Facing the Wrong Way
This week’s episode of the radio program This American Life was a collection of stories addressing the theme of “people staring squarely at the truth, and still finding it hard to believe what they’re seeing.”
The introductory story centered on a work-from-home tech company and a newly hired employee who never turned on his camera. During a subsequent meeting, they announced all employees were required to have their cameras on during meetings. When that employee turned on his camera for the first time, he did not appear to be the same person who had been interviewed. While this person appeared to be of the same nationality, his thick curly hair was gone, he seemed to have a different face shape and body type, and he did not smile once (despite having a near-constant smile on his face during the interview). Neither manager spoke about the situation to the other. One indicated he chalked up the confusion to the employee’s presumed drastic haircut.
They were amazed, then, at the next meeting when that employee’s camera turned on and the person on the screen looked exactly the same as the person who had been interviewed, complete with the curly hair and the captivating smile. The managers immediately got together to discuss the situation. They admitted to one another they knew the short-haired employee was not the same person they had hired, but they had not bothered to discuss their hunch with anyone else because they thought the situation was so preposterous it could not actually be true. After all, what employer would even consider the possibility that the person who interviews and accepts the job would be different from the one who actually shows up to do the work? But that was exactly what happened.
Sometimes we can stare the truth in the face and not even believe what we’re seeing. We can look directly at someone claiming to be someone else, know that they’re lying, and still rationalize away our doubts and suspicions. Similarly, as we see in today’s gospel, we can look directly at someone and fail to identify the truth of who that person is because we are expecting someone else entirely.
This is less about gullibility and more about conformity. There was a famous social science experiment featured on a 1962 episode of Candid Camera.
They placed an actor in an elevator with only one set of doors and instructed him to ride up and down the elevator facing the rear of the elevator. Person after person would walk into the elevator, look at the actor with confusion, but immediately assume a similar position facing the rear of the elevator. They would arrive at their floor, notice the door open behind them, turn around and walk out unsure as to why they spent their time in the elevator facing the wrong direction.
This experiment demonstrates our inclination to disregard what we know is correct and instead change our actions to match that of others. Humans are hard-wired to go with the flow. Call it conformity, call it groupthink, either way, there is a lot of fascinating social psychology research on the topic. It is worth learning about and worth looking out for.
There’s a fair amount of groupthink at work throughout the Bible and it all serves as an invitation for us to be aware of the times in our lives where we are prioritizing conformity with others as opposed to alignment with Christ.
In today’s gospel text from John, Jesus is confronted by his fellow religious brethren and directly asked whether he is the Messiah. Their question is less out of a sense of curiosity or hope, and more out of a sense of accusation. They had a collective idea formed more by their culture than their religion, of what the Messiah would do and say, as well as how the Messiah would act. Jesus was not fitting the bill.
When asked whether he is the Messiah, Jesus says, “I have told you, and you do not believe.” The evidence is there, others have seen it and come to believe, and yet, few will break away from the group in order to follow Christ.
This is not an indictment on a particular group of people, a particular time in history, or a particular religion or lack thereof. People throughout history have boarded the proverbial elevator, gone against their instincts, and faced the back because that’s what everyone else was doing. Jesus, in a timeless and universal sense, is the person who boards the elevator and invites everyone facing the wrong direction to turn around. He’s the office manager who looks at the new employee and says, “Uh, folks, this isn’t the same guy we hired!”
Jesus may be profoundly peaceful, but he is no go-with-the-flow kind of guy. Jesus encouraged radical opposition to the oppressive customs of his time. Recall some of his teachings:
If anyone strikes you, turn the other cheek.
If anyone steals from you, offer them more.
Honor the young among you.
Cast your nets off the other side of the boat.
Pray and give in secret, so no one sees you and thinks too highly of you.
Kill the fattened calf to celebrate a repentant sinner.
A rich man will find it nearly impossible to enter eternal life.
Do not turn my Father’s house into a den of thieves.
Put away your sword.
Live as though sin and death have no power over you.
These are not the instructions of a conformist. Anyone who claims to follow Christ today is invited to live a radical life that will veer off society’s well-beaten path. The fact is, two-thousand years after Jesus, we still haven’t managed to create societies that resemble God’s Kingdom. Our well-beaten paths of conformity deserve to be abandoned.
There is, of course, good news in all of this. In today’s text from John, Jesus does not offer a single word of condemnation to those who fail to understand who he is. Instead, he continues to invite them to pay attention, listen to a new voice, and break away from the crowd. Jesus doesn’t punish those who fail to understand he is the Messiah. He simply points out those who do recognize him and peel away from the crowd in order to follow him participate in an eternal, grace and love-filled, and abundant life.
We’re all a bunch of sheep in need of a shepherd. We’re all a bunch of sheep inclined to follow whatever shepherd we think will lead us to safety and provision. That shepherd could be our political party, our income, our accomplishments (or the accomplishments of our children), or even our fears.
However, Christ is the true shepherd. Christ never promises our lives will be free of pain, heartbreak, fear, anger, persecution, or sadness. Christ’s promise is that while following him, no one will snatch us out of the Father’s hand and we will never perish. Christ’s promise is eternal, grace and love-filled, and abundant life.
May you be bold in your discipleship and discern who is asking you to follow them. And may you stop once in a while to look around, check in with your God-given instincts, and make sure you’re not surrounded by people facing the wrong way.
