Placing Second in Your Own Look-Alike Contest

Christopher Witmer said, “You don’t resemble my caricature of you because you’re lying.” That may help explain the following, or vice versa: I once heard that Groucho Marx won second prize in a Groucho Marx Look-Alike Contest; and I have no trouble believing it. Without having investigated the truth or the background of this story, I would like to make some conjectures about it because I think it provides a useful illustration. 1) I have also heard and even observed in pictures that Groucho sometimes wore a painted-on mustache, which could offer one plausible explanation for why he placed second. The first prize winner may have had a real mustache. 2) Groucho was also an actor and television celebrity. Perhaps his behavior was somewhat different in person and off camera. But logic still demands that there is no way that a person should place second in his own look-alike or act-alike contest. The first prize winner should have had a painted-on mustache, acted witty on camera but somewhat different off camera, and even had an identical … well, everything that Groucho had.

Are we frustrated that Christ does not always live up to our caricature of Him? It seems that, if many churches today were on the panel of judges, Christ & His Bride themselves would not win First Prize if they were to enter their own look-alike contest. Under cultural influence, we have created our own list of criteria, instead of using the age-old List given to us by the Spirit of Christ Himself – the Holy Scriptures. Many Christians and churches today actually have the audacity to think that we may decide where, when, how, and even why we will worship; but by so doing, we are – without realizing it – even deciding what we will worship. Someone said, “God made man in His image, then man returned the favor.” But, in case you didn’t catch it, that’s a violation of the second commandment.