I do love a good rerun of “Murder, She Wrote”, and every now and then I stumble upon them in my limited time of TV watching. Such was the case last week. I took my opportunity and recorded a few episodes. My humble apologies to all the marketers out there, but though I know everyone must make a living, I do not like to watch the commercials. Last night I sat down to watch one of the recordings. All the actors and actresses play their parts well in this series and they have clean, wholesome language. Of course, as those of you who are as old as I am might know, actress Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher is the main character. She plays the ‘unofficial detective’ in the show and her character is a ‘Mystery’ author. In addition to the regular cast, they have guest stars on each show as well.
This episode was called ‘Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble’, and it first aired on February 19th, 1989. The premise of the story revolves around a suspected witch, Patience Terhune, who was burned at the stake 300 years before in this little town of Cabot Cove. The towns people were thinking they were seeing her ghost because it was coming up on the 300th anniversary of her death, however, it is two ‘wanna-be-famous’ people visiting the town with a grand scheme to take advantage of the naiveté and superstitions of the towns people. One an author, Gordon Fairchild, (actor Roddy McDowall) trying to promote his new book, and his publicist, Rick Rivers, (actor Bill Maher) who is not making headway in getting the press to come to town. As the story evolves, a barn is burned down, and several say they saw Patience going into the barn before it started burning. At the end of the story, Patience is killed, but it is not actually the 300-year-old Patience, but an actress hired by the author and his cohort. She gets killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, when an inheritance is discovered, and greed comes into play in the story. Notwithstanding, it was not her that they saw going into the barn. It was the publicist dressed in the old pilgrim outfit that she had worn to portray the ghost in the beginning of the episode, to make people think it was her. The publicist might have gotten away with it if not for the keen skills of Jessica Fletcher who spotted some clues in the barn, because it did not fully burn down. His identity was mistaken, because of how he was dressed, his mannerisms and actions. And, in case you are worried, just so you know, they sorted out the story and caught the real murderer in the end, as they always do.
Another story of mistaken identity, because of a well devised plan and disguise, is found in the scripture in Joshua 8 and 9. The stories of Joshua’s conquest of Jericho, Ai and Bethel were filtrating to the princes and people of the surrounding cities and striking fear in their hearts, believing they would be next. They had also heard from servant’s chatter, that the God of Moses had promised all the land unto His people. Putting two and two together, they gathered to come up with a cunning plan for their survival. Joshua 9:3-6 shows the plan of action, “And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai, They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up; And old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy. And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, we be come from a far country: now therefore make ye a league with us.” They pretended that they had taken a long journey, when in fact they were all from neighboring towns, which was found out three days later when Joshua and his men arrived there. However, they had already made a covenant of peace with them, therefore, could not destroy or kill them. Though their lives were spared, Joshua pronounced a curse upon them because of their deceitful behavior. Joshua 9:22-27, “And Joshua called for them, and he spoke unto them, saying, wherefore have ye beguiled us, saying, we are very far from you; when ye dwell among us? Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God. And they answered Joshua, and said, because it was certainly told thy servants, how that the Lord thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you, therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you and have done this thing. And now, behold, we are in thine hand: as it seems good and right unto thee to do unto us, do. And so did he unto them and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, that they slew them not. And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord, even unto this day, in the place which he should choose.” Their scheme did not end up as amiable as they would have liked.
On the other side of the coin, you hear of times when people are mistaken for someone else without any disguise. They say that everyone has a double, alter ego, look alike or as the Germans have coined, doppelganger. The Merriam-Webster gives an interesting tidbit, “Did you know? According to German folklore, all living creatures have a spirit double who is invisible but identical to the living individual. These second selves are perceived as being distinct from ghosts (which appear only after death), and sometimes they are described as the spiritual opposite or negative of their human counterparts. German writers coined the word Doppelgänger (from Doppel-, meaning “double,” and -gänger, meaning “goer”) to refer to such specters.” So, a doppelganger would be, someone who is alive that looks like you, versus your ghost when you pass away. Though I am not superstitious in this way, I have seen some who could pass for twins or at least close relatives, who, if you do not take a close look and rely on context clues, could be mistaken for someone else without any effort or knowledge of it on their part. You’ve heard people say, “Wow, they look strikingly similar to so and so”. I have seen a few people playing around with an Instagram app that shows their face, then shows the matching face of a celebrity next to theirs. Some are surprisingly similar when you compare them up close.
Some identities are mistaken maybe not because of looks, or actions but because of association. There was once upon a time, in my lifetime, a mathematics professor, Theodore (Ted) John Kaczynski. He had a strikingly high IQ, was a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Michigan, who became the youngest professor at the University of California, Berkley. He also became highly notorious, but for none of those reasons. Originally from Chicago, Illinois, he had moved to a remote cabin in Montana attempting to live ‘off the grid’, as a recluse, rejecting all modern industrialization. However, it caught up to him, when the area he was living in began to be logged and ‘destroyed’. He became enraged and started his campaign to fight against it. His ‘campaign’ spanned over seventeen years and cost the FBI blood, sweat and tears and the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in search of this maniac who in court claimed to be sane. He was eventually found because of the Attorney General insisting the Washington Post publish the story he was sending them, called ‘Industrial Society and Its Future”. His brother recognized things that were said in the article and alerted the authorities, who apprehended him. This after much destruction, three deaths and twenty-three persons injured by his bombs. He was only known by the world as ‘UNABOMBER” until 1996. Though he was only seen once, the sketch of him is implanted in our memories. Everyone we see that has on a grey hoodie or any other color for that matter, with sunglasses on, immediately thinks of him. One would not say, “Oh, there goes Ted Kaczynski”, but “Oh, there goes the Unabomber”. Ted is now 79 years old incarcerated in the Federal Medical Center, in Butner, North Carolina. His cause is not remembered as he would have wished, but his bombings, and insane criminal activities are. Not his face, but the image of the forensic sketch is remembered and associated with the words, ‘up to no good’ or ‘they must be a criminal’ and may have wrongfully cost others their lives. All because of the mistaken identity due to the association with an activity, time, or place.
There are others who are recognized, not mistaken at all, but do not want to be known. Peter was an example of this. Jesus had gone into the garden with his disciples, when Judas came along with his payees, to do his dirty deed. Peter gets crazy and cuts off the ear of Malchus, the high priest’s servant, to which Jesus rebukes Peter and tells him to put away his sword. Jesus urges the group to let the disciples go, because he is the one, they have come for. Then as Jesus is before the ‘firing squad’ so to speak, John 18:16-27 tells the part of the story going on behind the scenes, “But Peter stood at the door without. Then went out that other disciple, which was known unto the high priest, and spoke unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter. Then saith the damsel that kept the door unto Peter, Art not thou also one of this man’s disciples? He saith, I am not. And the servants and officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals; for it was cold: and they warmed themselves: and Peter stood with them and warmed himself.” The grueling interrogation of Jesus continues. “And Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. They said therefore unto him, Art not thou also one of his disciples? He denied it, and said, I am not. One of the servants of the high priest, being his kinsman, whose ear Peter cut off, saith, Did not I see thee in the garden with him? Peter then denied again: and immediately the cock crew.” Peter is literally caught with his hand in the cookie jar, looking up saying, ‘It wasn’t me’. Why do people do that? Keep in mind a very serious side note, this is lying. Peter’s motivation was fear of death. Jesus had already predicted he would deny him three times before the cock crew. Peter was so sure that he would, ‘never ever’, but had to later repent and admit he was wrong. Others try to hide in the grocery isle behind the Cheerios because of embarrassment over something they have said or done. Some try to avoid contact because of lack of self confidence or what they would call shyness, however, those are all categories of fear. Halloween is a popular holiday, notwithstanding the original and underlying meaning of the day, but because of the costumes. As are costume parties or masquerade balls. People feel some sort of pleasure or safety by escaping into an imaginary figure or world, if only for a fleeting moment. Jesus already knows our hearts, thoughts, and actions before we do them, therefore, the best plan of attack once we know we have been identified is to face it. We cannot hide from Him.
In Acts 21:32-40, Luke records an account of Paul being mistaken for someone else. There had been a prophecy given by Agabus that Paul would be captured by the Jews and given to the Gentiles to do as they pleased. “Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul. Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done. And some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude: and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle. And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people. For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him. And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek? Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days made an uproar, and led out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers? But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people. And when he had given him license, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spoke unto them in the Hebrew tongue, this silenced them the more.” He proceeded to proclaim to them his entire testimony.
Let’s look at verse 38 again where the Chief Captain said, “Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days made an uproar, and led out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?” Paul then had to identify himself and try to justify and plead his innocence. The ‘Egyptian’ they mentioned was almost equivalent to someone referring to something they had heard about from a report in a newspaper or a TV news cast. It was reported by Flavius Josephus, a Greek, whom we now refer to as a First-Century Jewish Historian, but during the time, he was a defector to the Roman forces who was a slave and interpreter for Vespasian, later set free. He was a reporter of Jewish history putting his own spin on the stories, as all reporters do, though he was later accredited as being a very important literary source. This is the piece written about the Egyptian whom the ruler Chiliarch mistook Paul to be. “There was an Egyptian false prophet that did the Jews more mischief than the former; for he was a cheat, and pretended to be a prophet also, and got together thirty thousand men that were deluded by him; these he led roundabout from the wilderness to the mount which was called the Mount of Olives. He was ready to break into Jerusalem by force from that place; and if he could but once conquer the Roman garrison and the people, he intended to rule them by the assistance of those guards of his that were to break into the city with him. — Flavius Josephus, Jewish War, 2.261-262[1]” There is nothing you can do about peoples’ perception of you. The best thing you can do is just be the best version of yourself that you can be, so they can be convinced you are who you say you are. You must not only talk the talk but walk the walk. Two-facedness is a confusing, disconcerting, and unflattering characteristic to have, and makes your claims null and void. Paul knew he was going to die and was ready, however, he wanted to die for the cause of Christ, not as a criminal because of a mistaken identity. He needed to set the record straight.
Jesus wanted to be known but felt the need to lay low and be incognito until the proper time that he should be revealed. In Matthew 16:13-20 we read, “When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.” It seems that though he knew the plan, it saddened him just a little to know people mistook his identity in so many ways. You can almost feel his confidence being bolstered and his shoulders becoming a little more raised, by His words when he heard the revelation given to Peter by His father, as to who He really was. He wanted to be known and still wants to be known by us. Being known is powerful and liberating.
Knowing who Jesus was and is, is critical to our believing on the work He did for us on Calvary for our salvation. Satan who is the master of deceit, who disguised himself in the Garden of Eden and beguiled Eve, knew his bluff had been called when Jesus hung on the cross and gave His life for us. His identity was revealed when Jesus said, “It is finished.” The date on Satan’s ID card said, “Expired”. When you meet someone, can they tell you identify as a Christian, or are you hiding behind your fears? Psalms 139:1 says, “O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.” You do not have to be afraid any longer. To be truly known is a wonderful feeling of freedom and relief. The entire Chapter of Psalms 139 shows us how deeply and fully we are known of the Lord, and that He still loves us dearly. That is mind blowing. If He knows my identity, and still sticks around, I for one, do not want to be anyone else. I think it’s time to take off our masks and update our ID cards!
Awesome sermonette! I want the Lord to know my identity!