Pictures

 Something that happened to me in church recently that really started me thinking.

As I sat in the pew, my eyes were fixed on the big gold colored cross hanging at the front of the sanctuary.  As I sat there looking at that cross I was thinking of the one who had hung on a different, a rugged, wooden cross. 

That other cross was not in a beautiful - softly lit building.  It was on a hill, outside the city of Jerusalem, many miles and years away from where I sat in that comfortable pew. 

Then I closed my eyes in prayer.

Although my eyes were closed, the picture of the cross remained.  It was still there for about a half a minute, and then gradually faded away.   Has that ever happened to you? You looked intently at something and then when you stopped looking at it, the image remained for several seconds there on your eyelids?

After I opened my eyes, I thought that - much of the time it happens this way.  When I stop looking at the Christ of the cross, the Christ of the Bible, the picture of Him disappears from my mind and I forget Him for a time – or maybe it’s just that I neglect to remember. 

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the picture of Jesus would always stay on our eyelids?

As far as His physical beauty, the prophet Isaiah described Jesus in Isaiah 53 –

“He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, 

and no beauty that we should desire him.” 

Isaiah was saying that Jesus was not going to be especially handsome and there was nothing special in His appearance that would make Him stand out.  That matches with the many references in the New Testament of Jesus easily slipping through the crowds. 

God must not think it’s very important for us to know what Jesus looked like physically – because He didn’t put much information in the Bible about that.  Jesus’ humanity made Him no different looking than any other man of the day.  But as we’ll see though He was very different in many ways.

Jesus was, in every way, a man as well as God.  We read in the Gospels about him living a life like other people did.  Just like all of the other Hebrew boys, He was taught the scriptures.  He probably ran and played, fell and scraped His knees. 

After He grew up, we read much more about Jesus.  We know that, like everyone else He did things with other people.  He worked.  He ate with others.  He attended parties. 

But, let’s see if we can fill out the picture a little more.  Jesus had many facets.  We see gentleness and love in His eyes whenever He’s dealing with children.  Remember when the parents brought young children to Jesus so that He would bless them – and the disciples didn’t want Jesus disturbed?

We find that in Mark 10:13 

^“People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them.  When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  . . “  and then the scripture says, 

“he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.”

Then, when a widow’s only son had died

Jesus came upon a funeral procession for a young man - the only son of his mother who was a widow. . . .  When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said to her, “Don’t cry.” And then Jesus raised him from the dead and gave him back to his mother. 

The part of that scripture I love is that Jesus’ heart went out to the mother and He told her not to cry.  Doesn’t that just touch you as well?  His kindness and care were evident -  but Jesus was not a wimp.  There were times when He was very stern. 

He showed that trait when He talked to the Pharisees about their pride and when He was dealing with the demons.  We also see anger in Him when He chased the money changers out of the temple.  . 

But, let’s look at some other words from the Bible that help us see Jesus as He is.

The Bible’s words tell us that Jesus sighed, or He wept.  There were times when Jesus was described as being surprised and amazed.  Or that He rejoiced, and he loved.

All of those descriptions are in scripture.  Those words paint a picture of a real person, don’t they?  Jesus was not a fairy tale – He was God and He was a real man.  

Jesus had amazing power.   

There are so many times that the Bible shows us pictures of Jesus’ power – feeding the 5,000 hungry people, making the sea obey Him, healing many, many, people and raising them from the dead - all these events and many more show His power to heal and to help.

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He was strong.  Jesus withstood temptation – His strength against the temptations of the Devil in the wilderness, and His strength in facing death on the cross for us, was amazing. 

And then we must never forget the face of Love that we see in Him.  He loves us.  That’s the picture of the cross.  Christ died because of His love for you and for me. 

Romans 8:39

neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Pictures of our savior – real pictures – on the eyelids of our minds – I pray that they will never fade away.