John 3:22-36

 John 3:22-36

We live in a world in which everyone is not only allowed to be but actually encouraged to be narcissistic. We are all told to have or create our own brand, to brand ourselves to be famous, and to make ourselves famous. One person described her career as an “Internet personality”. With the use of social media we can build for ourselves the illusion, or perhaps a better way of saying it, the delusion that our place is at the center of the social media universe. We imagine that our lives are so compelling that people will want to know what we are doing. Our thoughts are so profound people will want to know what we are thinking, and our appearance is so magnificent that people will want to look at us. We think that if we can have our own universe with ourselves at the center we will have all that we want.

John the Baptist was nearly the perfect opposite of this kind of thinking. His statement and vs 30 is profound and ought to be the theme of every disciple’s life. As we are making  new disciples they ought to grow so that they are more and more attracted to Jesus and their focus on us ought to decrease. John wanted to become invisible to be unseen so that all focus and attention would be on Jesus. John's role as the “friend of the bridegroom” was significant but no one believes that a wedding is about the best man. The best man’s real importance is to point to the real priority of the couple's wedding, the couple. John's light would grow dimmer and dimmer Jesus's light would grow brighter and brighter.

Most people do not believe that Jesus was born on December 25th. That date was chosen for the Feast of the Nativity for, among other reasons, because of the winter solstice when the days begin getting longer the light begins to increase. The church also set the celebration of John’s birth for June 24th the summer solstice when the days begin to get shorter and the light decreases.

One of the great tragedies of the last generations is that many in ministry have shifted the focus to themselves and have grown their church as a cult of personality. The very root and center of hell is the attempt to move God from the throne at the center of the universe and take that seat for ourselves.

“Lord, forever keep in awe of Jesus, may I be invisible so I will never distract anyone from looking at Jesus.  AMEN”

Was Jesus an ugly man?

Was Jesus unattractive?  I mean if you saw Him walking down the street would you think, “That is one homely dude”?  My intent is neither to be disrespectful nor to cast aspersions at attractive or unattractive people.  My inquiry is not simply academic; I think this has bearing on the church in America.  Please allow me to braid together three threads and come to a conclusion for the church in America.

Thread #1 Beauty Bias

The concept of “beauty bias” says that attractive people by the very reality of their attractiveness have advantages over unattractive people.  In other words, a nice looking girl in minor distress is more likely to get help than an unattractive girl in the same circumstance.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfvcpHvitjY

As you can imagine, this creates a great many arguments from all sides.  Feminists, conservative Christians, evolutionary biologists, ad agencies, and those looking for a spouse have a profound interest in the subject.  

Thread #2 Setting aside privilege.

If we understand correctly, Philippians 2:5-8 teaches us that the eternal Word emptied Himself of all the advantages of being God in order to be the sin-bearing sacrifice that humanity needed and God’s justice demanded.  When we consider the incarnation we see that baby Jesus was born with few advantages.  Born into an oppressed people, into a family of limited means and into a family that had to make a lot of adjustments very quickly.  Of the first few years of His life there appears to be significant difficulties.  As I studied this, I turned to the suffering servant passage in Isaiah 53 and had to challenge something I had been taught all my life.  Isaiah 53:2 says:

For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,


And like a root out of parched ground;


He has no stately form or majesty


That we should look upon Him,

Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him

I was always taught that this is a reference to Christ as He is enduring the tortures of the Passion and Crucifixion.  I discovered that nothing in the text states or implies that to be the case.  

I am no Hebrew scholar, so I turned to K&D (Keil & Delitzsch Commentary) to do the heavy lifting of the study.  Additionally, I turned to the help of a Hebrew interlinear Bible.  What I found was rather fascinating.  Look at four statements from verse 3: 

·      The word translated “form” is the word that described Rachel as beautiful in contrast to weak eyed Leah.  It also describes Esther and Abigail.

·      The word majesty can be translated ornament, splendor, or magnificence.

·      The next phrase could be translated “when we see Him, no beauty”; this word beauty was used to describe the trees of the Garden of Eden.

·      Commenting on that last phrase K&D says: He dwelt in Israel, so that they had Him bodily before their eyes, but in His outward appearance there was nothing to attract or delight the senses. On the contrary, the impression produced by His appearance was rather repulsive, and, to those who measured the great and noble by a merely worldly standard, contemptible.

Jesus appeared to be the kind of person that if you saw Him, you would not notice him and if you did, your conclusion would be that He was not worth noticing in the first place.  His appearance, rather than attract a following, may have turned people off.

To be continued. Next week: “Church Beautiful”