Jesus...blond hair, blue eyed Jesus

Take a minute and think about pictures you have seen of Jesus.  I know they are not as prevalent in today's homes as they once where, but none-the-less I am sure you can think of at least a couple that you have seen. What did they look like? Was Jesus glowing? Was he handsome?  Did He have blonde hair and blue eyes?

Now, I don't know that I really remember seeing pictures of Him with blonde hair and blue eyes, but from all the research and studying I have done, it appears to be a common theme amongst artist in the western world.  On the other hand, there are also artist that paint Him with dark skin, more Arabic looking, or something similar to what their culture readily accepts as an image of Jesus.

I find it interesting that we want to associate Jesus with how we look.  We want Him to be one of us.  We want Him to look like we look so that we can identify with Him.  What is even more interesting is that we do this even though we believe He was Jewish.  I'm not even going to attempt to try and describe Him or what a "Jewish look" would be, but rather I want to point out a  passage of scripture that evidently the painters must have not remembered:

Isaiah 52:13-53:2 NASB

The Exalted Servant

 ¹³ Behold, My servant will prosper,
He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.
¹⁴ Just as many were astonished at you, My people,
So His appearance was marred more than any man
And His form more than the sons of men.
¹⁵ Thus He will sprinkle many nations,
Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him;
For what had not been told them they will see,
And what they had not heard they will understand.

Isaiah 53

The Suffering Servant

 ¹ Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
² For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. 

I find it interesting that this clearly states that He was not attractive. God didn't want people to be attracted to His appearance. Think about it.  It is easy for us in our humanness to follow someone who is attractive.  Most leaders have a physical attractiveness to them.  American Idol finalists are given makeup so that they are more "attractive" so that more people will follow them.  Appearance does mean a lot to who we chose to follow.

God didn't want that.  He wanted people to follow Christ for who He is.  He wanted them to chose to follow Him out of their own free will.  He wanted them to have the desire to follow Him out of our need for a Savior and not let there be a human reason to follow like the other leaders we chose to follow.  He wanted Christ to be different.

God does so many things that go against our human instincts.  This is yet another one of those things.

Why is this important? I think it is a reminder to us that God's ways are not our ways and that He wants us to see things differently.  He wants us to see people the ways He see's them.

Ponder the thought for a moment that Jesus was not an attractive human.  Would you have chosen to follow Him based on who He said He was, even though He didn't look the part?  So many didn't.

Maybe this will help you see Jesus in the eyes of people you wouldn't have associated Him with before.

Matthew 25:40 (NASB)

⁴⁰ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’