As I was standing on the bank of the great Tigris River, I looked up and saw a man dressed in linen clothing, with a belt of pure gold around his waist. His body looked like a precious gem. His face flashed like lightning, and his eyes flamed like torches. His arms and feet shone like polished bronze, and his voice roared like a vast multitude of people. Only I, Daniel, saw this vision. The men with me saw nothing, but they were suddenly terrified and ran away to hide. (Daniel 10:4-7)For the most part, I hate Christian art. And the part I hate most are the pictures of Jesus. He looks like such a wimp.
Pictures like the one Daniel saw are my idea of what Jesus should look like. I mean, here is the King, the Saber, the Pre-Incarnate Word of God, the One. And here he stands in all his glory. A body like a precious gem, face like lightning, eyes like torches. Arms and feet of polished bronze and a voice like a multitude of people.
That is a picture of Jesus. This is not the little wienie wimpy Jesus so often displayed in “religious” art. This is the Jesus the devil is terrified of. This is the Jesus that rules the universe. This is the Jesus who descended into hell to take back those the devil had taken.
This is a mighty Jesus. It is a lot like the picture of Jesus in Revelation 1 when John saw his picture of the glorified Christ.
And standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were like flames of fire. His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from his mouth. And his face was like the sun in all its brilliance. (Revelation 1:13-16)There was a Jesus to contend with.
This is not the Jesus who would wander around looking sweet and mild, the one driving a Prius and eating only vegetables so he wouldn’t offend vegetarians, the ones complaining that the government hadn’t paid student loans, the one used as a corporate shill for so many causes.
This is a Jesus who is absolutely above earthly stuff, yet loves his people.
This is the Jesus I worship.
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