Some think of Jesus as a baby. Consider the songs: “little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head,” “I played my drum for him… then he smiled at me,” “Sweet little Jesus boy, born in a manger way down.”
Others think about Jesus the man, but emphasize only his suffering. Indeed, we call him “the Suffering Servant.”
Those casting actors to play Jesus look for men with compassionate faces. Mel Gibson cast Jim Caviezel because of “a light in his eyes.”[1]
Finally, there’s the effeminate nature of not only modern costuming and makeup, but of art over the centuries. Creative types are forever portraying Jesus as androgynous, sometimes leaving him nearly beardless, with both the face and body of an adolescent boy.
WE LIKE OUR JESUS TO BE A BABY IF POSSIBLE, AND ALWAYS SOFT, NON-THREATENING, AND SWEET.
No one wants to see power, strength, anger, or wrath. But Jesus is more than a suffering little lamb. He is the LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH. When the Apostle John saw him, he “fell at his feet as a dead man.”
Imagine:
“I saw One like a Son of Man. His head and his hair were like white wool—white as snow—and his eyes were a fiery flame. His feet were like fine bronze, fired in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters [like a waterfall whose noise swallows you up]. He had seven stars in his right hand; a sharp, double-edged sword came from his mouth, and his face was shining as bright as the sun at noon on a summer day. When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man” Revelation 1:13-17.
Imagine standing before Jesus. He is not comforting, soft, or effeminate. He is powerful, majestic, and TERRIFYING. And He would be terrifying even to born-again believers.
If seeing him left John on the ground “like a dead man” though John had known Jesus on earth, both before and after the resurrection, then seeing Jesus would certainly terrify you and me.
Is that who you worship? Do you cherish that level of fear and respect in your heart?
ΑΩ
[1] Gibson did many things right. He sought Caviezel because he considered him to be tall, and “a big guy,” rather than a small man like the actors in previous films.
Household Words: 