Reflections on The Jesus I Never Knew--Ch. 1

I've been getting a heavy dose of study in the life of Christ recently, which has been wonderful. I've been going through the Gospel of Mark with my youth group during Sunday School, and just recently I started reading the book The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey. I've never read anything by Yancey before, but I've heard that a lot of people appreciate his writings, so I thought I would pick one up.

It is so rewarding to take another look at Jesus--what he was like, what he said, what he did and why he did it. Yancey is right--the picture that we come up with is often different than the picture that we carry around in our heads. In chapter one, Yancey talks about different pictures and paintings of Jesus that he has seen in his life and how they have influenced his thinking about the Lord. Jesus almost certainly did not look like the paintings of him that we often see--long, flowing hair that is perfectly combed and parted, a neatly trimmed, perfectly cropped bread, light-toned (very much Caucasian) skin. I think these pictures reveal that we tend to make Jesus into whatever race and nationality we are (we the features that we value in our race and nationality). But as Yancey points out, these pictures take us away from such facts as Jesus' Jewish heritage. This movement away from Jesus' real background and heritage is certainly a step in the wrong direction.

If I had to pick a favorite image of Jesus from the Scriptures, for me it would have to be the description of Jesus in Revelation 19. Here Jesus returns to earth as a Divine Warrior, leading the armies of heaven to wipe out the nations that have gathered against Israel during the end times. To be honest, I think I probably like this picture first and foremost because I'm a man--and men like fighting and warfare and stuff, right? Men like victory, conquest, glory--all things that we find in Revelation 19.

But in reality, the fact that this is my favorite picture probably says more about me than it does about Jesus. Oh this picture certainly does tell us important things about Jesus, but one thing I've learned from my study of the Gospel of Mark is that its so hard to describe Jesus with just one image. There are so many facets to his character and actions that it is so very difficult to describe him succinctly. That seems to be why we have four gospels in the first place--each gospel writer brings out something unique, so the end result is a full, robust picture of Jesus, not just a monochrome image.

How long has it been since you've taken a long look at the Jesus of Scripture? Maybe its time to get reacquainted.