“My wife got a mud pack and looked great for two days,” said Red Skelton. “Then the mud fell off.”

Jokes like that left audiences howling in the days of vaudeville, and no one told them better than Red Skelton. Red was the son of Joe Skelton, a clown who had worked with the Hagenbeck & Wallace Circus. Joe died just before Red was born, so the boy was raised by his mother who was a cleaning woman and elevator operator.

When Red was ten, the famous entertainer Ed Wynn spotted the boy selling newspapers on the street, he saw in him an early spark of showbiz genius. Buying all Red’s papers, Ed took him backstage, introduced him to the vaudeville stars, and let him peer through the peephole at the audience. At that moment, Red fell in love with entertaining. By the time he was fifteen, Red was clowning and telling jokes in vaudeville shows on riverboats and in theaters.

During those years, vaudeville was America’s stage. Moving pictures and radio shows weren’t yet prevalent, and television was unknown. So singers, dancers, comics, magicians, and even lecturing celebrities took their place by turns in the spotlight of a thousand stages. Many of these entertainers, like Red Skelton, managed to survive the demise of vaudeville by segueing to radio and television.

Exiting the Stage

Red isn’t the only great vaudevillian with a still-recognizable name. There’s Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope, Judy Garland, Laurel and Hardy, Lucille Ball, and… well, there are too many to mention. But while many of them managed to transition to film and screen, some of them had trouble making a graceful exit as their careers slowed down.

Red Skelton was one of those. After twenty seasons and 672 episodes, CBS canceled The Red Skelton Show in 1970. It wasn’t ratings, for people were still watching by the millions. But the program was becoming too expensive to produce and the network wanted to appeal to a different demographic. Red never got over it, and he remained bitter for years.

Who can blame him? It’s hard to make a graceful exit, especially when one feels rejected or unappreciated.

In fact, only one Man has done it perfectly. He wasn’t an actor, but He did step onto the earthly stage to perform a specific role. He didn’t come to tell jokes but to save souls. He wasn’t interested in giving us entertainment, but eternal life. He didn’t amuse us; He gave us joy that never dies.

His program was canceled by a hostile crowd at Calvary, but His career revived three days later; and He made the most dramatic exit the world has ever known. Having led His disciples to a spot near Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives, He blessed them and “was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven’” (Acts 1:9-11).

A Grace-Filled Life

It shouldn’t surprise us that Jesus made a dramatic exit from the world’s stage. After all, His entrance was nothing short of miraculous. Born of a virgin on Christmas night, His birth divided history in two. As a child, He grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. As an itinerant teacher, He touched the sick, healed the blind, raised the dead, rebuked the hypocrites, braved the critics, comforted the outcasts, and taught people with authority in His voice.

Luke wrote, “So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth” (Luke 4:22).

Some people are hard to like, but not Jesus. Some are irritable, unkind, arrogant, rude, and even cruel. Jesus was none of those. He lived a grace-filled life. As our Savior, He transforms our personalities through His Spirit working in our hearts. Our lives should reflect His gentleness and love to those we encounter each day.

A Grace-Filled Exit

We can also learn how to make a grace-filled exit from Him. We say “goodbye” many times a day. Most goodbyes are perfunctory; but some are especially painful. It’s not easy to make gracious exits, but it is Christlike. Even the simple act of parting in the morning is important. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, many people learned to never leave for work or hang up the phone without saying, “I love you” to family members.

When parting, we should always leave a blessing behind.

One preacher said, “Christians never part for the last time. We only part to meet again.”  You see, Jesus made a powerful exit from the tomb, and a grace-filled exit to the skies so that our exits might be temporary. Even death itself is only a brief passage to a glorious reunion.

Jesus Christ shows us how to make our entrances and exits with the grace that He Himself supplies. We’re simply His understudies waiting for His return one day. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20)