Lent@Landmark: Day 37

I love watching CBS’ show Undercover Boss. In each episode a high ranking executive of a company goes "undercover," wearing a disguise to conceal their true identity.  They then give up their desk at the corporate office for a few days and work some shifts alongside the front line employees of the company in their actual restaurants, retail locations, convenience stores, etc.

Each episode is a transformative experience as they gain a better understanding of what life is like for the people who really make the company's work happen. Then they return to their regular role, hopefully with their leadership enriched by the experience.

The thing that hovers over the whole show, however, is the impending “reveal.” You know that this Harvard MBA graduate washing lettuce in the back of a restaurant will eventually return to their normal life. It’s a tough transition, but it’s just a few days.

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. (John 13:3-5)

It’s hard to miss the stark contrast between what an “Undercover Boss” does and what God did for us in Jesus Christ. There was no question about who Jesus was and the authority He had, but the incarnation was not for one episode. It wasn’t an out of the ordinary few days. God spent an entire lifetime with us. In the moments when it was most difficult, he didn’t take off a disguise and roll the credits. He didn’t demand better treatment. He didn’t ask, “Don’t you know who I am?” He stayed at it, even when the front line people he came to live and work beside turned on him and killed him.

What are the limits to your humility? Where do you draw the line? Where do you stop and declare, “No, this is beneath me”?

Fortunately for us, God’s love for us knows no such limit. -MH

PS. One of the biggest gifts of Undercover Boss was the very funny Saturday Night Live sketch in which Adam Driver reprised his role as Star Wars’ “Kylo Ren,” and went undercover as the boss of the “Starkiller Base.” Click here to have a look.