Mexico can be a tough place to live and work. Peaceful citizens and businesses are often victims of gangs, drug cartels, and kidnapping. Recently, another group has fallen victim to the violence: the clowns. That’s right! I mean honest, hardworking, red-nosed, flower-squirting clowns.
A couple of weeks ago, the news in Mexico City reported that a gunman in a clown costume killed the oldest brother of one of Mexico’s most notorious drug trafficking families. And clowns in Mexico are horn-honking mad! In a show of solidarity, over 500 clowns gathered for a convention in Mexico City saying that they were “saddened that a killer disguised himself as a clown” and they insisted “no true member of their profession would have committed the crime.”
One leader of the clowns said, “The people who do that, they’re not clowns. I can swear on my mother’s grave it wasn’t a clown.” He continued, “we are not like that … we are nonviolent.”
Now I ask you, “Would you react the same way about a Christian accused of wrong doing?” Would you know, immediately, that a member of your congregation would never do the crime of which they were being accused? What about Christians in your city? State? Country? I don’t know whether this clown’s faith in his fellow baggy-clothed, frizzy-haired, big-shoe friends is accurate or not. But I can say that his confidence impressed me !
The Christian ought to live in such a way that if a crime were committed, the church would be the last place anyone would look. But our call is even greater than just having a good name. Scripture tells us that the salvation of those who are watching is on the line…
Peter writes, “Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.” Because of our behavior, people might become Christians and be saved in the day Christ returns!
Perhaps we could learn a thing or two from a clown’s confidence. Honk Honk!
