look anything like what we imagined.” (I’ve always been afraid to ask what they thought I’d look like!) One lady told me that, on the radio, I sounded like Kevin Costner. (I’m not sure how to take that.)
Dr. C. Everett Koop died this past week. He was Surgeon-General under President Ronald Reagan, and a Christian who publicly stood up against abortion and for the rights of the unborn. Our dear brother Jack Jones has had people tell him that he looked like Dr. Koop. In fact, once in Washington D.C. a policeman asked Jack if he was Dr. Koop! (I wish people thought I looked like a famous Evangelical Christian. One of my heroes in the ministry is Alexander MacLaren, a Scottish preacher who died in 1910. I showed my daughter a photograph of him. She said: “He looks like an old goat!” I’m glad I don’t look like him.)
I think my favorite episode of this type is one that happened to me in a fast food restaurant in Terre Haute. I walked up to the young lady behind the cash register, and before I could order, she peered at me and said: “Are you somebody? You look like somebody!” I laughed and said, “Well, who do I look like?” She said, “I don’t know, but you look like somebody!”
According to the Bible, Christians are supposed to look like Jesus. Romans 8:29 says that believers in Christ are “predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son…”. After we become Christians, God goes to work on us to make us more and more like Jesus. This process is called sanctification, and it won’t be complete until we are with the Lord in Heaven. Then, “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (1 John 3:2)
In the meantime, for our part of things, we have a guide in The Sermon On the Mount (Matthew 5-7). The Sermon On the Mount does not tell us how to become a born-again Christian. (Jesus explained how to be born again in John 3.) Rather, The Sermon On the Mount tells us what a born-again Christian looks like. In short, he or she looks like Jesus…because, as someone observed, Matthew 5-7 is a perfect description of the moral and spiritual character of the Son of God.
And someone else has observed that if Christians were more serious about trying to live like Jesus said in The Sermon On the Mount, we wouldn’t need advertising or church growth schemes. People would look at us, see Jesus, and flood into the churches. (You may be skeptical, but after all the other nonsense the church has tried, maybe we should give this a whirl. When all else fails, follow directions.)
Who do you look like? I really look like my Dad and Mom, with a grandparent or two thrown in for good measure. And you look like your family, too.
But wouldn’t it be great if people said to us: “You remind me of Jesus!” Oh, Lord, make it so!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor David