Being attracted to a physical Jesus

You just watch the movies about Jesus today, and we will see that the movie industry has coined Jesus. They show Him with long hair, brown eyes, chiseled jaw, looking handsome and tall. They show Him with broad shoulders. They have put a mental physique of Jesus in our brains. I know because I grew up watching these movies. I remember the figure walking around in swaddling clothes, and throngs of people following Him. But if we were to go by Isaiah 53, then none of these physical depictions can be true. His beauty was inward. His truth, mercy, love – was inward. The Lord reminded Samuel of this truth in 1 Samuel 16 when Samuel had to choose the new king in replacement of Saul. Samuel was about to choose Jesse‘ first son because of his looks. We also are guilty of this. We choose by looks. We choose our church, our spouse, our friends by looks. We choose which ministers to listen to by their looks. We choose which ministry deserves our monies by their looks.

Jesus tried to demolish this concept when He came. No emphasis on looks. We were to despise Him because there was nothing comely about Him. Unfortunately Christianity is romanticizing Jesus; we are projecting a Jesus that never existed. We are projecting a Jesus we want, not the Jesus that was and is. And because of this, we have enabled a lie. I pray we will turn back to who He is; and we focus on His spiritual attributes. When we focus on the spirit, we forget what He looks like, and we forget what we look like. We forget how different we are physically to each other; we forget that in fact the physical is not important to Him. We leave those things that do not have any eternal benefit; in fact leave those things that will project differences to the side so they do not trip us up. This was the greatest problem they had in the church at Corinth. They were focused on the physical elements of who baptized them; Apollos or Paul or Peter? They were so besieged by the difference in the men that they were ready to separate themselves from each other; take factions and destroy what God was to do.

Don’t visualize and romanticize who Jesus is. Isaiah 53:2-3 says He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Why? Because if we were to see Him as He is, then to be attracted to Him would be to be attracted to His death; to His sufferings; to His burdens; to His pain. And also attracted to His resurrection and to His power, and to His holiness and righteousness; His faithfulness and His love; His discipline and LIFE.

I encourage you to focus and stay focusing on why it is important that the physical is never given preeminence in our faith. By looks, He was rejected. By looks, He was despised. By looks we did not desire Him. But by the spirit, we are drawn to Him. We see Him for who He is; a man of sorrows, acquainted with pain; sent to take our sins away. And because of this; we love Him. We are in love with Him! We live for Him. We give Him our lives. Amen!

Linda Faith

Linda faith is the Editor in Chief of Jewels Magazine. She co-pastors along with her husband Revival Worship Church, Tampa. She is a prolific writer and powerful speaker, inspiring many women to be all God has called them to be. She is the founder of Joy Women’s conference which reaches out to empower, inspire and motivate women in their faith walk. She was a software developer before she started writing.
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