Am I Queer?

Sometimes Christians appear to be a strange breed. They live by a set of standards unorthodox in the eyes of the world. Who ever heard of “turning the other cheek”, or of “going the second mile”? Isn’t it stupid to be “meek and mild”? And yet, that’s what Jesus was, and we are to be like him.

The world looks askance upon the idea that we ought to “love our enemies”! It’s hard for many of them to even love their neighbors!

There’s a fascinating little story many of us read to our children, about the Ugly Duckling. You could almost cry at the plight of the little duckling that came out of the egg last, and looked so different from the others. Even the mother rejected this little oddling with his funny “honking.” He was cackled at, and pecked at, and shunned, and driven out of town, and he wandered lonely and sad.

In the movie version of Hans Christian Anderson, who does not remember the little hate song,:

“Quack, quack, get out of town.
Quack, quack, get out,
Quack, quack, get out of here!
And he went with a quack, and a waddle and a quack,
And a very unhappy tear!”

But since all children’s fairy tales have to have a happy ending, what a surprise to all when it was found that he was not a duckling at all, but a swan...and a very fine swan indeed!

We would not want to make a travesty of anything as sacred as the life of our Lord, but listen to the words of the Biblical writer: “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” He was so different, such a queer specimen as set against the backdrop of his times, not at all like the others.

Again the writer continues: “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:3)

What a reception the Son of God received. As a child, he was driven out of Palestine by a decree of King Herod. His own country-men said, “He is mad, he has a demon.” And they taunted him, so that finally he had to leave. He was castigated by the Scribes and Pharisees for disobeying the trivial laws of ceremonial cleansing. He was accused of being a “wine-bibber and a friend of sinners.” They accused him of being a blasphemer, and a worker of Beelzebub. Finally, they dragged him before a fixed jury and accused him of being a traitor. They spit upon him, they whipped him, they plaited a crown of thorns for his head, and jeered him as they made him drag a heavy cross up the hill to where finally, they crucified him.

But here was no “ugly duckling.” Resurrection morning proved that. And the disciples were privileged to behold Him, in all His glory. Christ does not come into our world in popular form. Nor is the Christian way of life considered very practical in today’s world. It is an “ugly duckling” philosophy. But “I swan,” it’s the one I plan to follow. How about you?