I continue to find it odd or at least interesting that no physical description of Jesus was given by those who lived with him every day for three years, saw him crucified, and saw him resurrected. I have to believe that the Holy Spirit prohibited them from doing so because any biographer would have been almost compelled to do so in detail. In scripture there is hardly any reference to his physical appearance at all.
Isaiah prophesied of the Messiah and speaking of his physical appearance said, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him” (Isa.53:2). The post-resurrection accounts in the gospels would tell us that he still had holes in his hands and a tear in his side from Roman spikes and a spear. But other than that, we don’t know if he was short or tall, stocky or thin. We don’t know if he had a great smile or crooked teeth. We tend to assume he was muscular because he was a carpenter/stone mason but we do not know for sure.
In some ways, this omission in scripture may have a downside. It leaves us the freedom to make Jesus in our own image – to imagine him as we think a Messiah should be…often with a worldly slant. Philip Yancey discussed this phenomenon in his book The Jesus I Never Knew. He says, “The first semi-real portraits of Jesus did not come until the fifth century, and these were pure speculation. Until then, the Greeks had portrayed him as a young, beardless figure resembling the God Apollo.” He goes on to say. “I once showed to a class several dozen art slides portraying Jesus in a variety of forms – African, Korean, Chinese – and then asked the class to describe what they thought Jesus looked like. Virtually everyone suggested he was tall (unlikely for a first-century Jew), most said handsome, and no one said overweight…We prefer a tall, handsome, and above all, slender Jesus.” Some ancient traditions suggest that Jesus was hunchbacked or had leprosy. If you are like me, you may find the notion of Jesus as a hunchback or leper somehow offensive…unless you are a hunchback or leper. In that case you would find it comforting. Until some recent Christian films, Hollywood had always portrayed him as the tall, muscular, slender, very handsome Jesus with perfect diction, perfect teeth, a straight nose, and, at times, with blond hair and blue eyes (really unlikely).
The problem with casting Jesus in our own image is that we may also cast his motives, his values, his perspectives, and his character in our own image as well. That could be dangerous because then our standard of comparison will simply be between us and someone just a little more moral than us. Jesus was much and is much more than that.
So why did the Holy Spirit choose to leave out an accurate and detailed physical description of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? Why did Jesus appear differently to many of his followers after the resurrection? I’m sure there are layers of reasons for this but I can certainly think of one – our penchant for obsessing over the outward appearance of things and people. When God sent Samuel in search of a replacement for King Saul, he first observed David’s brothers and felt certain that the tall, handsome, muscular brother was surely the next king. After all, he looked so “presidential.” But God gently admonished Samuel and reminded him that God does not look at the appearance of a man but at his heart. David was his choice. Surely God wants us to take on the same perspective.
In John 10, when Jesus described himself as the Good Shepherd, he said that his sheep would recognize his voice not his face. Jesus said in another place that out of the mouth comes the abundance of the heart. In other words, my words – especially in unguarded moments – reveal my heart. The voice or the words of the Shepherd give us a much better take on who he really is than his appearance.
I mentioned to a friend one time how interesting it was to me that God so often chose extreme people in whom to deposit amazing spiritual gifts. Some were not just extreme in commitment but sometimes in appearance. She wisely responded that she thought God did so intentionally to see if we loved truth enough to look past the external appearance of the one delivering it. Maybe that is why Jesus, according to Isaiah, was neither handsome nor presidential in appearance so that it was the content of the man rather than the packaging that drew multitudes to him.
When I was in college, I worked at a publishing company. All kinds of people worked there and of course, as a college student, I was always surveying the new female hires to see if they were pretty and single. One day a new girl came on the floor. She was married but she was also one of the most homely girls I had ever seen. She was tall, very thin with knot knees, stringy hair, crooked teeth, and a long slender neck and slightly drooping shoulders. She wore little to no makeup and I actually felt sorry for her the first time I met her. I was amazed that she was married and had children. However, as I spent time around her at work, her personality was amazing. She was genuine, positive, totally uncritical, always had a good word for everyone, laughed easily and yet showed genuine compassion for others. In a few months time, I no longer felt sorry for her but actually began to envy her husband. Her inner beauty truly overcame her outward appearance to the point that her physical qualities meant very little to those who knew her. In some small way, I think she and others like her show us the power of Jesus. The gospels don’t give us the physical description because it doesn’t matter.
Look how we worship celebrities and fawn over their appearance – their clothes, their hair, their skin, their teeth, their bodies, their mansions, etc. – ignoring the spoiled, shallow, arrogant, demanding person that is often on the inside. Appearance can and does get in the way of what’s most important. That is a lesson we all need to learn better.
The other stunning thing about Jesus was that not only did he have an amazing heart but always looked at the heart of others rather than their appearance. He was never swayed by fine clothes, palaces, or power. Neither was he put off by a bad reputation, poverty, weakness, brokenness, disease, demons or even leprosy. That, I think, was his power to draw others. If we are to reach people for Jesus we must learn to love them and to love them we must learn to look past the externals. We must see their hearts and minister to their hearts. It is there that Jesus wants to do his work and make his home. May Jesus give each of us the capacity to ignore the wrapping and look diligently to discover what is inside the box.
