The Idol We Adorn

Figure #1: Jesus: From Tiberias Caesar's Emerald

Isaiah 53:2 "For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him."

Compare what you see in this real portrait of Jesus taken from the emerld of Tiberias Caesar. Is Jesus handsom or is he homely? Truly "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"!

His name was common: Yeshua, Jeshua, Joshua or Jesus. "Archaeologists have unearthed the tombs of 71 Yeshuas from the period of Jesus' death. The name also appears 30 times in the Old Testament in reference to four separate characters..." (The Explainer: Brian Palmer).

Here we have three references to Jesus: His picture shows the appearance of a common man, Isaiah in his vision describes Jesus as plain, and his name was just a very common name.

Genesis 1:26 "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..." 

"Our likeness" would be those in existence "in the beginning". Who are "they"? "They" are God who is identified with three characteristics: the Creator Father, his Holy Spirit and The Word who was called Jesus. Because God has foreknowledge (1 Peter 1:2) he knows what will be before it is!  In this case God had a plan. He knew all along that he must feel our pain himself and give himself in our place for there to be salvation.  As the Voice spoke to Adam in the Garden The Word knew that he would put on flesh and the Creator knew what he would look like! With that knowledge God had created man after "our likeness": the mind to know the Father, the soul to contain the Spirit to commune with God and a body like The Word would someday be.

True to his word, man is a complex being. We still have trouble comprehending our mind, we only know about the spirit what scripture tells us, leaving our bodies which are so complex that each day we learn more about it. The complexity of our existence will never be understood and it's existence beyond simple chance. We were created complex because God is complex and we are a facsimile of God, but without divinity at all. He is King and we are servants. Our job assignment in the beginning was "to tend God's garden" and our sole purpose in life is to serve God!

Because we are to be Christlike, which we already are in our genesis, we are to serve. Since our attributes are to be like Jesus we are to serve as he serves!

Matthew 20:28 "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."

What we know of Jesus is growing: he was ordinary in name, appearance and disposition. Neither was pride within him because he allowed others to see his divinity without ever saying outright "I am God in the flesh"! He came to serve and that's what we are to do. What we know of Jesus is that if he stood in a crowd he would be the epitome of us, or truly, us him, and with the exception of who he is, he would blend right in! Who was he? King!

So we have a King without decoration, neither natural nor artificial.  There are things different about Jesus, though, which would make him stand out in a crowd: he is ordinary looking, he is righteous, he is modest, and he is true. By "true" I mean that he is what he is. We're not!

Figure #2:Before and After Make-up from Power of Makeup

To the left is an "uncomely" woman. She is common in appearance, even unattractive by secular standards. On the right is her "idol". What I mean is that she took the "tree" because we are copied from "The Tree of Life", with it's God-given beauty and decorated it. She now APPEARS to be beautiful. What this woman has done is decorated her flesh and made it her idol. She did it with rouge, lipstick, eye-shadow, and hair-styling and add onto that possibly Yoga, aerobics and dieting to the extreme. She adds holiday lights to the pine tree she is.

The focus is on her own flesh. That's becomes her other god even if she worships God. Her flesh is her idol! That's mankind's problem! Compare the right picture in Figure #2 to the depiction of Jesus in Figure #1.  He is common and without decor, but she is ordinary, but all adorned. It's not "me" that she should "adore", but Jesus. Her priorities are misplaced. Rather than all about Jesus, it has always been about "me"!

Even worse are things like:

• Being "true to self".
• "I won't change for anybody" yet look at the change in Fig. #2. It's for "self".
• Focusing on self-esteem rather than Christ-esteem.
• Loving oneself.
• etc.

You get the picture. Having "other gods before (besides) him" is adoring our own "Self". It's not idols of wood, stone nor even gold which is mankind's problem, but bowing to our own reflection!

The lady in Figure #2 on the left is not appeased until she looks like the Photo-shop of herself in the right picture. Every line is perfect and every hair in place! On the other hand look at Jesus in Figure #1. He IS what he IS. His name is "I AM" because he's nothing other than that. He's genuine. 

Of course there is no need to ignore our appearance. It's the extravagance and the priorities which matter! You can see that Jesus combed his hair and trimmed his beard. If he had been a wild-eyed strewn haired smelly man, the attention would have still been on his appearance, not his demeanor. There is a line between vanity and modesty. Pray about the difference!