One of the things that fascinates me about the gospels is that none of their authors bothered to describe Jesus’ appearance. They simply thought that knowing what he looked like as he walked the dusty roads of Israel was immaterial.
All we know about how Jesus looked was that he was nondescript. There was nothing about his appearance that marked him out as unique, which is why John the Baptist needed a special sign to identify him (John 1:32-34).
Jesus didn’t walk around with a halo above his head. He didn’t glow in the dark. He wasn’t taller or more handsome than everyone else. In fact, if we had seen him, we would have been underwhelmed, maybe even disappointed.
That painting we all know so well of a handsome, square-jawed Jesus knocking at the door? It’s a lie. Jesus looked nothing like that. Rather, as Isaiah wrote about him in Isaiah 53:2, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.“
In contrast to this shyness exhibited by the gospel writers when it came to describing Jesus’ ordinary appearance when he lived among us, three gospel writers – Matthew, Mark and Luke – weren’t shy at all about describing him as he appeared in his transfiguration:
“After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white a the light.” (Matthew 17:1-2; see also Mark 9:2-7 and Luke 9:28-36)
John isn’t shy either when it comes to describing what Jesus looks like in his glorified state.
“I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters…. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.“
“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: ‘Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.‘” (Revelation 1:12-18, NIV)
Thus, while we don’t know what Jesus looked like as an ordinary human being in his “kenosis,” his “emptying,” we do have very clear, explicit descriptions of what Jesus looks like now, in his glorified state in heaven.
In other words, when it comes to Jesus’ appearance in his current glorified state, God has left nothing to the imagination, so to speak. Amazingly, we already know exactly what we are going to see when we stand before Jesus Christ.
But it doesn’t stop there. We also know what we are going to look like in heaven because, when we stand before Jesus, we are going to be like him!
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3, NIV)
Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow!
Jesus is the first born among many brethren, my friend (Romans 8:29). We will be conformed to his image and we will share in his glory.
Imagine that.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
Since 2003 New Commandment Men’s Ministries has helped hundreds of churches throughout North American and around the world recruit teams of men who permanently adopt their widowed and single parents in their congregations for the purpose of donating two hours of service to them one Saturday morning each month. We accomplish this with a free training site called New Commandment Men’s Ministry
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