What does Jesus look like?

Isaiah 53:1-3 - Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

What does Jesus look like? From the first time we went into Sunday school classrooms, an image of Jesus Christ is etched into our mind. In North America He is most often depicted as being taller than his disciples, lean, with long, flowing, light brown hair, fair skin and light-colored eyes. Familiar though this image may be, it is inherently flawed. A person with these features and physical bearing would have looked very different from everyone else in the region where Jesus lived and ministered. Surely the Bible would have mentioned so stark a contrast. On the contrary, according to the Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane before the Crucifixion, Judas Iscariot had to indicate to the soldiers whom Jesus was because they could not tell Him apart from his disciples.

Matthew 26:47-49 While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” 49 And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him.

Further clouding the question of what Jesus looked like is the simple fact that nowhere in the New Testament is Jesus described, nor have any drawings of Him ever been uncovered. There is the additional problem of having neither a skeleton nor other bodily remains to probe for DNA.

If you continue to look for His image, in the Bible, you will find a variety of what He looks like. In Revelation: 1:13-15 - and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.

So would you recognize Jesus if you saw Him today? Would He look like you and I? Would He look like your neighbor, your coworker, or someone while you are out? He would look like anyone who has acknowledged that He is the only way to heaven.

Then when you look in Daniel 10:5-6 - I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist.  His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.

After a few weeks being away from Jesus, after His resurrection, His disciples did not recognize Him. John 21:4 - Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

So do we really know what to look for? Would He look like you? If Jesus were to walk around here today, would you recognize him? Get to know him on a deeper level; you will be surprised where you will see Him!