As the most well known name in history, Jesus has perhaps the most misconceptions than any other figure. There are many of every description. Two of the biggest concern how we view Him. The first strikes me, particularly as an artist; in the way Christ is visually portrayed. It is the prevalent depiction of Christ in paintings and art, both classic and contemporary popular art. This image goes beyond visual art, however, having shaped the way we intrinsically view Jesus ourselves. The image of Christ here is that of a very frail, gaunt, physically weak, effeminate white man who could be mistaken as a hippie from the 60’s. A man who fasted for 40 days to begin His ministry, preached and crisscrossed Israel by way of the only transportation of the time – walking - with no permanent home; who taught, ministered, and healed all day long to throngs of people was by no means a frail man. In some Bible passages we see Jesus quite strongly rebuking the religious hypocrites in no uncertain terms. We see him in fierce anger overturning the money changers booths and driving them from the temple. No soft glamour shots here. Jesus was also a Jew, not a Caucasian, Anglo-Saxon white man. The depiction of his hair and dress do not overall represent a Jewish man of that time. In the Old Testament we see a prophecy of Christ – “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him”. Isaiah 53:2. This does not describe a weak man who is effeminate and beautiful. Somehow glamour and frailty have combined in art for the figure we recognize. How many have been driven away from the gospel by a Jesus portrayed as such a weak figure, particularly men? In Christian church circles this delicate figure of Christ has taken on quite a cliché. Popular mass produced art shows a long haired bearded stereotype that has become a caricature. It presents a one dimensional Jesus, a greeting card Jesus holding lambs and smiling like a happy cartoon character. This is far from the sublime depth of the real Jesus, whose impact on the world is like no other! The other major misconception is also a universal one. This is the image of Christ as a good teacher. Of a benign figure, with a vague message of love, who represents just a nice symbol. Christ’s own message was made in no uncertain terms. He did not say He was a good teacher to simply add nice sayings to the body of the world’s religions. He literally said He was the Son of God, equal with God, and Himself received worship as God. He said He came to save that which is lost, namely, us. He made very bold claims. In fact, the one to mention Hell the most in the entire Bible is Jesus Himself. He also claimed His death was voluntary, for all of us. As can be seen, He made claims way beyond anyone in all of history. This is not simply a religious figure or nice teacher. Indeed, those who were sent to take Him, in Jerusalem during the feast, went away stunned saying, “No man ever spoke like this man!” (John 7:46). C.S. Lewis wrote it best and quite bluntly: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to”. It is true that He did not intend to leave that choice, and He ever stressed that we must make a choice, rather than walk ambivalently away. We can learn a great deal about the real Jesus in the Bible - in both the Old and the New Testaments - as we read with an open mind, putting behind us the misconceptions we have come to know. Of course, that is another topic altogether isnt it? The Bible itself has many misconceptions, many that are outright untrue, and mostly put forth by those who do not read it, or all of it anyway. The same can be said of Jesus - there are many who disseminate false images, who pluck out one passage while ignoring all the others. It is a never ending see-saw back and forth amongst those who desire arguments, and not the hope they are so sadly missing. Of those who desire something banal, rather than a challenge to the status quo of ones life. Through all this we still all see Jesus as somehow representing love. Many know it only vaguely. However, this love, this is not a casual saccharin love. Not a love as we use the word in our culture. Not a love that has hidden agendas or that can be taken away to pull the rug out from under us, as the disappointments of life do. It is a powerful love, a deep forgiving love, a love that changes lives so profoundly as to capture the love of its recipient from that time forward, as never before. Now that is not a cartoon – it is wonderful and beautiful beyond description!
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 14:55:02 +0000
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