***
I heard a joke recently – based on a true story! – about a zoo that was planning for its grand opening. Pre-sale tickets were skyrocketing as the zoo was promoting its most famous resident, a gorilla who could paint.
Three days before the zoo opened, the gorilla croaked.
Scrambling for ideas, the general manager decided to hire a teenager to put on a gorilla suit and sit in the gorilla’s pen.
Hours after the grand opening, the boy started becoming hot and bored inside his gorilla suit, so he stood up and started walking around his pen.
Instantly, the crowds were delighted to see this supposedly famous gorilla on the move. Maybe he would paint!
Inspired by their reaction, they boy decided to put on a show for them. Running across his pen, he lunged for a low-lying branch, missed completely, and landed in the lion’s den next door.
Frozen with fear, he remained crouched in the corner as the lion slowly walked over to him, sniffed his fur, and started breathing down his neck.
With a burst of adrenaline, the boy started banging his chest, crying out, “Help! Help! I’m not a gorilla! I’m a man! … I’m not a gorilla! I’m a man!”
Then the lion whispered in his ear, “Stop screaming or we’ll both lose our jobs!”
***
Until that moment, the lion and the gorilla had everyone fooled, because there was more to their appearance than met the eye.
***
In a similar way, there’s more to Jesus than meets the eye.
He’s no ordinary human being; he’s God in the flesh.
But for the last 30 years, he’s lived quietly as a humble carpenter in the tight-knit town of Nazareth.
Only now is Jesus beginning to reveal his full identity.
***
Last week, for example, we heard about the start of his public ministry. Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding in Cana, causing people to see that he has some extraordinary power – they just don’t know why.
Today he tells us.
Quoting the prophet Isaiah, Jesus says:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and to the let the oppressed go free.”
For the final three years of his life, some one thousand days, Jesus will perform miracle after miracle – healing the sick, casting out demons, and forgiving those in need of mercy.
Jesus will help people to overcome their burdens and move forward with their lives.
***
Like Jesus, we’re all called to lift the burdens of others.
Just this week, for example, I was teaching up the hill at our parish school. And I asked students in first grade, “How has another student helped you?”
“He picked up my pencil,” one student said. “She helps me spell long words,” another said. “She makes me feel better when I’m sad,” another replied.
Even in first grade, our children have their share of burdens – a dropped pencil, trouble with spelling, a bad morning at home – but they know they can look to a friend for a helping hand.
They, too, can find someone to lift their burden, just as Jesus did.
***
What burden do I need lifted?
***
And how might we help lift the burdens of those around us?
***
Just as Jesus was “anointed” with the Holy Spirit, so we’ve been anointed with that same Spirit in baptism.
It’s our mission as Christians, then, to follow in the footsteps of Christ and bring hope to the poor, healing to the sick, and love to all we meet.
We are more than we appear.
We are the hands and feet of Christ, which means we’re called to lift the burdens of those around us — even if that means picking up a pencil or spelling a long word.
Let’s be Jesus for one another.