Behind the Mask
Stephen Terry
Commentary for the March 7, 2015
Sabbath School Lesson
“You know we never used flattery, nor
did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness.” 1 Thessalonians
2:5, NIV
Perhaps it
is more than fitting that this lesson comes during the dolorous, penitential
season of Lent. During Mardi Gras masks were worn and inhibitions to some
degree were cast aside, while identities were hidden symbolically or in
reality. Immediately following, the mummers, chastened somewhat by the side
effects of their excesses, remove their masks and don the ashes of penance. This
dramatic about face offers by example the biblical injunction for repentance
with these penitents marching through the Lenten weeks toward Good Friday and
the Easter weekend.
There is
something primal about the wearing of masks. Many of the most primitive
civilizations have fashioned masks and associated them with spiritual
ceremonies. For Christians the idea of hiding behind a mask may carry negative
connotations. It can indicate the desire to deceive or to have a hidden agenda.
When we consider the biblical history associated with deceit, this may be
understandable.
Near the
very beginning, the Bible narrative relates the story of the serpent which deceived
Eve.[i]
While this early account does not identify the serpent beyond being a serpent,
by the end of the Bible, the identity of the serpent is posited as Satan, who
is referred to as that “ancient serpent,”[ii]
perhaps harking back to this initial encounter. If Satan used a disguise, the
appearance of a serpent, to deceive Eve, then this may help explain the
association of masks with deceit. This may also explain why so many are fearful
of snakes without really being able to give a reason why. However, it is not
the mask, but the one behind it who may be practicing deceit, thus this revulsion
toward snakes may be better served by being directed toward the one behind the
deception. By concentrating on the illusion created by the mask too closely, we
may find that there was nothing behind the mask at all and the evil deception
has entered in another way.
Magic is
nothing more than the art of deception. Crowds are fascinated by what they
cannot explain, but the only reason they cannot explain it is because they are
not allowed to see behind the scenes where the deception is created. However,
even within the deceit there is a deceit. For if the magician simply said, “Don’t
look here! Instead look over here!” we would not be deceived and would instead
look where he told us not to look and discover the trick. Instead the performer
through his or her patter and exaggerated movements draws our eyes away from
what he or she does not wish us to see. Then when the deception is fully
blossomed, the crowds are amazed by the “miracle.” The magician, who has been
willingly paid for deceiving us, then pockets his fee, packs up the magical
apparatuses, and travels in search of another location with more crowds with
money in their pockets, who are willing to pay to be deceived.
Sadly, many
in this world have chosen to be on either one side of the mask or the other,
either deceiving or being deceived. Those who are doing the deceiving may be
doing so for many reasons. They may deceive to exercise power and control over
another. In this case knowledge is power and when they have knowledge of the
facts and their victim does not, the balance of power shifts markedly in their
favor. This may have much to do with why violent crime so often happens in the
shadows of the night. Concealment gives the predator a decided advantage over
their prey. Night gives the impoverished thief, robber, or murderer the concealment
that the more refined criminal does not need, because they can afford the more
expensive means of remaining hidden – masks made up of bribes, accomplices, and
other means of misdirection and confusion. Without such masks, these criminals
would be placed on a level playing field with the rest of society and much evil
would cease to be possible.
Some may also
wear masks because they do not like themselves and wish to conceal their true
persona to remain hidden from view. These may have been ridiculed or victimized
in the past and now seek the shadows to avoid further pain. These may be like
the child who has a festering splinter in their finger, but through fear of
further pain, refuses to let a healer deal with it and end the pain the
splinter is causing. Their mask, intended to prevent pain, may have become the
primary barrier to dealing with that pain and ending it. Sometimes the pain we
fear may be the instrument of healing and restoration, and it is waiting just
on the other side of our mask.
Some may
also wear masks because they have long since ceased to care about the world
around them. They will don a mask of caring without ever really doing anything
that actually demonstrates caring. There are those who are well-to-do that will
say they care about the poor, yet characterize them as lazy, drug-addicted
moochers. They might even say that they would hire the poor if only they were
willing to work instead of lying around all day. Yet their job offerings are
only open to those previously experienced. They are unwilling to take on the
expense of training the disadvantaged for those jobs. They must get the skills
elsewhere. For these mask-wearers, the mask is a barrier to keep out all that
is disagreeable. Without the mask, their lack of compassion would be offensive
to the world, and that world might compel them to change, so the mask remains.
These and
many others who wear masks would not be able to do so if it were not for those
who support the idea of concealment, the people on the other side of the mask. Like
the crowds with the magician, they are willing to contribute to the deception
by providing the means for “the show to go on.” Why do they do this? Perhaps it
is because they are also invested in altering reality for similar agendas. They
may covet the apparent power of the one behind the mask and fantasize that they
are that person or can eventually be that person. By maintaining the illusion
of the mask and being willingly deceived, they may keep that vision alive and
their hope to attain it as well. These are like those who would be upset if the
magician’s artifices were disclosed, for in spoiling the illusion, their
aspirations are dashed as well. Perhaps this is what keeps the levers of the
one-armed bandits in the casinos moving, and also maintains the sale of
billions of cardboard lottery tickets. Not only the probability but even the
possibility of winning is so remote that the chances of being killed by a shark[iii]
may be over 40 times more likely.[iv]
Yet, like the crowd for the magician, the dollars keep flowing to keep the
illusions coming.
Strangely,
these individuals would perhaps never see the similarities between their
self-deception and that of those who have given up entirely on reality. Such
persons may prefer to have as little basis in reality as possible, choosing
instead to live in the past that never was, the present that does not exist, or
the future that never will be. Their only involvement in mundane affairs is to
whatever extent is necessary to fund their continuing disengagement with
reality. Much of their life may be spent in fantasy, either through an acting
out of their fantasy physically, immersing in that reality virtually with the
assistance of computer rendered artificial constructs, or through mind altering
substances. Each, in their own way, creates an alternate reality where they
feel empowered in a way they do not in their current existence. These, perhaps
more than any other, crave the illusion. When the illusion replaces reality so
completely, it can be hard to break free. Even wanting to do so will seem
ridiculous because the constructs of the fantasy have become reality. The mask
becomes truth.
Perhaps this
is why Jesus calls us to the truth. He is trying to set us free from the desire
for illusion spawned so long ago in that Edenic idyll at the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil. Back then paradise was not found in the illusion,
but outside of it. It is still the same today. Our desire to be deceived will
only lead us out of paradise and not toward it. Like children eating moist
patties of dirt and calling them pies, we will be deceiving ourselves into
substituting the illusion for the real. Why should we settle for mud covered
with the glamour of illusion when the delectable pie of reality is so easily
grasped?
“Then you
will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”[v]
