A Man of No Reputation
This could be an interchange between any son and father. It happens to be an interchange in 1973 between a son graduating from college and his father. It may sound a little dated but the letter is priceless.
Dear David,
In less than a month you will graduate from the University, I first must admit I am proud of your accomplishment. I’ll let you get on your feet before I send you a bill.
Nevertheless the purpose of this letter is not about what is behind you but about what is before you. Earlier today on the phone you spoke of several upcoming interviews you face. I decided this evening to put on paper a few guiding words concerning these opportunities and interviews. As I have gathered my thoughts it occurs to me that they are similar to the lessons my father passed on to me. Some things I suppose never go out of style.
First you are now entering a world where every day is a test. You will begin to build your reputation next week when you sit across the desk from a potential employer. They do not give money away, it must be earned so they will size you and determine if you represent their product or not. A reputation cannot be built in a week or with one client, but it can be lost overnight, so you must be prudent and build wisely.
Dress well, this is not a fraternity party it is a real company with people who are sober. Make sure your shoes are shined. I can’t ever remember you wearing shined shoes. You may not know how to put a shine on them. Take your best dress shoes and find a clean rag, don’t use a clean shirt, and wipe them off. Even if you find making them shine a challenge at least knock the dust off. On second thought buy a new pair of dress shoes and send the bill to me.
Additionally look the man or woman in the eyes, your generation looks at your feet as if you can’t walk without looking at your next step. It is too much to ask you to cut your hair, but do wash it and comb it in a fashion that resembles the human race not a canine. As far as I know you are still good about saying, “Yes sir” but continue to be mindful of this.
Appear to be enthusiastic but not desperate. After you are hired you need to be prompt in arriving for work. No one builds a reputation arriving at 9:00. No career worth having will tolerate tardiness. I suggest arriving at least 30 minutes before you are required to be there. Furthermore park away from other cars so the boss can clearly see you have arrived even before him. One of the best ways to build your work reputation is to work late and to work through lunch. Do not be consumed with “visiting” with other employees, your boss pays for work not chatting. If a superior ask you to go to lunch or dinner gladly go but if it is a co-worker avoid such idle lunch gossip. Staying late will not go unnoticed.
A final word. I have witnessed careers end before they began and careers crumble overnight. Your reputation will go before you, without a good reputation you will go nowhere with one you can move from one opportunity to the next. Moving freely and in an upward direction is dependent upon a good reputation.
Your Loving Dad
To me this sounds like good advice. Practical wisdom. David would be foolish not to listen to his father’s direction. For this world, these are indeed words of wisdom. However, there is more to being wise than landing a good job.
The early church had a skeleton in their closet. The reported leader of the movement, the one whom the movement was named after was somewhat of a liability. At least according to those who were in power. The early church would preach the Jesus way. Opponents would come along and mention how Jesus died as a criminal on a cross and how he did not have the right pedigree and there was even some lingering questions about his real father. The early church, as Ricky Ricardo would say to Lucy, “had some ‘splaining to do.” How could they justify that the one they called savior died a criminal’s death? How could they explain away his love for tax collectors, fisherman, and women of the evening, societies junk yard? The early church found it hard to build their reputation following a leader who did not care about his own reputation. Eventually the apostle Paul grew tired of defending the cause of Christ so he took the offensive.
What happened to those wise people? What happened to those experts in the Scriptures? What happened to the ones who think they have all the answers? Didn't God show that the wisdom of this world is foolish? God was wise and decided not to let the people of this world use their wisdom to learn about him.
Instead, God chose to save only those who believe the foolish message we preach. Jews ask for miracles, and Greeks want something that sounds wise. But we preach that Christ was nailed to a cross. Most Jews have problems with this, and most Gentiles think it is foolish. Our message is God's power and wisdom for the Jews and the Greeks that he has chosen. Even when God is foolish, he is wiser than everyone else, and even when God is weak; he is stronger than everyone else.
--I Corinthians 1:20-25 (CEV)
Yes, we preach Christ died on a cross. Yes we know he hung around with Zacchaeus and Mary Magdalene. We know he loved the poor with relentless affection and fellowshipped with the weak and if that is what you call foolish, then call us fools. Paul later wrote, “Because of Christ we are thought of as fools.”
Jesus was so hard to figure out because the Romans and the Pharisees had never meet anyone who cared more about others than he did himself. They had never meet a person who did not want to build his reputation. They had never meet a man who did not have a price, who would not compromise. A person who was loyal to his friends, forgiving to his enemies, and loving to the weak was bizarre.
Paul summed it up this way, “Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.”
When a person comes along who doesn’t care about building his or her reputation. When someone comes along who is willing to serve. When a person comes along in the likeness of humanity, and says, “"The Lord's Spirit has come to me, because he has chosen me to tell the good news to the poor. The Lord has sent me to announce freedom for prisoners, to give sight to the blind, to free everyone who suffers, and to say, `This is the year the Lord has chosen.' " When someone like this comes what will happen to them? They will die. That’s what happens to people who love others more than self, to people who care for the weak and downdrodden. In this case they die like a criminal, to intimidate others who might try to follow this unusual savior.
Why was Jesus so unusual? One answer is he did not care about a reputation (what others thought) he only cared about his relationship with the Father (what God thought). Jesus did not need a reputation because he had such character. Jesus was so thoroughly transformed on the inside that the outside did not matter. Jesus continually warned his followers to be more concerned about the inside than the outside. “First clean the inside of a cup, and then the outside will also be clean. You Pharisees and teachers are in for trouble! You're nothing but show-offs. You're like tombs that have been whitewashed. On the outside they are beautiful, but inside they are full of bones and filth. That's what you are like. Outside you look good, but inside you are evil and only pretend to be good.”
In our world a reputation is valuable. We are told to seek a good reputation. There is nothing wrong with a good reputation, however there is something wrong with ONLY a good reputation. A good reputation is what we are on the outside, what people see. Truthfully we can be as phony as a picture on the cover of the National Inquirer. So often for us reputation and character are the same thing. Yet in reality they are worlds apart. Jesus was a man of no reputation and by the wise considered a fool, but his character was deeper than an ocean. People didn’t think much of Jesus, but Jesus didn’t care what they thought, he was willing to sacrifice his reputation to share God’s love with the weak and hurting like ourselves.
This man of no reputation life came to a climax one morning in front of a Roman king named Herod. Two kingdoms meet on a field of battle, one kingdom was about power, it was a mile wide and inch deep, it was made from the wisdom of this world. The other kingdom was beaten and bleeding, it was about love, it was considered foolishness by those who know of such things. Herod had the reputation. He had the power and he wasn’t afraid to use it, he had taken his brother’s wife, locked up those who disagreed with his policy, and beheaded a young prophet named John The Baptist as a party trick. Jesus, used his power to heal the sick, raise the dead, comfort the burdened, his relentless compassion had exhausted him, and while full of character he was a man of no reputation. No one came to his defense, no one rose to explain his mission, he had no one to bear witness to his compassion. Herod had the power and the reputation it seems the Jesus way, while noble is not very practical.
Later, with Pilate, the Roman governor, Jesus was asked if he was king of the Jews and Jesus had this to say, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is in another place.”
The kingdom of this world is built on the wisdom of this world while Jesus’ kingdom is built on the foolishness of the cross. Time, however, has proven that the kingdom of this world is perishing and Jesus’ kingdom is not as foolish as previously reported.
In China believers in this kingdom have been fined, tortured, and even killed. Despite this official oppression by the kingdom of this world spiritual revival has broken out in China. As many as 50 million believers gave their allegiance to this invisible kingdom even as the visible kingdom made them endure pain and suffering.
I imagine these followers, were like the rest, by the wise considered foolish. People who instead of following conventional wisdom followed the words of this man with no reputation.
Our scripture, however, is not without irony. Jesus knew his way was the way of wisdom, while others laughed at him and ridiculed him, Jesus knew the truth and on one occasion he pointed out the irony facing us all;
Anyone who hears and obeys these teachings of mine is like a wise person who built a house on solid rock. Rain poured down, rivers flooded, and winds beat against that house. But it did not fall, because it was built on solid rock. Anyone who hears my teachings and doesn't obey them is like a foolish person who built a house on sand. The rain poured down, the rivers flooded, and the winds blew and beat against that house. Finally, it fell with a crash.
--Matthew 7:24-27 (CEV)
Jesus point is, just because the house looks good doesn’t mean it is built well. To me this sounds like good advice. Godly wisdom. We would be foolish not to listen to the direction of this man of no reputation. “God was wise and decided not to let the people of this world use their wisdom to learn about him. Instead, God chose to save only those who believe the foolish message we preach.”