How Do I Look?

It actually took me years to realize that Jesus most likely wasn't one of the blue-eyed, fair-skinned Jews with a small nose and a questionable British accent, as portrayed by casting directors and filmmakers. I've found that I unconsciously assumed that Jesus did pretty much nothing other than walk around Jerusalem from dawn until dusk with His disciples, all of them looking somber.

Ever considered the idea that Jesus physically may not have been easy on the eyes -- what if he was "ugly" by our media-tainted standards? What if He smiled a lot? What if He had a brown and orange robe instead of brown and darker brown? What if He said some things that were decidedly good-natured but intentionally not "deep"?

Humans are prone to create mental images of things they've never seen, based upon what they have seen, so it's not really surprising that many of us have pictures of Jesus in our minds that are probably not 100% accurate. (The image seen here is from an article in a 2002 edition of Popular Mechanics.)

Whatever you look like at this moment, if you're a Christ-follower, that's what Jesus looks like to someone. Your kids, your spouse, your boyfriend/girlfriend, your co-workers, the convenience store clerk (does anyone use that word unless it's in association with "convenience store"?), the waiter you don't tip well on Sunday afternoon because they've done a rotten job, the insurance salesperson, etc., etc.

In a Mad Magazine I used to have, there was a feature called "The Lighter Side of..." in which was a cartoon on "Religion." Writing a description of a cartoon panel is probably stupid, but here goes... On the bumper of a car was a sticker that read, "Honk if you love Jesus." The lady in the following car saw the bumper sticker and said to her husband, "Isn't that nice, dear? Why don't you give him a couple of honks?" The husband beeped his horn several times, and in the final panel the driver with the bumper sticker leaned his head out and angrily screamed back at them, "#*&$(! to !^&@, if you wanna pass, PASS! Just lay off the @$*&^! horn!"

Wow. Is that what people think of us? That was a decidedly secular magazine parodying a Christian. Or was it a parody? By our own actions, have we given the world around us reason to see us as a cloistered, bitter, self-absorbed group with a lifestyle of double-standards?

Those of us who claim to follow Christ -- even if we're being disingenuous about it -- are Jesus Christ to the world. The sentiment that we have for others is readily apparent to them whether we realize it or not. For the Christian, people around us should not be seen as numbers or statistics or even people who need to come around to our particular worldview. They are people who need to know the love of God through Jesus Christ (again, represented by you and me) regardless of who they are. If we're serious about who we claim to be, that love must be totally genuine, given from the inside out. If we don't share Jesus with our lives first as a matter of course, no one is going to care about the Gospel we present with our words.

So maybe Jesus could be a blue-eyed, fair-skinned, Americanized Brit with a small nose...

Posted in: Christianity, People