Incognito Christ
May 8, 2013
Read
Reflect
If we were asked to describe what Christ looks like, many of us would conjure similar mental images: a young man with a pale complexion, long hair, and flowing robes. There’s limited evidence to support this image, but Christians throughout the ages have taken the idea and run with it. However, in light of my recent experiences, I would like to challenge this view.
I have spent the past two years teaching at a high risk inner city school in Memphis, Tennessee. Our community has some of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy, violent crime, and gang activity in the country, and yet I have seen Christ at work more in these two years than any other time in my life.
Instead of appearing in his Easter finery, I now see Christ dressed in the dirty polo and baggy shorts of a young man striving to be the first in his family to graduate high school. In lieu of opulent vestments, Christ has shown himself to me as a teenage mother determined to set the best example for her infant child and better both of their lots in life. He has left behind the finery of the holidays and instead dons a winter coat two sizes too small as he puts in hours of extra effort just to keep up with his classmates. Whereas most of us think of Christ in his kingly attire, I see him in the faces of my beloved students.
For it is in them that I see what Christ strives to teach: earnestness of purpose, kindness towards your fellow man, and (most importantly) unconditional love. Despite near insurmountable odds, they strive to rise above. And I think therein lies the power of the “Incognito Christ”.
He is hidden around every poorly kept corner of South Memphis where my children reside. By hiding in plain sight, he is bringing joy, hope, love, courage, and relief where it is most desperately needed by way of his most humble servants.
Respond
As we observe the joyous occasion of Christ’s resurrection, I challenge you to find the “Incognito Christ” in your day to day life and celebrate the love he shows you therein. Can you see Christ in the person who is so very different from you?
-Emily Sholtis is a lifelong Episcopalian and graduate of Georgia Tech. After college, she joined Teach For America Memphis corps.
Melissa Cox
Not only is it beautiful what her students are doing but equally so that she recognizes it. You wear your baptismal covenant well.
George E. Hilty
Flowing robes and long hair come from our image of Jesus in His pre-Passion form. They probably come close to what a First Century Jew looked like. But my earthly mind struggles with the magnificent mystery of the post-Ascension, post-Enthronement and post-Pentecost Christ. He then becomes so much more than the earth-bound Jesus. Intellectually, I get the idea that Ascension was necessary for Him to become present everywhere, all the time. Through the Eucharistic sacrament, I begin to see Him re-membered among us–taking up residence in the many people in our Hawaiian community who look so different from my Caucasian earth suit. He simultaneously has Hawaiian, Japanese, Black, Chinese, Korean, and Caucasian forms differing from mine, including differences in gender. He shows up at an outdoor meeting as a stranger who lost his wallet, identity papers and asks for a few dollars for bus fare to get home. And as visiting couples joining small groups to share our encounters with Him in books, in creation, in various ministries reaching out to the homeless, the victims of sexual slavery, the orphaned. My mind boggles: He is simultaneously enthroned in Heaven and re-member-ed among us and even that probably misses some of Who He is.