Tuesday, 03 November 2009

• What Race is Your Jesus?

  A few weeks ago I was visiting my parents and attended their church.  While I was waiting for them to finish talking with someone I noticed an interesting painting on the wall in the administrative offices there.  In it was what looked to be a Korean man dressed in traditional Korean clothing from the 18th century, kneeling on a rock and praying while looking at the heavens.

  "What a nice picture," I thought, thinking it was just a picture of a devout Korean Christian. 

  Then I looked closer.  In the background of the picture was what looked to be like a crowd of people coming with torches for the praying man... That's when I realized that this was actually a painting of the Garden of Gethsemane when the soldiers come to take away Jesus... That Korean guy in the 18th Century Korean clothing was supposed to be JESUS.

  Interesting... I didn't really know what to think, so I took a quick snapshot of it with my phone and told myself that I'd ponder it later.

  

  I think I get what the artist was trying to do.  Perhaps he wanted to make Christ more accessible to Koreans who would maybe not care about a Jew from 2000 years ago.  Or maybe he was using symbolism to show that Christ suffered for even Koreans.  I don't know.  I'm not an art critic.  But with things like this, I think it bothers me more than most people because of the unintended consequences.

  Whether in artistic depictions or genuine debate about Jesus being any range of races from European, Arabian, or African, I think it's all nonsense.  Jesus was no more Korean or African or Arabian than that he would have looked like Jim Caviezel.  Jesus was a Galilean Jew, at least his incarnated body was.

  And here's why it's important... because it was a part of God's promise to Abraham and Isaac...

  Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham.  I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.  (Gen 26: 3, 4)

  In this statement, God is actually promising Jesus Christ.  Even back in Genesis, God had the salvation of the world in mind.  It was all a part of His redemptive plan.  The blessing that God was giving the Jews was that the plan of salvation will come through them in Jesus Christ.  What an honor.

  So when we look at the fact that Jesus was a Jew, we actually see the fulfilment of God's promises.  We see that God is always faithful to His word and that He had a plan for redemption all along.

  Yes, perhaps if people thought of Jesus being Chinese or Indian or Swedish, it might make Christianity more accessible to people who might just think of it as a European religion, but what you lose is the providential nature of God.  We shouldn't try to fit God into our comfortable little worlds.  We have to be able to see Him as the impeller of a grand plan for the salvation of the world.

  By saying that Christ was African or East-Asian or Caucasian, we call God a liar.  I'm not prepared to do that.

  • 2:05 PM
  • 10 Views
  • 2 eProps
  • 1 Comment