Ugly Jesus Pretty Church?

 Was Jesus unattractive?  Last week we began to braid three threads together.  The first is that as fallen humans we tend to have a carnal bias toward those we find attractive.  The second is that there is a possibility that Jesus was not an attractive man.    Israel once had a king that was attractive.  “Kish had a son named Saul, as handsome a young man as could be found anywhere in Israel, and he was a head taller than anyone else.” 1 Samuel 2:9   That was part of the problem.  What he looked like on the outside tended to obscure what was in the heart.  The appeal to outward appearance was such that Samuel would have, had not God whispered in his ear, chosen David’s older brother rather than David.  David’s son Absalom nearly succeeded in his coup helped, no doubt, by his good looks.

We can never say definitively if Jesus was homely, but a literal reading of Isaiah 53 certainly makes that a possibility.  The power of the ministry of Jesus was not that He “wowed” the people by his stunning good looks.  Let’s pull in the third thread.

Thread #3 Church Beautiful

While we don’t know what Jesus looked like, we can definitively say that the American church works very hard at being the “Church Beautiful”.  When I say beautiful I do not mean beautiful in terms of acts of righteousness; I mean in the superficial type of beauty that attracts crowds. 

I suppose this is nothing new.  When I was in elementary school our church’s VBS curriculum featured a picture of Jesus that some of the ladies at church said looked a lot like Robert Redford.  I suppose that part of our fallen human nature is that we try to make Jesus look like what we are attracted to.    What do we want in a Savior?  One that is beautiful, magnificent, attractive, and that can draw a crowd.

So, the American church works very hard to be attractive.  In fact, at times the church is almost obsessed with being beautiful.  This is sometimes manifested with buildings that are stunning to look at, but are poorly functional, under used and over-priced.  In my role of church consultant focusing on capital development and buildings, I have seen buildings and building plans that were driven, not by a sense of ministry or vision, but by expressions of the giant egos of congregations or leaders.

“Young is beautiful” is a message not lost on the church. To be attractive some churches make a point of making sure those on stage have a certain appeal to them.  “It is a matter of branding,” is the justification that one worship leader gave to explain why older people were not used in the praise team.  It is hard to look cool, hip and gucci (a newer term for cool), if you have some geezer trying to praise Jesus.  We all know that having old people praise Jesus would make the Lord GMT (gets me tight = angry).

As children and especially teens, we experience significant peer pressure-the need to fit it.  Some people are so driven by peer pressure that they become peer dependent, finding their approval in looking like their peers.  It seems that some pastors never get over the need to fit in.  So driven by their desire to be appealing they have to look the part of cool.  If you doubt me please explain why after Rick Warren in southern Cal began wearing floral print shirts (perhaps appropriate for SoCal) these same type shirts began to show up on pastors in the foothills of the Appalachians. 

A colleague of mine that was working a church convention told me, “Pastors were so easy to spot, it is as if they had talked and planned to dress alike-square, black frame glasses, shirts with the identical stitching around the pockets, cute flipped hair with lots of product in it.  Like teenage girls that talked on the phone that morning to plan what they will wear, they all dress alike.”  

It is not just young preachers; mega church pastors look so much alike I have a hard time keeping up with which one goes where.  I was once told I could never lead a large church because of the deformity of my right hand.  I would expect the real issue would be the deformity of my spirit and heart.

Dress to impress may not be a Biblical mandate, but it appears to be important in the American Church.

Not only does the church feel that it must look good, it has to have the best show in town.  To get people to listen to the gospel we need weekly WOW.  Fantastic concerts every weekend, lights and fog machines and, at Easter, an air drop of eggs from a helicopter.    Where will it end?  Who knows!  I think I know where it is going and it is not good.  Living in Florida, I can tell you the church will never out-Disney Disney.  But that seems to be what we are trying to do.  It started a long time ago even before Robert Redford Jesus and the “World’s Largest” banana split for VBS.

Isaiah 53 teaches us that the Messiah would not be so beautiful, magnificent or attractive that His attractiveness would be the reason people would want Him.  But the church today seems to believe that for people to want us, we have to be beautiful, magnificent and attractive.

So, what can we do? Next week the new/old beauty.