Facing Jesus

When you create a mental picture of Jesus, what does he look like? If you are like me, the first image that springs to mind is the arian Jesus who was a part of the Sunday School curriculum. This is the Jesus to whom we were introduced. However, each culture has its own image of Jesus.

One of the saddest parts of Christian history deals with the way in which european missionaries exported european culture to go along with christianity. A cultural conversion was a necessary component of any spiritual conversion. What these missionaries failed to realize was that thier culture did not have a monopoly on the Gospel.

The fact is that Jesus, as a man, was Arab, and likely bore many of the same characteristics we see in Arabs today. However, I think the greater lesson is that each culture can see Jesus in its own way. They can see a Jesus that has the same traits that they see in those around them. The message of the Gospel is not bound by one ethnic identity, it is above culture, above race, above all of those walls which we have erected to keep others out.

With these things in mind, I have found several images of Jesus represented as non-white: