He Walked Among Us

By Greg Laurie, Op-ed contributor Friday, October 10, 2008

For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. —Isaiah 53:2

One thing that has fascinated people, especially artists, throughout the centuries is the question of what Jesus looked like.

It is interesting that no actual physical description of Jesus is found in Scripture, except for a figurative one in the Book of Revelation. You would think that somewhere in one of the Gospels, someone would have taken the time to give us just an idea of what He looked like: "Oh, by the way, Jesus was 5-11 and had wavy, brownish hair, and green eyes." I mean, someone could have said something.

We know nothing about Him physically except that He had a beard. We don't know much more. We don't really know what He looked like.

Do you wonder why that is? I think perhaps it is because God knows our propensity for idol worship and left it out, knowing we would end up worshiping His image and forget all about Him.

Quite honestly, I would say that I seriously doubt He looked like the Jesus who has been depicted throughout history. I don't think Jesus had blond hair and piercing blue eyes. Being from the area in Israel that He was, His skin and hair very likely would have been dark. His eyes would have been dark as well. But that is not really important, is it?

God didn't give us a physical description of His Son. But God does want us to answer the question of who Jesus is. He is both the Son of God and God the Son, fully God and fully man.

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