Jesus in our image

Recently, activist Shaun King stated that all images of a light-skinned Jesus whether they be statues or stained-glass pictures need to come down. He claims the only reason Jesus was depicted as white was because of white supremacy. I disagree. While we do not know exactly what Jesus looked like, we should be able to agree that it is human nature to portray God in our image.

I grew up in St. Louis. When I was playing basketball in an ABC league, our coach took our team to an inner-city church that had a gym. I noticed in the hallway that there was a painting of Jesus hanging on the cross. The vantage point was from above the cross looking down on Jesus portrayed as a black man. He had a short hairstyle and was very dark in his complexion. I had never seen anything like that before. While I was unfamiliar with the painting, I understood it. People are more comfortable picturing a Jesus who is like them.

My wife and I have travelled to El Salvador a couple of times to work with pastors and churches in that country. We have enjoyed beautiful Christian fellowship despite racial, cultural, socio-economic and political differences. As we worshipped, attempting to sing in Spanish, I noticed that the slides of Jesus projected on the wall were clearly Hispanic. Jesus had coal black hair and beard with piercing brown eyes. His complexion was not black or white, but brown. Again, I understood that people want to relate to Jesus as someone like themselves.

The Bible tells us about the deity of Jesus in John 1:14. It says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." We read of Jesus experiencing what it is like to be human. We read in Philippians 2:7 that Jesus emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. He understands what it is like to face injustice. He was fully God and fully man, but he was treated unfairly. He never sinned, but he was given the death penalty. His sufferings, scourging, and crucifixion were not the consequences of his actions. He endured those things as our substitute for our salvation--to pay the penalty of our sin. He suffered and died; then God raised him from the dead. Read John 3:16-18.

Instead of accepting Jesus and his teachings as we find them in the Bible, we tend to alter much more than Jesus' appearance. Today, many people claim that Jesus would never condemn sin. Jesus is a friend to sinners, but he never condones sin. Jesus' mission is to rescue people from sin. Jesus tells his followers that there is a high price to pay for being a Christian:

Matthew 16:24--26 (ESV)

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

I believe it is OK to visualize Jesus in our image, but God's desire is to transform us into the image of Jesus. Instead of demanding things from other people, or society, we choose to serve one another. We stand against racism as well as vandalism and anything else the Bible calls sin. Christians understand that God made one human race. Genesis 1:27 says, "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."