I'm A Substitute Teacher And Jesus Doppelganger

I got called in for an afternoon substitute teaching job today at a local middle school (8th grade). Half-day jobs are rare enough, but one on the second-to-last day of school is really unheard of. So I knew the day would be different, if not downright strange. It did not disappoint.

I don't see it, personally.

As the students piled in, one girl whispered to her friend, "He looks like Jesus." I quickly replied with, "Yes, I do. And I act like him, too." She was a bit chagrined that I had heard her, but got a good kick out of it. You can imagine how quickly the "Hey, our sub looks like Jesus!" joke infected the classroom. It provided fodder for the rest of the hour. 

But it didn't just stay "Hey, he looks like Jesus." It pretty quickly turned into them just calling me Jesus, instead of the standard "Mr. Young" I usually use. Not only did they call me Jesus, but they started saying things like "Do you love us all, Jesus?" and "Jesus is the coolest teacher ever." And since it's almost the end of school, they had quite a bit of free time. While they were drawing on the white board they wrote things like "Jesus is awesome," and "Jesus was here." 

Actual photo of the white board.

Halfway through the afternoon, they switched classes. We were at the end of a hall, in a four-room block. During the passing period, the "Hey, he looks like Jesus. Call him Jesus" bit filtered through the entire 8th-grade hallway. So the second class picked up on it as well. For the last hour of school, they were just playing games and the whole time the Jesus talked continued. 

So for 3 solid hours this afternoon, a bunch of 8th graders thought about and talked about how awesome Jesus is and how he loves everyone. What a way to start summer vacation.