Did you know that in 2015, it was estimated that 15% of internet traffic was all about cats? Cat videos. Cat pictures. Just cat stuff. This is one of the most charming things about humans. Humans can be wildly dysfunctional, but we are also easily charmed by the sweetness of all sorts of things. So, the internet is chock full of whole genres of cuteness beyond just cats. Some of the most viral adorable content on the internet, imho, are pictures or videos of dads playing with their little girls, getting their nails done or going out on the town in matching princess dresses. It is just adorable.

I think what makes these daddy/daughter stories and images go so viral is because the norms of masculinity are broken in these interactions for the sake of love and connection between these dads and their daughters. These dads have to let all the shallow, stereotypical expressions of masculinity go so that they can show up as incredible dads.

This is made even more precious, because if we consider power and social dynamics between men and women and children and adults, dads and daughters have the most distance between them. That’s not to say dads and daughters can’t have great relationships, right? But there’s a chasm of sorts and so we find it adorable, charming, and heartwarming when that divide is crossed by the father, coming completely into his daughter’s world with her calling the shots. So, he gets the tiara and the make-up and the fingernail polish. We find it adorable and precious when dads are obedient to their daughters’ minds, expressions, and joys. We find it adorable when dads love their girls so much that they want to enter into their worlds, however much that might disrupt how they actually view themselves.  

Of course, not all girls are super into princess stuff. Lots of dads and moms enter into their children’s worlds and it may look very different. However, dads with the tiaras make for prime internet content, right? Not only is it cute, the spectacle makes it easier to see what the parent is doing to meet their child in love when it’s an image of a dude with a tiara and a tutu on.

This movement of a parent fully entering into their child’s world is not dissimilar to what Jesus Christ did and does for humanity. When we say Jesus comes to us where we are, I think this is what we mean. It’s kind of like Jesus comes to us, lets us put the make-up on, put on the tutu, and then sits with us for a very nice tea party with all the stuffies around.

In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Paul is saying that even though Jesus is God expressed in human form, he didn’t need to take the role of God particularly how the gentiles of the Roman Empire would understand God given their experience. He didn’t need to exert power in a dominating way. Instead, he took the form of a human and humbled himself to be with us, in obedience to us and that experience to the point of death, just like our favorite internet dads are obedient to their daughters to the point of blue eye shadow and tiaras.  

In the letter, Paul says Jesus took the form of slave to the people. This may not be true in the ways that we typically understand slavery. There were no chains, right? And Jesus was the one telling his disciples what to do, where to go, and all the rest. However, he attended to the people’s needs, hurts, fears, and hopes. The gods of the Roman pantheon did not worry about the people’s needs and wants. They were worried about their own needs and wants and people had to suffer whatever was necessary in the aftermath of their and Caesar’s actions, right? This was likely what their expectation of Jesus to be, but he is in fact very different. Paul explains that Jesus chose to become a slave to humans, meaning he made us the central concern. He acted to heal, redeem, save us. He put the people’s needs in the center of his life and ministry, not the other way around.

Paul continues to basically say that God the Father was so impressed by Jesus and how he spectacularly loved God’s people that Jesus’ name will be lifted above every name. This kind of love of entering into someone’s world and laying your own identity aside for that connection is what makes Jesus king, the one to whom every knee shall bend. This is a very different conception of power than we typically experience.

This is the kind of love and power we are called to, the kind of love we see on display when those dads set aside whatever macho, manly thing they may have going on so that they can truly connect with their child.

Of course, fatherhood can look quite different in the world and media. Recently, I watched a great show on BritBox, which y’all know is rare. I love my mindless mysteries which take very little brain power to be satisfying. However, I took the risk of watching one of their more serious shows and in the last episode, I sat there riveted on my couch with tears streaming down my face. It’s called Gone and I won’t ruin the story, in case you watch it (highly recommend!), but it features a man who is completely committed to his role as a headmaster at an elite boys school in modern day England. To be successful in that role, he came to believe he needed to fully embody the image of what a man should be and the kind of man the school created. Serious, thoughtful, educated, disciplined, and the total opposite of mushy.  

He was committed to providing an image for the young men at the school to respect and aspire to. The idea was the boys and the people around him to change to meet him. This is the opposite of the dads with the tutus and it’s the opposite of Jesus.

In the gospel, Jesus is in a tussle with the elite rules in Jerusalem, who are in cahoots with the Roman empire. Let’s just say these folks are not entering into deep relationship with common folks like John the Baptist or Jesus did. In this gospel, Jesus is calling them out for not following God’s commandments to care for the vulnerable and marginalized folks. They are not following God’s commandments to love, while making a show of being religious leaders.

These folks remind me of the stoic, frozen man in that show who wanted to personify the perfect image of English sophistication and erudition. Now, it’s all well and good if people want to be hypocritical, I suppose, if it weren’t for the fact that people get hurt when we cling to power, status, image, and wealth over love and connection. In the TV show, our “hero’s” obedience to his rigid image was deadly to his soul while others were hurt in his wake, as well. People are harmed when we cannot tell the truth, let down our guard, or stop clinging obediently to everything and anything that isn’t love. This is true at home, at work, and in the world, is it not?

Jesus, in his short ministry, shows us the way. Jesus puts our needs in the center. He is obedient to us, like the dads with tutus are obedient to their daughters. However, these proud elites in the gospel are not obedient to the needs of the people and therefore are not obedient to God. What they are obedient to is  the power structure that is crushing their own people.

So, the question is, where do we cling to power or authority over connecting in honest relationship? Where do we posture and pretend to be something that requires others to change to reach us instead of us softening ourselves to reach others? Do we do this as individuals? As a congregation? As a community or country? Are we obedient to social norms or even beauty standards that are harmful to ourselves, perhaps? What are we enslaved to? There may be many things, if we pause to think about it.

The dads of the internet with their tutus show us how it’s done. All people who know how to set their own agendas aside to really meet another person show us how it’s done. Jesus shows us how it’s done in such a dramatic way that God calls it a mic drop moment, according to Paul, and declares Jesus the winner, the one to whom we should all bow down because he knew how to love so well.

I don’t think we have to find a way to do love like this so that it blows up Instagram. It doesn’t need to be flashy. It can be tiny, like actually listening to the people in your life with all your attention, even when it’s boring stuff like eyeshadow, if that is indeed boring to you. When we’re loving well, we care enough to soften ourselves and enter into our loved one’s world. We can do this at home and in the world. Maybe that’s why it feels so good when we do things like 2^nd Harvest, greeting each of the 190 families who came with soft hearts, loving intention, and food.  That’s how its done, y’all. So, well done. May God continue to send us opportunities to love again and again.

AMEN