White Jesus

There are very few "celebrity pastors" that I follow and respect. One of the exceptions to this is Judah Smith. Judah is the lead pastor of a mega church in Seattle Washington. He recently wrote a book called Jesus is ____. The purpose of this book is to tell the story of Jesus and who He is.

In promoting the book he put billboards around the city that simply said Jesus is _____. Leaving a blank on the billboard left the door open for people to vandalize and fill in the blank. As you can see from the picture, someone wrote 'middle eastern' in this spot.

Seeing this picture on Instagram got me thinking how rarely people in this culture view Jesus as a middle eastern man. I don't know the exact history of how Jesus became white but I'm sure it has to do with the church trying to make an image of Jesus that people can relate to in this culture.

I feel like this goes beyond simply making Jesus white, it also involves making Jesus into someone we can manipulate into something we are more comfortable with. People are guilty of doing this all the time. I'm sure we have all heard someone say "my Jesus would never". This is something people inside the church are guilty of doing. However, people outside the church are guilty of this as well. Often it takes a different appearance. Proof of this is t-Shirts that say "Jesus is my homeboy". This sort of this makes Jesus into the guy who lets things slide, making it easier to live a life of sin.

When Jesus was alive He was not interested in catering to people's expectations of Him. He spoke the truth wherever He went and I believe that's what we need to do wherever we go. All of this needs to be coupled with love.