COME IN. SIT DOWN. MAKE YOURSELF UNCOMFORTABLE.

Matthew 26:48 - Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him.”

“The one I will kiss is the man.” The people with Judas didn’t know what Jesus looked like. As a 21^st century woman, that is a foreign feeling to me. We are awash in pictures and videos of our friends and loved ones as well as famous people. I’ll state the obvious here; they had no cameras or social media back in Jesus’ day. The disciples certainly weren’t going around distributing Xerox copies of their thoughts – the Gospels were all written at least 30 years after Jesus died. So. They didn’t know what Jesus looked like and had to rely on a betrayal to find him.

Of course, we still don’t know what he looked like. This is a good thing. Not having a picture frees us to imagine Jesus as more than just the ubiquitous white Jesus. 

Black Jesus: (Poster for the 2006 movie, Son of Man.

 

 Asian Jesus (via churchpop.com):

 

 Native American Jesus (Lakota Victory Christ by Fr. John Giuliani. via indigenousjesus.blogspot.com)

 

The homeless person you see on your lunchtime walk (Homeless Christ Icon, by Kelly Latimore, via globalworship.tumbler.com.)

It is possible to find depictions of LGBTQ Jesus, non-binary Jesus, Jesus as mother, daughter, sister, Jesus as disabled, Jesus the least of these. All images of Jesus. These different images of Jesus can make us uncomfortable. So, we stick with Jesus as just like us.

Not just in looks! Also in temperament, desires, thoughts, ideas about how the world should be. The disciples did. They thought Jesus would fulfill the desires of their hearts; that he would overthrow Rome and restore Israel. They made him into the image of their desires. No matter how many times he tried to tell them otherwise. It’s so easy to equate what we think of as right to what God thinks of as right. It’s so easy to fool ourselves into thinking that we have the correct interpretation of scripture. And just like the disciples, we’ll find out how wrong we are – hopefully as we grow in faith, but certainly in heaven.

We don’t have to wait until we’re in heaven to reimagine Jesus. Mostly, we don’t want to, because that would mean reimagining our faith. Again, this makes us uncomfortable. So, my challenge today is to sit down and make yourself uncomfortable. Reimagine Jesus as someone unlike yourself in one or more ways. Sit with that new image for a few days, a week. In what way are you uncomfortable? Does anything about your faith change? Does it open up new avenues of thought or desire? Explore those! Faith is meant to be dynamic, not static.   

Go ahead. Sit down. Make yourself uncomfortable.

B