Who is this man in the picture? Not a particularly handsome man, at least in my judgement. He has a face that looks weather beaten, a face used to hard work. If you were on a busy sidewalk, you wouldn't even look twice at this person. Nothing really sets him apart.

    Who is this man in the picture? Wait! This is a Pastor writing this, someone who is in the Word daily. It's probably Peter or one of the other disciples. He has a Jewish look about him and the disciples were, mostly, men who worked hard. Judas! That's it! It is Judas! You can see it in his eyes. So, what's the point?

    Who is this man in the picture? He is Jesus. 

    The Jews didn't allow likenesses of themselves to be drawn or painted. The image of someone was strictly forbidden. You could describe someone, but you couldn't draw or paint their likeness. In the case of Jesus there were descriptions. Our view of the past is that it is hazy with most things lost to time. But the Romans were record keepers, as were the Jews. Over the years various sketch artists, like a police sketch artist, have sat down with the descriptions available to them and have come up with pictures very close to this one. In addition, in a cave that was used as a gathering place for early Christians in Jerusalem, there was a drawing on the wall, back towards the end of the cave, that looked exactly like this man in this picture. Just the drawing. No identification. Just a picture.

    Of course, this cannot be Jesus. What foolishness! He had long flowing hair, much finer features, a holy look about Him. This man looks nothing like Jesus!

    Our mental image of Jesus comes from the great, medieval painters we know and love. However, they painted what they knew. A Dutch painter might put wooden shoes on the people, an Italian painter would make people look Roman, a French painter would put flowing robes on people. In reality, men wore a rough kind of pants, or leggings, a long shirt and, at times, a robe-like cloak. This the oldest known painting of Christ, hanging on a wall in a monastery on Mt. Sinai and was painted in the sixth century after Christ. 

    This looks more like the first man at the beginning of this post because it would have been painted from descriptions. I am guessing that the large book He is holding is the Book of Life. But this does not look much like the later portrayals of Jesus.

    All of this is interesting, I know, but what is the point? The point is, we have a picture in our heads of what Jesus looked like, and that picture is wrong. Whether the first picture actually looks like Jesus looked or not, our mental picture cannot be right because there were no pictures from the time. So, if we are wrong about what He looked like, are we clear on what He means to us?

    He gives us comfort, He gives us peace, He gives us joy. That is right. But what do we give Him? Matthew 10:32-33; So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. Do we share the Lord with others? We can soak up His goodness, but can we do our one job? 

    We are to plant seeds. We are to tell others. We aren't supposed to beat people down with the Bible, but we are to tell others of His saving grace and His love for us.

    Who is the man in the picture? Doesn't really matter. What is more important is the face you see looking back at you from the mirror. Who is that person in the service of the Lord?