For the six weeks of the church season of Lent, as well as for “Holy Week” (the week before Easter), I will try to explore how fully invested the Lord Jesus was in regard to securing our salvation.  The penalty for our sin was no small thing, and it exacted a huge toll on him.  Yet he was determined to be our holy Substitute. 

Each week I’ll share some thoughts on yet another part of Jesus’ body which he committed to the cause.  These posts will form the basis of our Wednesday evening worship discussions.  I pray they provide wonderful food for thought, and blessed encouragement to all of us!

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What did Jesus look like?

It’s a two-thousand-year-old mystery.  Most people perhaps see him as Warner Sallman’s famous portrait portrays him.  (Many of us probably have that picture hanging on a wall somewhere in our house.)  The majority of illustrations of Jesus show a similar profile.  Even the Shroud of Turin seems to reveal a man similar to how most envision the face of the Savior looked.

But let’s set aside that discussion for the time being, because ultimately it doesn’t matter.

What does matter are the impressions those close to Jesus and privileged to know him personally witnessed.  How blessed they were to have a firsthand eye-witness view of the face of the Son of God himself!

I suspect that his smile was a delight to behold, and warmed the hearts of all whom he graced with it. What a joy it must have been to watch him throw his head back and laugh.  And in contrast, how intimidating to view the set of his jaw and righteous anger radiating from his eyes when someone slighted God. 

Those close to him saw him turn his head toward those bringing requests or questions, witnessed deep love and compassion demonstrated in his facial features, and watched as tears of sorrow flowed down his cheeks.  They heard him speak, and when they did they heard the very voice of God.

Is it any wonder then that Jesus stated privately to his disciples, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it” (Luke 10:23-24).

It was a face that those close to Jesus came to love; a head they were always glad to lay eyes upon.

Yet in a matter of hours after he allowed himself to be arrested, Jesus’ head was bruised, beaten and bleeding, his brain undoubtedly concussed, and his face almost unrecognizable.

Both the temple guards after his illegal trial by the High Priest and Sanhedrin, and the Roman soldiers following his “conviction” by Governor Pilate, treated Jesus similarly.  They all began with spitting in his face, then progressed to slapping it with their palms and slugging it with their fists. 

In their cruelty, the temple guards invented a new “game.”  They blindfolded Jesus, struck him, and then mocked him by saying, “Prophesy to us, Messiah. Who hit you?” (Mt. 26:67-68).  In the end, they tired of this sport and simply “beat him” (Mk. 14:65).

The legionnaires took things to an entirely different level. 

“Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again” (Matthew 27:27-30).

Let me pull a few lines out of the previous paragraph and repeat them. “They twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head … and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again.”

There may not be a more sensitive part of the body than the scalp when it comes to the pain of being pierced.  The soldiers not only pressed the crown of thorns on Jesus’ head, but they beat it down repeatedly with a staff!  Which would lead to concussion, contusions, abrasions, and broken off and embedded thorns … perhaps even in Jesus’ skull.  Those broken barbs undoubtedly remained there through his crucifixion, forming bleeding pinpoints of pain … even if the woven thorn crown was removed.

Another unsettling thought: the all-knowing Jesus not only knew who would be hitting him, but exactly when and where … even blindfolded as he was.  Yet he never cringed.  He had to endure it all!

The pre-incarnate Christ, knowing full-well what awaited him, spoke through the prophet Isaiah about how fully invested even his face and head were both in his earthly ministry … and in winning our salvation on this day of brutal beating.

“The Sovereign LORD has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away. I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. (Isaiah 50:4-7)

The spitting, slapping, hitting, beard-pulling, piercing and clubbing were all part of the process.  Jesus’ head and face took a horrific beating.  He knew they would, but Jesus was completely committed.  He was fully invested in winning our forgiveness and securing our salvation.  And thanks be to Him that he was!

We don’t know what Jesus looked like during his ministry, but we have a pretty good idea of his appearance following his arrest.  It wasn’t pretty, but it certainly was beautiful.