“IVANKA TRUMP OR JESUS?”
Before you stop reading at the title, this is not a political article. Here is a quote from USA Today (3/20/17): “When a woman shows a celebrity picture to her plastic surgeon and says, ‘I want to look like her,’ the face glowing on her phone might be Jennifer Lopez, Kim Kardashian, Angelina Jolie or Scarlett Johansson. And now, some surgeons say, the new star is Ivanka Trump.” This comes from a Houston surgeon Franklin Rose. One patient spent up to $60,000.00 on plastic surgery to look like Ivanka Trump.
Most people have more common sense than money, so this becomes nothing more than a conversation piece. Christians have spiritual sense because they remember the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment” (Mt. 6:25)? Jesus went on to say, “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature” (Mt. 6:27)? I don’t think they had plastic surgery in the first century. Do you want to look like Ivanka Trump or Jesus Christ?
Let’s all look like Jesus. If you look like Jesus here is what others will see.
They will see humility. “He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded” (Jn. 13:4-5) and our Lord went on to say, “For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you” (Jn. 13:15). Let’s look like Jesus in humility.
They will see compassion. “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd” (Mt. 9:36). Jesus wept over Jerusalem (Lk. 19:41). Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus (Jn. 11:35). Jesus, in his death, had compassion upon his mother (Jn. 19:26-27). Let’s look like Jesus in compassion.
They will see forgiveness. “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots” (Lk. 23:34). Paul wrote this, “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32). Let’s look like Jesus in forgiveness.
They will see a crucified self. “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Lk. 9:23). Paul wrote, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). Let’s look like Jesus by crucifying ourselves.
