Mistaken Identity

Have you ever mistaken someone for someone else? Perhaps the mistake was due to a hasty glance combined with a few assumptions that led you to conclude that the person you were looking at (or looking for) was someone different from whom they turned out to be.

As we reflect on the Resurrection story and all of the events surrounding it, we find an interesting story of mistaken identity taking place at the tomb. Mary is sitting at the empty tomb weeping and wondering where Jesus was. The last time she had seen Him, He was being placed in a borrowed tomb following His excruciating crucifixion. Now, the tomb is empty and, forgetting Jesus' prophetic words about his resurrection, she thinks someone has taken His body.

She sees a man and, with a hasty glance and an assumption or two, she concludes that he is a gardner. She asks Him if He knew where Jesus was. Can you just see her face when she realizes that the man she mistook for a gardner was in fact the tiller of her soul? The man she thought was an ordinary gardner had just, days ago, watered the garden of Gethsemene with his sweat and blood as He prepared to be raised up Himself!

An old R&B song says, "You are my friend. I never knew it 'til then....I've been looking around and you were here all the time!" How often have we, like those in Jesus' day, been looking all around for Jesus to show up this way or that way based on our assumptions or expectations, and He has already been with us all along?

Going further, how many of us have suffered from a personal mistaken identity, thinking that who we "are" is who the world thinks we are instead of who God destined and designed us to be? How many of us have denied or suppressed our spiritual identity because we are uncomfortable with having to separate from friends, family or situations that we know do not line up with who we truly are? Our mistaken identity can lead to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, unhealthy relationships, poor decisions and an overall life that feels empty.

This Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, why not let that mistaken self-identity die off--the one that says you have all the answers; the one that thinks just because you've been going to church for years you're automatically spiritually mature; the one that thinks you can have a healthy, mature relationship with Jesus Christ where He is your Lord without surrendering everything to Him; the one that allows hypocrits or others with shortcomings to be an excuse for you not loving God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength; the one that thinks your garden can grow without watering it with God's Word daily; the one who has been straddling the fence with one foot in the church and the other in the world for so long that it has become comfortable, leading to the delusion that the fence is a good and acceptable place (especially since so many others are there, too); the one that says you can't respond to a pastor's invitation for prayer or rededication because of what others might think....Have I gotten to your street yet or am I still only on mine?

Satan loves to try to capitalize on our mistaken identities. Sometimes, our enemy seems to know more about who we truly are than we do, which is why some of us are so heavily attacked. Once we fully accept who we are and whose we are, we won't fall so readily for the enemy's re-write of our life's story.

When we are no longer mistaken about who we are, we can then boldly tell the enemy that he is the only one mistaken--for thinking that we would never wake up and see the light! And, just like he had mistaken Jesus for someone he could keep down, he made a big mistake in failing to recognize that we are more than conquerers through Christ Jesus!

No weapon formed against us shall prosper--not even the weapon of mistaken identity! Know Jesus, "know thyself and to thine own (God-ordained) self be true!"

Have a blessed and transforming Holy Week and Resurrection Sunday!

BNcouraged!

Rev. Karen