American Family Photo Jesus.
I recently saw a video clip portraying the life of Jesus that caught me totally off guard. I’ve seen numerous portrayals of Jesus over the years but this one got my full attention for one distinct reason. The actor didn’t look anything like me. He also didn’t look like the thousands of images I’ve seen in my life on everything from bookmarks to beautiful stained glass windows. The actor was clearly middle-eastern and had black hair in contrast to the brown haired and European looking fellow I usually see. I would venture that if I had walked in on this video clip in a context other than a church it may have taken me a little while to realize who this character even was. And chances are I would have felt foolish for not recognizing him sooner. Contrast this clip with the flyer slid under my doorway yesterday and you end up with me blogging about what Jesus looks like. I recognized the Jesus on the flyer instantaneously even though I wasn’t in a church context. He matched so many previous depictions that I was immediately familiar with him. Isn’t it crazy that the Jesus I recognize most easily as Jesus is the one that is the least accurate? The big question this flyer raised for me was "How did this happen?". How did Jesus get transformed from a Galilean to a European? I am not an art history buff but I’m guessing that art has a lot to do with how we see Jesus currently. Somewhere along the line a popular guy made his depiction of Jesus. That image stuck and has influenced much of what followed despite the inaccuracies of the popular guys depiction.
I’m not surprised in the least at this kind of development. We have a way of crafting things into our own image so we can see what we like to see. People are generally more accepting of people who seem familiar. A guy who looks like he might be your Uncle Joe or your own father is much easier to accept and have a relationship with. The best way to break past people’s barriers in regard to Jesus is to portray him in ways that are non-threatening and inoffensive. The image and story of Jesus get reshaped as we smooth out the rough edges, soften the hard teachings and do some airbrushing so we have a product we can accept and live with. The final product is a Jesus who looks like us, talks like us and lives like us.
This is a complete fabrication and we all know it. Over the past few years light has been shed on how much the models on magazine covers have been altered. People are immediately skeptical of videos and pictures online due to the ease in which people can alter them. Our world knows everything there is to know about ‘fake’ and has no problem calling things out for what they are. When the church attempts to package Jesus into what she thinks is a sellable product it is shown for what it is. Church folk may be fine living with a Jesus who looks like us but it is of no help to this world.
The more I try to follow Jesus the more I realize how much I don’t look like him at all. Perhaps that’s why I find a bit of comfort when I see him portrayed by someone who doesn’t look like me. I don’t look like Jesus. I don’t talk like Jesus. I don’t love like Jesus. There is an unbelievable amount of tension between who I am currently and who I am called to be as a disciple of Jesus Christ. That’s where his disciples live, in that tension. It’s in that tension that I hear once again the call laid forth in the verse guiding this blog:
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.-- 2 Peter 3:18
As a disciple I am called to grow and I’ve got plenty of areas needing growth. Ultimately I am to grow into the likeness of Christ and the more I grow, the more I look like him. The apostle Paul puts himself in a scary position when he tells the church in Corinth to follow his example as he ‘follows the example of Christ’. (I Corinthians 11:1) Not only is he trying to do the impossible task of looking like Jesus, but he’s also trying to do it knowing there are a whole host of people watching his attempt. I can give you a list of some people I’d recommend you follow if you’re wanting to imitate Christ but I’m not on it.
Jesus walked through this world in a way that stood out because it ran counter to our kingdoms and in line with The Kingdom. The temptation is to take that standard of living he displayed and polish it down into something more humanly possible and that fits into how we want to live. When we make Jesus look like us rather than attempt to look like Jesus we miss the opportunity to see the impossible happen. When the church looks like Jesus this world will be turned upside down. Our world recognizes real deal disciples when it sees them. And how will they be recognized?
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.—John 13:35
Looking like Jesus is about loving like Jesus.
Here are a few of the photos I found interesting and had to add titles to them:
6 Pack Jesus
Surfer Jesus
Aragorn Jesus
Monty Python Jesus (edit out horse and add coconut knocking)
This is really good and also really timely to some conversations I have been having with others this week.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I would say is that the gospel *does* always need to be contextualized so it is understood in any given historical-cultural context. So Jesus will look a little different depending on where and when you are - but that is an entirely different things from wholesale changes to who He is, especially in His *character* - and that is the watered-down version we too often find in Western/American/Evangelical churches.
I loved the line, "When the church attempts to package Jesus into what she thinks is a sellable product it is shown for what it is. Church folk may be fine living with a Jesus who looks like us but it is of no help to this world." We have far too many salesman occupying our places of leadership today, and too many consumer-customers occupying the pews (or theater seats, or living room couches, or whatever).
Dan Kimball talks about this subject of different Jesus's in "They Like Jesus But Not The Church" (the Jesus bobble-head may be my favorite depiction of all time - not sure what that says about me (I have a warped sense of humor?). Brian McLaren, I believe in "A Generous Orthodoxy," talks about "the seven Jesus's I have known.
I want to know Jesus as He really is: "I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death." (Philippians 3:10). And to be *like* Him as He really is. And the good news is, we can, because the *real* Jesus really does live *in* us by the power of Holy Spirit.
Thanks for this post!
I read the book The 3rd Jesus by Deepak Chopra and couldn't help but feel that Jesus had been hijacked and transformed into an enlightenment teacher like Buddha. People take Jesus and shape him into one who lives and believes like they want to live and believe. I think it is better stated that the implications of the gospel need to be contextualized, not that the gospel itself is contextualized. How does that gospel manifest itself here and now? It is both timeless and timely. We are to be shaped by the gospel and not vice versa. I chopped out a section about the movie Gods and Generals where you have leaders on both sides of the Civil War convinced that God was for their cause and that their cause was just. Was hard to make it fit the flow. Might do a later one about war and religion and include it.
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