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That Looks Nothing Like Jesus!
By Marc | June 23, 2008
Julie’s brother sent us this email:
Hey Julie and Mark, I was just sitting in my chair listening music and I thought that you might like to hear this song. I do not like most of the pictures because we do not know what Jesus looked like, but this is one my favorite songs.
The first thing that came to mind was, “But has he seen the painting of a muscular Jesus with a tattoo and blue jeans?” This was, of course, “No Appointment Necessary” by artist Stephen Sawyer.
Then Julie suggested I write about images of Jesus and what people have engrained in their mind what he looks like.
For most of us, because of what we are bombarded with, have a permanent belief that Jesus was a blue-eyed Caucasian Adonis with shoulder-length brown hair and a short, well-trimmed beard. He was a pretty boy.
My brother-in-law is correct, however; we don’t know about his appearance. What we do know is that he had nothing in his looks to distinguish himself from anyone else. He was common-looking, plain.
…He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. - Isaiah 53:2
How many times have we fallen for some person, idolized an actor or actress, followed a leader based primarily on looks? We are distracted by the packaging.
In the 1960 Presidential election, when John F. Kennedy ran against Richard Nixon, were looks a factor just a little bit? I wasn’t alive then and know virtually nothing about politics, but I do know that Kennedy was young and attractive, while Nixon was, well, not so attractive. There were serious viewpoints on either side to be decided upon. But how many Americans, regardless of what we tell ourselves, were thinking about the packaging rather than the contents? Even so, how many people are bitter about that election, saying that Kennedy only won because of his looks?
Our judgment can be clouded by appearances. Also, those opposed to us (or just sore losers) can claim we are shallow in making those decisions even if it isn’t true.
With Jesus, there was no pretty packaging. He wasn’t a superstar up there strutting his stuff. He made his point across without the distraction of a distinguished visage, whether pretty or ugly.
Also, to fit in and not stick out, he had to have looked like a Palestinian. No light skin, no blue eyes. Jesus has been depicted as white, black, Chinese, and about any other way to help us relate to him.
Personally, I don’t mind a depiction of Christ, but not as a portrait. When the focus is on his face, or just him standing there doing nothing, it feels like an idol. It’s saying, “This is what your Savior looks like; worship this picture.” This example at right, by Yakov Smirnoff, I think is more about the personality of Jesus than his definite features. He’s a man who knew humor and more than likely enjoyed a hearty belly laugh from time to time.
When the picture is an allegory or depicting an event from the Bible, that is totally cool with me.
When you want to express a thought visually, and it involves Jesus, you’ve got to depict him somehow. Do you put his back to the viewer or cover his face in every picture? That’s very limiting as an artist.
His appearance isn’t the important part of the work: it’s what he’s doing; it’s what he represents; it’s who he is as our savior. When the focus is his face, you run into trouble, and it might affect where you point your praise. And when you start worshipping the image, you no longer devote sole worship to the subject.
Also, an abstract representation is effective in art, like a Picasso (or a Garfunkel).
If you’ve read my comic, I showed the allegory segments with faceless blue characters (with Jesus as light yellow and the demons red) as a way of avoiding a depiction of Christ’s face.
I think God did a pretty wise thing not revealing Christ’s face. It’s the message that counts (Jesus himself; God’s love; salvation), not the messenger (his looks, beautiful or ugly).
Bonus! Julie and I have a poster of this Dali painting (at left) of the Crucifixion hanging up in our room. I bought it when I was in college, fifteen or so years before I followed Christ. I was a Catholic growing up, enjoyed religious artwork, but wasn’t a Christian. We both like Dali and enjoy the look of the work more than thinking of it as what Jesus and Mary actually looked like. It’s just an artistic representation of an idea of the event rather than the event itself.
Topics: Art, Faith, Miscellaneous |
