When
I was posting on Facebook, I used to get quite a few of comments about the
pictures of Christ I would include in my posts. It fascinated me that in each
one was a painted portray of a different man yet He always looked like Jesus. I
adore good art and I admire the artistic talent so I never ran out of images where
Jesus looked good.
The
most common comment I used to get was that Jesus was a Hebrew man and therefore
had to look Jewish and Middle Eastern and could not possibly have blue eyes. It
always used to get me. I would point out that according to the scriptures,
Jesus was in the express image of His Father and not His Jewish mother (John
14:7-9; Colossians 1:12-15; Hebrews 1:1-3). God the Father is not Jewish or of
any nationality of this earth therefore He does not look Middle Eastern and
could very well have blue eyes. Besides the fact that some Jewish people do
have blue eyes, the actor Paul Newman having been one of them.
One
kind reader told me that Josephus, a Jewish historian, called Jesus a fair
headed Jew with a rosy complexion. I am yet to find a reference to that, however,
in the Works of Josephus I own.
The
push for a black Jesus floored me. I had a couple of people who tried to
convince me that Jewish people used to be black and therefore Jesus was black
too. I recognised this was about wokeness and political correctness of our day but
I feared it had a sinister root. The danger in passing Jesus as a black man in
antiquity comes with a connotation that He was a descendant of Cain, who was
the servant of Satan. This gives credence to the claim by the Jewish Council,
who sought to kill Him, that Jesus was the servant of Beelzebub, the prince of the
devils (John 7:19,20; Matthew 9:34; 12:24;
Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15)
One
lady tried to convince me that the Saviour was not a good-looking man because
Isaiah said he was ‘without form and comeliness’ and had ‘no beauty that people
would desire him’ (Isaiah 53:1-2). Not only did this lady tell me that people
didn’t want to look at him because of this but that he was most likely even
disfigured because Isaiah also said he was ‘marred more than any man’ (Isaiah
52:14).
When
Isaiah spoke of the Saviour as being a “tender plant without form and
comeliness”, he meant that Jesus was born as a small, helpless infant just as
all people are and He grew as other people do. Being ‘without form and comeliness’ means “He was
not so distinctive, so different from others that people would recognise him as
the Son of God. He appeared as a mortal man” (President Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines
of Salvation, 1:23).
It
also means that He was divested of His glory in mortality, which He had gained
in pre-mortal life so that people would believe His message through the power
of the spirit and not due to His obvious godhood (John 17:5). There had to be
acceptance through faith (see also Philippians 2:5-10).
Lastly,
the Saviour’s “visage was so marred more than any man” (Isaiah 52:14) is a
reference to the suffering of the cross. Roman crucifixion was gruesome. The
condemned were stripped naked and scourged. This would cause the person to lose
a large amount of blood, and approach a state of shock. The convict then usually
had to carry the horizontal beam to the place of execution. Crucifixions took
many different forms. Some victims were crucified head down to the ground and some
were impaled by their private parts. During Emperor Titus’ Siege of Jerusalem
in 70 A.D., Roman soldiers nailed innumerable Jewish captives to crosses in
various ways.
When
Jesus was crucified on Calvary, metal spikes were driven into His hands and His
feet and a spear pierced His side to ensure His death (see John 19:17-18,
32-34). Considering everything He went through before He was even lifted on the
cross and His body ravaged, does it not make sense that Isaiah would consider
Him ‘marred’?
This
is the Jesus I am longing to one day meet:
“When
I was doing missionary work with some of our brethren among the Indians…I found
myself one evening in the dreams of the night, in that sacred building, the
Temple. After a season of prayer and rejoicing, I was informed that I should
have the privilege of entering into one of those rooms, to meet a glorious
Personage, and as I entered the door, I saw, seated on a raised platform, the
most glorious Being my eyes have ever beheld, or that I even conceived existed
in all the eternal worlds. As I approached to be introduced, He arose and
stepped towards me with extended arms, and He smiled as He softly spoke my
name.
“If
I shall live to be a million years old, I shall never forget that smile. He
took me into His arms and kissed me, pressed me to His bosom, and blessed me,
until the marrow of my bones seemed to melt! When He had finished, I fell at
His feet, and as I bathed them with my tears and kisses, I saw the prints of
the nails in the feet of the Redeemer of the world. The feeling that I had in
the presence of Him who hath all things in His hands, to have His love, His
affection, and His blessings was such that if I ever can receive that of which
I had but a foretaste, I would give all that I am, all that I hope to be, to
feel what I then felt!” (Apostle Melvin J. Ballard, Temple
Manifestations, p 153)
As Golgotha raged and tore
Your flesh without mercy,
The Garden sprang anew
As from every drop of blood You spilt
New flowers came into bloom.
How pitiful the cross that claimed You
Not knowing it sent a God to a
Darkened tomb!
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