Dockers, an old coat, and a Harley-Davidson cap

I have found out that I am treated better when dressed up than when wearing ordinary clothes.  Recently, I went into McDonald’s to order a cup of coffee. Since several carloads of teenagers had entered the store ahead of me, I found myself at the back of a long line. I was dressed in a suit.  

After standing in line for only about 5 minutes, which I had anticipated would be a long wait, the manager noticed me and walked over to ask what I wanted.  She quickly served up my take-out coffee, and I was gone. I venture to say that had I been dressed in regular street clothes, I would have waited my turn in line.

On another occasion, I learned that dressing down has the opposite effect. It happened while vacationing in the north Georgia mountains at a Holiday Inn. I was eating breakfast. Dressed in Dockers, an old coat, with a Harley-Davidson cap on my head, I was reading the morning paper and sipping coffee.

The waitress walked over and asked if I was the maintenance man. Apparently, she needed something repaired. I replied that I wasn’t the maintenance man but was just a guest staying at her inn. She came unglued at her faux pas and apologized profusely.

Man’s outer appearance can be deceiving. Jesus criticized the Scribes and Pharisees for their pretension of righteousness: “Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees. For you are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all, uncleanness. Even so ye also appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”

Pharisees were not restricted to Jesus’ day. They exist today and are equally deceptive as the Pharisees of old. Shakespeare said a man may walk with bowed head and reverent steps and folded hands in the posture of humility, and at the same time be looking down in cold contempt on those he regards as sinners.

Jesus tells the parable of two men who went into the temple to pray: a Pharisee and a publican. The Pharisee stood up and prayed, “God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are…or even as this publican. I fast twice a week. I give titles of all that I possess.”

The publican, standing afar off, would not lift up his eyes unto heaven but smote his chest, saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” Jesus said, “I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased, and him that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”

This story illustrates that Jesus did not judge men by their outer behavior, but by the inner disposition of their minds. Insincere men may fool others but not God, for I Samuel 16: 7 states: “The Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”