-OBJECTION: I refuse to worship a European, brown-haired, blue-eyed man you call Jesus.
-RESPONSE: I hear you and realize that racial sensitivity is high in our culture right now, but that’s not the biblical description of Jesus nor is His melanin count important. True believers serve Him because they realize their sin-laden guilt before God and have applied the gift of eternal life through Him. As for His appearance, let’s discuss that.
Jesus was a carpenter of Jewish decent and was/is fully man and fully God. Evidently, He looked like the Jewish folks of His day because He didn’t stand out. Moreover, the Script emphasizes His works, deity, teaching, and mission far above His ethnic grouping. In fact, few biblical authors comment on His appearance at all, with Isaiah prophesying He would have an ordinary look (Isa. 53:2) and John describing Him symbolically in a glorified state. Anyone claiming to know Jesus’s ethnicity and appearance beyond what Scripture proclaims is, at best, speculating or, at worst, wrongfully representing Him. Bible believers recognizing their desperate need for salvation cherish Jesus above earthly things like “race.”
Could it be that you have been so concerned with minor details that you’ve missed out on the good news of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection?
To be clear, I’m not suggesting Jesus is of African descent either. Many have wrongly concluded Jesus was/is “black” based on the description in Revelation, which is clearly future-based from John’s perspective (Rev. 1:1) and symbolic. More specifically, in an effort to make Jesus black, they emphasize Revelation 1:12-16, citing Jesus’s hair as wool and feet as bronze. However, these same people ironically and illogically ignore the figurative descriptions in the same passage that indicate His eyes are as flaming fire, His voice like many waters, and a two-edged sword coming out of His mouth! The entire passage is symbolic, and Revelation is apocalyptic literature that is filled with pictures, symbols, and figurative language.
Additionally, the Bible teaches that there is but one human race since we have a common ancestry: Adam and Eve. Through them and their lineage, the world is comprised of one race with various ethnicities or people groups (reference this link for how that could happen: https://youtu.be/yZSfqXDOyck)
#MMApologist #SolusChristus #SoliDeoGloria