Oh, For the Love of Jesus

"Jesus is a Second Century Jew."

THERE ARE a lot of images of Jesus in artwork. There's bloated-pale-17thcentury Jesus. There's doe-eyed-religious-icon Jesus. There's piercing-blue-eyed Jesus. And American kazow Jesus. All kind of Jesuses. Chacka-chacka Jesus. Aaaaye-1970s Jesus. And Holy Moly Jesus.

"Where are you goin' with this- Suzanne?"

Well, to my use of so many different Jesuses. There is only one Jesus. You get that? And there are no actual images of Him. So people being creative, they try to make images of Him. There is a store local to me that sells the artwork of people who live overseas, most of them native people who just like to do art. And at Christmas they have a wide variety of Nativity scenes from all cultures. There’s Kenyan family Jesus and Eskimo family Jesus, complete with polar bears and penguins. It's cute to see and I love people's eye for art, so I own a few, although they are technically incorrect.

Jesus is a second century Jew. We must know this.

The Jews don't know this. In testimony after testimony that I've watched, they all say they were raised to think the New Testament was Catholic and antisemitic. Then they read it and discover it's the most Jewish thing they could do to be saved. This moves me. And it moves Him. He loves His people beyond words.

“… as they felt a real sense of gratitude for being able to share in God’s healing Remedy, which came through the Jews …” (Romans 15:27, Remedy)

He loves all people to the point of death. That being the biggest point. The other is that He loves seeing people's lives and knows, of course, the heart of what they have made. He knows what they intended. Frankly, there are some incredible artists out there. So I use their work when it fits.

But Jesus looks like His culture. Except being glorified, He's the most beautiful human being (Philippians 3:21). Many have said this, who have had visions of Him. John's vision of Him as God should be clung to. That He appeared so clothed in the glory of God that He looked golden, His hair white. And the words of John in both the gospel of John and 1 John where He is the Word of God which they have handled. We cannot spend enough time meditating on His words and Godhead. We must see Him as the Father and the Spirit. As eternal who is and who was and who is to come (Revelation 1:8).

We must not be deceived that He is Caucasian or African or Arab descent. Mark's gospel shows Him as King of Israel and King of the Jews. We must pray for Jerusalem and support the nation of Israel. For they are His covenant, His ancestry. And know when we stand before Him that He is the Son of God, who looks just like His Father.

For today, amongst all these images of Him, and with the truth grasped by us, we then do not judge others for what they know or do not know but support their talents where we can. Not confused by them but full of the love of Jesus.

Image by Agung Setiawan from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com