Still Looking for a Costume?

I was browsing an elaborate Halloween store and came across an aisle of religious-oriented costumes. There were the usual ones: nun, rabbi, priest. And one I’d never seen before.

Yes, you can go Trick-or-Treating as Jesus this year. There is a Jesus costume.

What do you think about that?

I’m guessing some people will feel offended; I understand and respect where they’re coming from. Others would see it as harmless and find some humor in it. (Hey, see the guy in the Jesus costume? He gave treats to the whole neighborhood using only two Swedish Fish.)

I had a feeling there was material for a blog in all of this somewhere, so I took a photo, filed the idea in the back of my brain, and moved on to inspect the rubber rats and flying bats that are more my style.

Eventually, a thought worked its way into the front of my brain:

Why shouldn’t someone wear a Jesus costume?

And, in fact, if you believe in what he’s passionate about and what his life is about, shouldn’t you be wearing a Jesus costume every day?

Whatever your religion or your beliefs, shouldn’t you be wearing them each day?

If the idea of wearing a costume is off-putting, consider that we wear costumes all the time. Look at how we dress for various occasions. And isn’t it fascinating how each generation dresses a certain way? Do you wear your pants up or down? Tuck in the shirt or let it hang out? Tight jeans or baggy ones?

We all have our dress codes. Our costumes.

We also have other costumes that don’t involve clothes per se. For instance, we often put on the costume of competence. We try to look like we’re cool, important, in total control, even though we know we’re no different than anyone else on the inside.

When we’re young, we slip easily into the costume of invincibility and do dangerous and stupid things. (As adults, we pull that one out of our closets from time-to-time, too.) Sometimes, we don a cloak of invisibility and try to just get though something with nobody noticing us.

Also, there are times when we tap into the best parts of ourselves and wear a superhero costume, becoming one in some sense. Other times, we’re very much the mild-mannered mortals.

So many different costumes we wear in life.

Which brings us back to that Jesus costume.

The one in the plastic bag at the Halloween store was rather hideous. It included a crown of thorns — really? And a bright red sash. Huh? And a hideous beard that was so fake that you knew it couldn’t be what Jesus actually looked like.

So what costume did he really wear? What did his life really look like?

It wasn’t about the clothes. Evidently, he didn’t have many of those. His costume was something he wore inside. A spirit woven into the very core of who he is about.

He dressed up as love. As compassion. As visiting the sick and the imprisoned. As sharing everything with the poor and needy. As caring for those who are hungry, thirsty, or just in need of a kind word. As healing and forgiving. As embracing the outcast.

As making sure that everyone is treated as an equally beloved child of the same God. As working for peace and justice.

And loving. Always loving. Because love is what matters. If you have love, you have all you need. Everything flows from that.

That is the costume.

Thankfully, it doesn’t involve a gawd-awful beard. And the Swedish Fish are optional.

But each day, we have to decide whether we are going to wear it. What is our life about?

Which costume will we wear?

Joe Kay is a professional writer living in the Midwest. You can reach him through his blog at https://joekay617.wordpress.com/ .