Opus 2025-104: The Picture

Have you ever heard someone look at a Renaissance painting of Jesus and say, “We really don’t know what He look like?”  In a sense that is true, but in a sense it isn’t.  We do not have any photographs or portraits by contemporaries.  We don’t know if he had freckles, or it was left-handed.  We do, however, have descriptions of what Jesus look like.  Here is one,

Revelation 1:13-17 (KJV) And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.  His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were  as a flame of fire;  And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.  And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.  And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:

And a little later we have,

Revelation 5:6 (KJV) And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

And,

Revelation 19:11-16 (KJV) 11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.  His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.  And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.  And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.  And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.  And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

When I see descriptions like this, it tends to make me want to disregard the things that Revelation tells me.  It tends to make me want to reject a literal interpretation.  I do believe that most of revelation is figurative and artistic, not literal, lineal history.  I also believe that any visual relevance that it has is set in a time when we are no longer simply physical beings.  These are descriptions of Jesus, and in other places of God the Father, which we can’t understand because of our limitations.

In the afterlife, when we see someone with glowing eyes and a sword coming out of their mouth, what fills us with horror now might cause waves of love and affection.  Let me give you a sample from our day-to-day lives.  I don’t think I would want to climb up on the back of a tiger and chew on its ear.  You would probably agree, but you have all seen pictures of tiger cubs, climbing the neck of the adult animal, and chewing on its ear or jumping on its tail.  I would not recommend such behavior if you are a tourist in Africa, or India, or just visiting the local zoo.  It is not a survival technique.  If, however, you are the cub of the animal, it would never occur to you to be worried.  It would be home week.

Jesus taught us to call God, “Abba Father”.  He put it in terms that we couldn’t understand now, however, the book of Revelation is trying to get across to us the glory of what it will be like in the presence of Almighty God then.  The pictures are different.  What we don’t understand now will become clear to us then.

Hope to see you on the other side.

homo unius libri