What Did Jesus Actually Look Like?

i always wanted to get a caricature done to myself because i always think like what do people see when they when they look at me you know it's one of those things like about big ears big nose i i realize it's it's i have a relatively large outsized mouth i think is maybe one way to say it [Music] hi my name is father mike schmitz and this is ascension presents if we go to the fair or um we have a amusement park here in minnesota that people sometimes go to and at these places they have people who draw caricatures but here's the thing about the caricature it's not meant to be a portrait meaning it's not real life it's not supposed to be a photograph it is you take one aspect of the person's features and you kind of accent it right and so uh you have the big ears you have the big forehead the big mouth big whatever the thing is or small ears small mouth whatever the thing is it takes one aspect and emphasizes it to the kind of the detriment maybe of the whole at the same time the person is recognizable that's a very important part of caricatures is on one hand you have one part is distorted on the other hand they have to be recognizable and so someone had asked a while back they said what did jesus look like i thought man that's really good question because they were pointing to the fact that there's art throughout the course of the last 2000 years depicting jesus everything from like early early icons that are you know meant to be represented you know it's interesting we look at pictures right we look at photographs you're supposed to look through icons that's that's why they are not meant to be realistic they're meant to be images icons right of a greater reality so in some ways an icon is kind of a caricature but it's intentional and it's meant to highlight a deeper reality so back to our story one of the things they pointed out and people point out all the time is that our art our pictures of jesus the depictions that we have of jesus they're not accurate because well like we don't know what jesus looked like b because they're always conditioned by the artist right they're culturally conditioned they're individually conditioned what i mean by that is i remember seeing um paintings by the the artist fran angelico and he would paint images from the scriptures from the gospels set in like you know rural italy and and would people be dressed like italians at the time of his painting i remember thinking that's strange i don't like that but at the same time again he's bound by his own limitations he's bound by his own culture and also what he's representing is he's representing here's jesus in my culture like here's jesus stepping into my world here's jesus stepping into our world and that's maybe maybe a good goal for some artists there's the critique of course of the you know the blond hair blue eye jesus and you would say that's that's a fair critique right because jesus most likely did not have blonde hair most likely did not have blue eyes but the same you could critique you could say about the blonde haired blue light jesus you could also say about the african jesus you could also say the same thing about the asian jesus none of those have an accurate depiction of what jesus really looked like no on the other hand there's something really good about having an african jesus i think there's something really good about having an asian jesus or a caucasian jesus or hispanic jesus the thing that's good about that is it highlights the fact that jesus is emmanuel that he's god with us that he's become one of us now to say that that he looks like every one of us no he took on human nature that's the key the key thing is that not that he looked like me or like you or like whoever else but that he shares our human nature that he became like us in all things except sin i think so often we can use the images of jesus as ways to divide each other from each other but to say okay there's an asian version of jesus and there is a an african version of jesus here is a caucasian or here's a hispanic or here's a pacific islander or here eskimo version of all those things phenomenal why because humanity wants to claim him all of humanity wants to claim him and even more powerfully he wants to claim humanity he has claimed humanity every version of jesus in art is going to be limited by the artist it's going to be limited by a culture it's going to be limited by by the people the art is made for that's why we celebrate not just one image of jesus that's why we don't use just one use just one image of jesus we have all these images of jesus we get to get to learn another something about him remember because every in some ways every picture of jesus every painting of jesus every piece of art of jesus is like a caricature it accents one part at the expense of the whole that's why we need all of them because we know this there is bad art there's good art there is bad theology in art there is good theology in heart but all of it is going to be limited in some way so what does the gospel what does the bible say jesus looked like well it says jesus is the image of the father it said that jesus had said if you see me you've seen the father that jesus is the fullness of revelation but it never says i noticed this you know it never said that jesus stretched out a long finger or a short stubby finger and traced in the ground he just says he wrote in the dirt it doesn't say that jesus looking at the woman caught in adultery with his piercing dark eyes and his olive complected skin you know it doesn't say that what what does the gospel highlight if it highlights two things it highlights his words and his deeds that's it that's what the gospel highlights does it it doesn't highlight what he looked like it doesn't highlight how he appeared it highlights his words and his deeds because his words and his deeds reveal his nature reveals his identity reveals his character and in some ways we can we can take a huge lesson from that what does a person look like well that matters to some degree but how does a person speak how do they act what do they say and what do they do that reveals the identity of the person far more far more than what do they look like and i think that same thing is true for jesus the gospels are all about what jesus said what jesus did and in looking at that we see who he is we see what he is he is god and man he's one of us you know if anything the bible says that he was common looking he's plain looking isaiah in the in the 50s isaiah says uh in fifth chapters i mean not the 1950s or anything like that isaiah says that there was no stately bearing among him that would cause us to look at him that he was as one from whom men hide their faces you know in the book of revelation when john turns around he sees jesus he's struck dead as though he's dead because his appearance is like that because he's god so what does jesus look like if anything we know that will actually speaking he was semitic right so he's from the middle east people in the middle east have various complected skin and various shaded eyes but most likely dark makes sense because in the fullness of time he came to a certain place in a certain time in a certain body not to separate himself from us but to be one of us sharing our human nature so what does jesus look like well if the shroud of turin is any accuracy we could probably say that looks like that about five nine or so way under 200 pounds beard of some sort maybe longer hair but what did jesus look like i think we can say two things one is we see him when we see the poor we see him when we see the widow we see him when we see the orphan the immigrant the neglected the rejected the people that everyone else ignores when we see them we see him the other is we see jesus every single day in the eucharist every single day you had adoration you go to mass you see him this is what he looks like what does he look like he looks looks like that he looks humble he looks powerful looks glorious he looks holy you don't just have to see what he could look like or imagine what he could look like st ambrose has said i met you lord it is your face that i see when i approach your sacraments so what did jesus look like every piece of art is a caricature we look at the poor the homeless the immigrant those rejected we see him we see his face and when we look at the eucharist that is what jesus really looks like for all of us here at ascension presents my name's father mike god bless what the light on my chest is kind of light here on a sunny day merry christmas is it christmas still i don't even know [Music]

Channel: Ascension Presents

Views: 94,651

Keywords: ascension, ascension press, ascension presents, father mike, catholic advice, catholic inspiration, catholic motivation, fr. mike schmitz, fr. Mike schmidt, father mike schmitz, michael schmitz, fr. Mike advice, fr. Mike videos, fr mike schmitz, humanity of jesus christ, human nature of jesus christ, what did jesus look like, the bible, what did jesus really look like, the bible series, Jesus depicted in art, depiction of jesus around the world, accurate depiction of jesus

Id: EEo6aX1x7xI

Length: 8min 39sec (519 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 22 2021