Q: What
color was Jesus?
A: Love!
A strange answer,
true but I’ll get to my explanation soon enough, first some thoughts on color…
We can be
pretty sure that Jesus’ natural being was that of a Middle Eastern man. That his
skin color was most likely darker than that of the Jesus depicted in Warner Sallma’s 1941 painting The Head of Christ.
In an earlier blog post of mine, So, What Color Was Jesus? I referenced a BBC story about the reconstruction of a Middle
Eastern first century skull. That reconstruction process offered a suggestion
of what a man from Jesus’ time might have looked like. The BBC story quotes Dr.
Mark Goodacre, a New Testament scholar from the University of Birmingham, who
was involved with the reconstruction as saying "We do seem to have a relatively
dark skinned Jesus”.
I get why some feel that over the years images of a white
Jesus empowered a dominant white culture. European colonialism, slavery and
exploitation of indigenous people was inexcusable. Subjugation in the name of
Jesus, or any deity for that matter, is wrong. Forced conversion is a perversion
of the Gospel message.
We know that Jesus didn’t look like a white blue eyed
European, but it would be safe to say he didn’t look like most of the other icons painted over the centuries
either. Is contextualizing Jesus into one’s own culture wrong? Is making the Son
of God look like yourself a bad thing beyond the possibility of being historically
incorrect? There is a prohibition in the Bible against making objects
to worship, but I feel that images used to pictorially convey the Gospel are acceptable
so long as the image of Jesus, be it whatever color, is not used to dominate
another group of people.
So, back to my original question...
“What color was Jesus?”
My answer is Love!
Let me show you how I came to that truth. Here are a few
scriptures about Jesus that show he is the exact representation of the Father
and that the Father is love therefore the invisible God represented to us in visible
human form looked like love.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all
creation. (Colossians 1:15)
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily
form. (Colossians 2:9)
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him. (Colossians
1:19)
“Now that you have known me,” he said to them, “you will know
my Father also, and from now on you do know him and you have seen him.” Philip
said to him, “Lord, show us the Father; that is all we need.” Jesus answered,
“For a long time I have been with you all; yet you do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Why, then, do you say, ‘Show us the
Father’? (John 14:7-9)
“I and the Father are one” ~Jesus (John 10:30)
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from
God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not
love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)
I’m not saying that color doesn’t matter. God created our
colorful human race and we should honor each other’s God given beauty! What I
am saying is that Jesus transcends color and race.
So, what color was Jesus? My
answer is Love!
Peace, Love and Light!
