God Cannot Wear A Mask

In Scripture, God takes on many forms and names to impact human thought and action. His uncanny ability to meet us where we are physically, spiritually and mentally really is one of his many impressive traits. Whether it’s a wrestler (Jacob), burning bush (Moses), his Son or the Holy Spirit, God is not bound by our imagination. This intrigues me because I have a wild imagination. My imagination was influenced greatly by Saturday morning or weekday afternoon cartoons/pro wrasslin which featured many heroes and villains who wore masks. What did they look like? Were they menacing, ugly or mangled up? The mask built up so much suspense. How cool it must’ve been to wear a mask everywhere! Then I had to wear a mask for the last fourth of 2018 and for the first half of 2019. Then as you know Spring 2020 rolled around and back in a mask. All of a sudden, masks were not as fun as I thought they might’ve been.

When Jesus addressed hypocrisy throughout the Gospels it invokes the image of actors who played multiple roles in the theater by holding several different masks and delivering dialogue for each. He rebukes the idea of putting on a mask to make one look better than they are. This rebuke is often directed at the Jewish leaders of his day. God values the humility it takes to be genuine which seems to be a requirement for repentance (1 John 1:8-10). The leaders at least as a group presented themselves to be above the need for repentance.

However you feel about the masks people wear to prevent the spread of Covid-19, we have all tried on masks to conceal who we really are. We all have attributes that we wish were better but instead of trusting God with it we attempt to conceal it by holding up a mask. It gives us a false hope that no one can see that we are struggling. Like Jonah we all run from the truth. At some point we all get tired of juggling the masks and the real self shows up in all of it’s “glory”. God knows “that Travis” and his Son died for “that Travis”. He’s powerful enough and selfless enough to handle anything “that Travis” can throw at him.

The Hebrew word for “long-suffering” is also a picture into how the Hebrews perceived God’s face. The word is associated with the word “nose”. The word picture is that God has a long nose. As you read this, make a mean or angry face. If you are like me your nose scrunches up. The imagery pictures God with a big nose so it takes a long time for him to make an angry face. Having a big nose like I do makes a mask difficult. Picturing God with such a long nose makes it impossible to picture him wearing a mask. He is always genuine in his love. What patience he shows us! Mask or no mask show someone patience today.

Travis

Photo by Larry Costales on Unsplash