The Beauty of Jesus

Recently, Christy took her kids to the Art Museum to see the Rembrandt collection. That jogged a desire in my own heart to take in the exhibit, too. Several years ago, a friend and her husband had treated Andy and me to a trip to the Art Museum to see another exhibit (I think it was Monet). So I called her again to see if she wanted to go with us to see Rembrandt. She did and was available yesterday, our day off. So off we went.

It was a beautiful day with sunny, blue skies and fluffy white clouds. There was a stiff breeze but the air temperature was very comfortable – a perfect fall day.

We had a nice view of the city from the top of the Art Museum stairs.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the art museum. It was a very interesting exhibit from the standpoint that Rembrandt was one of the first artists who portrayed Jesus as a more human, approachable person.

This was a break from nearly 15 centuries of artists painting Jesus as a distant godlike figure with a halo around his head. Rembrandt loved painting biblical stories and made several sketches of Jesus with Mary and Martha, Jesus with the 2 disciples he met on the road to Emmaus, Jesus healing and preaching and the Prodigal Son. I really like his portrayal of the Prodigal Son although we did not see that one displayed yesterday. The other one I really liked that was displayed was just a sketch of Jesus with Mary and Martha. It was interesting because Rembrandt captured what Jesus was trying to communicate by his interaction with the two women. Mary is depicted as sitting in the light and reading the Word, while Martha is portrayed as a dark blob. Her heart is dark because she is fretting and busy with worldly cares instead of delighting in Jesus’ presence.

Rembrandt has many sketches and paintings that he did of the face of Christ. He used a Jewish man as his model to bring a more realistic face to Jesus. I appreciate his effort to make Jesus more approachable and look more like a real person, rather than a high and distant diety. I have to confess, though, that in my own mind, I do not picture Jesus as looking like he portrayed him. We each have our own definition of beauty and what is good looking. Not that Jesus is necessarily handsome, but there is no doubt that we are drawn to him.

Beauty means different things to different people. I am always amused to hear new parents talk about how beautiful their baby is. Every parent thinks their baby is the prettiest baby there ever was. Those we love are beautiful to us. And that goes for the way we view our friends, as well as Jesus.

It's not necessarily his physical appearance that we are drawn to, but his character of love, kindness, gentleness, compassion, forgiveness and acceptance - what we know of him.

He is beautiful to me because I love him. In fact we sang a song to that effect on Sunday.

Beautiful One by Tim Hughes

Wonderful so wonderful is Your unfailing love
Your cross is spoken mercy over me
No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart can fully know
How glorious, how beautiful You are

Chorus:
Beautiful one I love
Beautiful one I adore
Beautiful one my soul must sing

Powerful so powerful Your glory fills the skies
Your mighty works displayed for all to see
The beauty of Your majesty awakes my heart to sing
How marvelous, how wonderful You are

Chorus

You opened my eyes to Your wonders of anew
You captured my heart with this love
‘Cause nothing on earth is as beautiful as You Jesus
My soul, My soul must sing
Beautiful one

2 Corinthians 4:6: For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.