What did Jesus Look Like?
I’m only slightly annoyed at the pictures at many (if not all) Christian churches which depict Jesus. Sometimes he has blonde hair and blue eyes – Nordic Jesus. Once in the South, I saw an “Elvis Jesus”, which seemed a bit blasphemous. I went to a snake church in Kentucky that had Jesus holding a rattlesnake some years ago. Churches that cater to a primarily negro congregation often have paintings that depict ‘black Jesus’. Last week, I saw a painting of Jesus that made him look like an emaciated hippie. Then there’s the shroud of Turin that has a questionable provenance.
How do you prefer your Jesus (link)?
One more opinion: “We know Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his ministry (Luke 3:23), but the Bible tells us virtually nothing about what he looked like―except that he didn’t stand out in any particular way. When Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane before the Crucifixion (Matthew 26:47-56) Judas Iscariot had to point Jesus out to his soldiers among the disciples―presumably because they all appeared similar to one another.”
The Assisted Living Scam
Have you ever seen an organization chart for an assisted living business?
In short capital is pooled at a level where it is structurally not reachable in cash or asset forms from litigation settlements. So when patients are neglected and or beaten or medical malpractice happens they get sued but only the management company can be reached – never the building or the bank accounts of the investors.
This causes a chain reaction that forces the management company to spend mass sums of money on insurance as the surety is well aware of the lack of capital cushion behind – hence they are on the hook for the full amount – and then they pass those charges onto patients in cash.
This is why it’s so expensive.
Meanwhile the premiums produce current deductions for income tax purposes which largely get passed up chain to the limited partners providing a cash incentive to structure this way to the tune of several fills of gas in their yachts every year.
What would it cost to rent a room at a Holiday Inn and have a nurse pop in and have meals on wheels deliver food? Likely a better bargain than being warehoused in a facility that smells like human waste and Clorox. Most of the people who are tucked away in the Assisted living scam don’t have anyone who comes to visit them and check up on their welfare. No advocates. We live in a society where stuffing our elderly into places where we don’t have to look at them is convenient.
2A Sanctuary in Virginia – A Spreading Militia Movement
There will be a lot of talk about this over the next year.
American Partisan – “In all of history there has never been a civil war where, at the outset of hostilities, the resisting indigenous population was armed to the teeth with rifles capable of making 500 to 1,000 yard aimed precision shots. Never.”
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| 2A Sanctuary Movement Map |
Michael Bloomberg and George Soros teamed up to fund the whores in the Virginia Legislature and executive branch to find a way to disarm the Old Dominion because they saw the place as a domino. It may end up as a different type of domino.
There was a large meeting with the Board of Supervisors of Yavapai County, Arizona, last week, wherein it was proposed to make Yavapai County a 2A Sanctuary County. (which would be another big green mark on the map – right) The Board of Supervisors all agreed with the crowd of armed people who flooded into the county offices (with many more standing outside). The trend is interesting and it was all triggered by Bloomberg and Soros (thanks guys, I guess). In much the same way that Barack was the greatest salesman of small arms and ammunition that the world has ever seen, other East Coast Elites are triggering the armed public to approach their County Sheriffs and ask them to deputize every adult with a clean record – creating militias. The militias can then lawfully train together and can seek professional assistance from law enforcement and retired military professionals.
Now a word from Iran
I have spent some time trying to figuring out what made Christianity a religion and secured the growth in the first beginning. Especially the first periode where Nero and others enjoyed putting Christians on fire, torture and kill them. What made People take the toll to become Christians? Especially the first periode where it was a People movement and the church bureacracy was not in place. The risk was high and many People gave away a more comfortable lifestyle and their fortune to help other People. My conclusion related to the look of Jesus is that it do not matter in the beginning. Mainly because they where living in the same area, under the same sun and the People more or less belonged to the same ethnical groups. But the look might be a factor later as the religion expanded to New territories and identity became a factor when the church promoted the story and defined what works in the local context. New members was not in a position to ever have seen any other ethnical group than their own. So it is kind of predictable that their art express and reflected their perception of the local ethnical group. But that is kind of beside what is important.
What made Christianity so powerful in the early beginning, and still is, if you look at the values that convinced People in the early beginning. Compared to Islam you will find interesting differences when it comes to distribution and content. Why many 'Christian liberals' embrace Islam is something I do not understand. Next time you meet one of them ask if they can tell how the historical (since we have many independant sources confirming) Jesus died. If the answer is crusified on a cross according to Roman traditions in that area you will know that the person has not read the Quoran since the muslim do not think that. The strengt of Christianity is to be find in the values that the first Christians believed in, and in many ways shaped European societies in the following periode, before the church organization took over.
Some years back I read an article about the possible appearance of Christ. It seems that Richard Neave a forensic anthropologist Did a reconstruction of the face of a man of the region based on a skull that had been found locally. He made no claim that it was the actual face of Jesus, but did speculate that He may have looked similar to it.
Our betters are losing their touch: first we elect a non-sanctioned president (unlike Jeb!), much to the displeasure of our betters. Now we are resisting their efforts to disarm the Great Unwashed. Our betters don't like that, either, and are confounded at our insubordination.
These betters clearly forgot the lessons of Marie Antoinette and the guillotines of the past. At some point, we lessers stand up against tyranny, and that point is fast approaching.
And our betters don't like it, not one bit.
youtube.com/watch?v=uZfRaWAtBVg
There are Americans who want to sell their birthright (cheaply) to the elites and globalists. They're happy to turn in their firearms and accept whatever crumbs that a communist regime would hand them.
But I don't see that most of the country sees it their way. The voting map for 2016 is encouraging. There were just a few blue dots (liberal inner city hells) that voted for free stuff (or the PROMISE of free stuff) from Hillary. Bloomberg is just Hillary with different plumbing and more money.
I think that your analysis is spot on, John. The Quoran is not a particularly reliable work if one is looking at historical precedent, unless one is tracking Mohammed's bloody convert-or-die campaigns – or those of his heirs.
It doesn't matter what Jesus looked like. I was simply poking in the little piece that I wrote.
I think that I saw that as well. That representation didn't look much like Elvis.
I'm trying to remember the SF novel that has the Church of the Risen Elvis as a growing cult on its way to becoming an established religion. It was quite a few years ago. But I remember being struck by how human nature and the "right" personalities can spark movements. Joseph Smith and the Church of Latter Day Saints is one successful one. It's possible to imagine a future where Mormonism is overwhelmingly dominant, lord knows the Mormons do.
Larry, even though this is technically a "Sunday Sermonette", I don't like to get too deep in the weeds on this blog when it comes to religion. But most movements, religious or otherwise, find it necessary to reinvent themselves continually in order to stay relevant. I do not say this with any cynicism.
The Democrat Party is one of those institutions (pulling the discussion away from specific religions). It started out as a pro-slavery party and its leadership included Klansmen through the early 2000's. Then it became the Party of the working man, of unions and today it's a blend of grievance groups from communists like Sanders and Warren to the gay lobby (Butt Guy) and Big Wall Street like Bloomberg. They don't have a unified narrative and only are united in their fear of the ascendant Donald Trump, who threatens to break the back of the deep state scam. They have tried to reinvent themselves to stay current and relevant and have to resort to lavish promises that they could never keep in order to retain the gullible and greedy.
Seems we humans have a need for symbolic images. Is this some form of idolatry?
Some might call it idolatry – graven images and all that. I think that humans like to have a frame of reference. Whether it's God and Adam in the Sistine Chapel or a statue of Jesus Christ or a picture. And I don't think that it's wrong to portray Jesus in different ways. I just find it interesting to see how it plays so strongly into cultural prejudice. As a Christian who believes in the divinity of Jesus Christ, I allow myself the right to take a step back.
I even like to see "Draw Mohammed Contests", especially in Texas.
Thanks for the succinct homily.
I've always thought Jesus looked much like his image on the Shroud and he obviously wasn't a negro or a hippy. Herod, on the other hand, was thoroughly Roman, we have a bust. He was also a killer.
Excellent piece on the death house scam. I've spent a lot of time over the years visiting their victims. Some happy, some less so.
Part of what secured the growth of Christianity was the Church's stance against child sacrifice. Seriously. Though most Roman cults did not practice adult human sacrifice, baby sacrifices were common. And since when a sacrifice was required, the rich could afford to sacrifice the poor's children.
Insert a religion where all life is sacred, and 'poof' you've got support from the poor.
Then there's the concept that the average man or woman would attain spiritual saving and entrance into a good afterlife without paying out huge sums of money. Heck, in Christianity, even the poorest of the poor could be saved and secure a place in Heaven. Quite unlike most of the Roman cults.
The Mary worship (Marians) helped, too. The Church's saintly stance towards both Marys, but especially the Holy Mother, which, basically, elevated the typical house frau to equal status as a male, was far above the typical polytheistic stance.
Then toss in the Church's open support of the average foot-soldier, and you've got the two most powerful groups in Rome. The Poor, and the Army. And especially the women of the Poor and the Army.
Make women more than just breeding machines, and save all the babies possible. Right there, a more sane religion than those around it.
And now… well.. we have 'Christian' churches fully supporting abortion and assisted suicide. And Churches supporting politicians who support abortion and assisted suicide. Oy vey. It's all so meshugenah!
By seeing 'God' and 'His Son' as humans, along with the saints, humanizes Christianity.
And, well, as a Catholic, I've gotten that whole idolatry from my Protestant friends. Meh. I think it's nice to be reminded that mere man is truly made in his image.
If you watch the ownership of assisted living facilities, it really gets interesting.
A facility will open, be great, good care. As soon as expenses start impacting the profit, the opening organization will sell it.
Then the second group will run it till their profit drops below their threshhold. They'll cut staff, lower staff salaries, reduce perks, things will start turning shabby, but eventually they'll start not making as much money as they want. They'll thus sell it off to a third party.
Third party runs the place further into the ground, pulling what profit they can while the food gets worse and worse, the patient care goes from okay to bad, and so does maintenance. Once all the profit is sucked dry, they'll sell it.
Continue cycle of less patient care, worse food, worse maintenance, lesser and lesser profits, facility being sold and resold until no one will buy it because the place just truly is a horror.
Then either the state buys it, or the state shuts it down.
Same thing goes for 'county' hospitals.
"I Remember When….." the posters of a "Laughing Jesus" first made the rounds. Some screamed "Sacrilege!", some were horrified, some were outraged, and some were amused.
I thought it was humorous, and probably accurate. If our Savior never laughed or cracked a joke, then what's the point?
I don't think it matters what Jesus looked like. He lives in all of us who believe, and that's what does matter.
I maintain that any "Christian" church that supports the slaughter of the unborn and recently born can in no way be called Christian.
Your comments on the status of Mary and its impact on the success of the Christian faith are really on point. It was transformative. And winning the hearts of the army (not necessarily poor), which dictated in many cases who would be emperor in Rome, was equally transformative.
Mankind has a divine spark, but sometimes it's difficult to find.
The 'death houses' reflect the very worst in Western society. How can somebody claim to be honorable or Christian, or in any way 'good' and abandon those who raised and cherished them to places like that. I agree that if you've lost your mind, the clown show with pudding may make your day. However, being in those places will make you lose your mind.
Last year, a guy I knew and worked with. Brave, honorable, not old, was discovered by my former co-workers at a "rehab facility" in Denton, TX. Collectively, those of us who loved him, sprung him, got him decent medical care, and put him in a better place. I was SHOCKED to tears at his circumstances. He's doing ok, and God willing, will live abundantly to a ripe old age outside of the death house. He was there because none of us knew he was. I wouldn't wish that end on Pelosi…
Horror and moral terror at a very gut level, pushed for fun and profit on our most vulnerable.
No, it doesn't matter what he looked like. Depictions often play on our vanity.
+1
My mother developed dementia + alzheimer's in her late 70's. She regressed into a non verbal state with limited physical mobility. My sister and I had to put her into a long term care facility. She spent nine years there. My sister and I monitored her care weekly. She received great care. I don't doubt any of the horror stories but not every place is like that.
My grandmother lived with me/my family until she was 96. Her situation deteriorated until we were forced to put her in a care facility. My experience was different than yours. I had to get medieval with the people running the facility when they crossed the line with me after she passed away. And because it was personal, the war extended for some time, and they lost. They never saw the scenario in the same way that I did, but it didn't matter. When they were financially ruined, I let up. But I still hold a lot of malice toward them. Some might say that it was a case of dramatic overreaction on my part. I thought of it as a reckoning.
Sure. I just had that particular sect sitting in my forebrain after a discussion with She Who Must Be Obeyed about my numerous Mormon in-laws. The behaviour of groups is remarkably similar across the whole spectrum of human organizations. Especially the dysfunctions they tend to develop. "Systemantics" was a pretty decent book that came out in the 1980s trying to ecplain the phenomenon.
The LDS church is unique in its structure that makes change almost a normal part of the business of faith. A living prophet makes decisions, and the faithful obey. The dogma that "that's the way it is and that's the way it will always be" is not there to the same extent that you may find it elsewhere.
It's not unlike the military. We were wearing khaki and now we're wearing camo. Yes sir.
Change almost always makes people feel uncomfortable. Whether it's in the military, in a church or in a family (here's you're new mommy). But it's in our DNA and that of the universe where we live. Collaboration, cooperation, and adapting to new situations is what made humans successful apex predators.
He is The Word. Not The Painting.
A picture takes away from the image He is trying to convey in Scripture.
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