What should a Christian look like?

Throughout the years, Christians have spent a good deal of time and energy concerned with what a Christian should look like. That would be perfectly appropriate if I were talking about the inside, how a Christian should act, think, serve others, and the like. Unfortunately, history has shown us that Christians often seem more concerned with what a Christian looks like physically. Thus it is that we get such horror stories as white European missionaries making all Native American children cut their hair, and the horrendous and preposterous belief that African Americans are the cursed descendants of Ham (Gen 9:22-27) simply because their skin is dark.

This also comes through in many modern portrayals of Jesus. Many drawings of Jesus from the twentieth century portray Jesus as a white European. A more recent picture of Christ is more reminiscent of Michael W. Smith than a Palestinian Jew (my friend Jen always called it the "Brad Pitt Jesus"). I also remember an uproar over a picture of Mary on the cover of Time Magazine a few years ago because she looked "too dark." My friends, these were Jews who lived in the desert! Their skin was likely very dark. Jesus walked around in the desert and slept on the ground. If he wasn't dark from the sun, he was probably dark from the dirt. My guess is that he might look like someone whom many would turn away from if they saw him walking down the street; the same people who would do a double take if such a person walked into their church. The only reason? He doesn't look like us.

Jesus warned against this very thing in a parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted." (Luke 18:10-14)

A slightly more contemporary story also captures the point: A few years ago a popular Christian singer/songwriter came to Asbury College to give a concert. Asbury College and Asbury Seminary both have ethos statements requiring their students to promise that they will not "drink, smoke or chew or run with the girls that do." (This comes from the Holiness tradition out of which the schools stem.) Although it is not the intent of the statements, they are often misinterpreted to be claiming that Christians never smoke and never have a drink and never consort with "those types of people."

It is said that that same week, a strange man was frequently seen around the campus of the seminary. He stood out because he had long hair, dirty clothes and he was always barefoot. He especially stood out when he smoked his cigarettes. Few put it together, however, that this strange man was the Christian artist himself. His name was Rich Mullins, one of the most Christlike figures of the twentieth century.

The Good News is that Christ came into the world to save all people of all cultures of all classes. Therefore, there can be no official "way" that a Christian should physically look. Because any possible way a person can look on this earth is a possible way for a Christian to look. That is the beauty of God's creation and will be the beauty of his kingdom.