“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

–Hebrews 13:8

During two summers of my college years, I worked as a bank teller. It was an enjoyable experience that taught me a great deal about how to relate well to a diversity of people. I liked my co-workers and working inside, thus escaping the summer heat of Georgia, too. I didn’t even mind that my cash drawer each morning contained more money than I would make all summer. It was a terrific job.

One day, I was working at a drive-through window when a customer pulled up and threw a check in the drawer for me to cash. I didn’t know him and followed the bank procedure by asking for identification. He snarled, telling me that he was a vice-president of that bank and sarcastically asked if I was still going to require an id. I said “yes”–I was only a temporary employee after all with nothing to lose! The man tossed his driver’s license in the open drawer, and moments later took the cash before speeding away.  

In sharing that incident with co-workers over lunch, I learned that the man made most full-time employees shudder.  He had a reputation for demeaning comments to staff and in general, making life miserable for anyone who crossed him. They were amazed to hear that I had required an id from him, but I never received a word of correction from my supervisor. The next time that bank officer came to cash a check, though, he picked another lane!

I had gone to high school with his daughter and saw her at a party a few days after that incident. I mentioned how I had met her dad and gently added “He has a reputation at the bank for being kinda tough.”  “I hear that all the time,” she replied, “and can’t imagine it, ’cause at home he’s just a big teddy bear.”

Given this series on becoming more like Jesus, there’s several directions I could have taken her comment. We might have pondered the way her father enjoyed evoking fear while recalling that Jesus always sought to change human behavior through love. We could have considered how poorly that bank official treated others, while Jesus always showed respect for individuals whoever they were. Perhaps one of those takeaways is what strikes you most about his daughter’s words. Either theme would make for fruitful self-reflection.   

Yet that conversation from years ago made me think about something else I have seen and modeled over the years, too. Namely, that we humans can have a public persona that varies from our private one. There’s no set pattern. Some people have a kinder demeanor away from the public eye as was true of that bank vice-president. Sadly, there are also persons like someone else who was once described to me as “A home devil and street angel;” a man who was gentle and generous in public, but made life miserable for his family. Not only did Jesus reveal a better way, but he modeled consistency between the diverse settings of his life.    

In the Letter to the Hebrews, the author says at one point “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Given what comes next–“Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teaching”–it’s likely the writer was speaking of an unchanging message of grace no matter the era.  Yet in all that I read about Jesus in the gospels, I also find a consistency in his behavior no matter the setting or audience.

There is no record, for instance, of Jesus venting in private with the disciples after a particularly hard day of ministry. There is no Biblical moment when some public utterance was undone by his words to close friends. Instead, whether speaking from a hillside or at dinner with his followers, in a one-on-one conversation with the woman by the well or standing before Pilate with his life on the line, Jesus was the same. Always clear about why he has been sent.  Always aware of the importance of his words. Always the same, whether alone or standing before the masses.     

Friends, there is nothing wrong with differences in demeanor between our public and private lives. Work may require us to be more extroverted or detail-oriented than we prefer and thus find it a relief at home to be quieter or less structured. Our public face may cause us to refrain from sharing our opinion freely, while conversations with loved ones give us the needed freedom to say what is in our hearts. Yet even though there can remain differences in how we act in the diversity of settings where we spend our days, there needs to be a common thread that holds them together; a consistency in values and behavior that are displayed in the world and at home. 

Jesus modeled that dynamic perfectly.  I still have some work to do. How about you?

Consistent Lord, we thank you for the glimpse of an existence where home life and street life are the same. Help us bring the two closer together, so that our words and deeds reflect your purpose, no matter where we are. Amen.