What Jesus Looks Like

​Here are three pictures of Jesus.
 
I call them Fire Jesus, Fathead Jesus, and Godzilla Jesus, respectively. Take a moment and soak in their awesomeness.​
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One of the brilliant things the four gospels do is they never describe what Jesus looks like. Knowing when and where he’s from, we can make an educated guess, but the gospels don’t care to give us anything to work with. So, Jesus has been depicted every old way throughout the history of global art.
 
This is a brilliant choice by the gospels because it pushes us to focus on what Jesus said and did to share the presence of God in the world.
 
We can’t get as easily hung up on whether he’s fat or thin, trendy or frumpy, hot or not.
 
This is also genius because Jesus called us to carry on his ministry of bringing God’s presence into our world. Now we don’t have to think we need to look a certain way to do this ministry faithfully and fruitfully.
 
On top of all that, since we don’t have a description of Jesus’ appearance, it’s easier to imagine him as one of us. A Native American in Oklahoma, an Indian in Mumbai, or a Nigerian in Lagos each have freedom to imagine the Lord of Heaven and Earth as “one of them”.
 
Think how easy it would have been for Matthew to say, “Jesus had curly, rich, black hair, and deep green eyes the beauty of which touched everyone.” But Matthew didn’t.
 
In this way Jesus can remain close to everyone, and especially close to the forgotten people with whom he most often spoke, healed, and led.
 
Sometimes the Bible is brilliant for what it says; sometimes its glory is in what it chooses not to reveal.