People talk about Black Jesus. Was Jesus Black? He wasn’t white. Jesus was a Jew from ancient Palestine. He was Middle Eastern. Yet we picture him as white with long flowing hair. What is this all about?
The following is a text version of this posting.
Maybe you’ve noticed this before. If you haven’t, consider this: almost all of the pictures you and I see of Jesus portray him as a white guy. He’s usually young, handsome, with flowing hair, and sometimes with blue eyes. Jesus was Jewish and lived in ancient Judea. Why isn’t he pictured as a skinny brown-skinned guy with curly hair? Isn’t that what the historical Jesus would have looked like?
Today, many people ask about a Black Jesus. It’s an important topic. But before I address Black Jesus, I want to consider some things related to how Jesus has been depicted historically.
We have no images of Jesus from his lifetime. Nor are there any descriptions of his appearance. The first image that we have today of Jesus is from the third century, probably the late 200s. That means that the oldest picture we have today was created about 250 years after Jesus died. In this image, Jesus is depicted as the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd was one of the central metaphors about Jesus used by his followers in the first centuries after his death. In this picture, Jesus is portrayed in Greco-Roman style. He looks like a young man from Greece or Rome, dressed in Roman attire, with loose curly hair. The image isn’t in color, but he doesn’t look European, Middle Eastern, or African. He looks Mediterranean.
Two other images survived from the third and fourth centuries. In these two images, Jesus is also dressed in a Roman-style tunic and appears Mediterranean. The next oldest image is from the sixth century and is housed in an Egyptian monastery. It’s an Orthodox icon titled Christ the Pantocrator. It’s an image commonly found in most Orthodox churches today. In this image, Jesus looks Middle Eastern or Egyptian.
It’s important to know that in the eighth and ninth centuries, many Christians believed that images of Jesus or the saints should be destroyed. This was to prevent the worshiping of images rather than following the teachings of Jesus. Throughout this period, a significant amount of religious art was destroyed. Churches became void of any art. Because of this, it’s difficult to determine how the earlier followers of Jesus portrayed him.
By the end of the first millennium, Christianity was deeply intertwined with government. This process began in the fourth century and grew to the point that the church often was wedded to governments and empires. In Eastern Orthodoxy, in the Egyptian and Coptic churches, and eventually in Western Europe, Christianity in one form or another was aligned with kings and emperors. In Western Europe, popes would affirm the enthronement and coronation of kings. In the East, bishops and metropolitans were active in the royal court. With that, Christianity took on nationalistic tendencies including art that represented the government and culture. In essence, within Christian history, this marriage between church and state is what led to so many things going very badly for ordinary people.
Stepping away from the intrigue of the church and state dynamics in Christianity, one key value for artistic images of Jesus was to depict Jesus like people of the day. A key belief in Christianity is that Jesus was born to be someone like us. It makes sense that early images of Jesus depict him in Greco-Roman apparel and looking Mediterranean. But as history evolved and colonialism became global, the images of Jesus monolithically conveyed the cultures of the colonizers. After all, a colonial power wouldn’t want people in the colonies to think that God looked like the colonists. Part of colonialism was to create colonies that resembled the mother countries.
Now, we’re in the 21st Century. The age of colonialism is over, even though many parts of the world continue to suffer from its impact. Yet, Jesus has remained white. White Jesus is taken by Evangelical missionaries who attempt to spiritually colonize people in many parts of the world. This is contrary to a simple reading of the teachings of Jesus.
Instead, it’s time for followers of Jesus to recognize that they are called to encounter Christ in every person they meet. This means that it’s critical for us all to consider images of a Black Jesus, a Latino Jesus, an Indigenous Jesus, an Asian Jesus, and not just a white Jesus. By limiting our experience to images of a white Jesus, we are perpetuating the cycle of colonialism and claiming that God is most present in the bodies of fair-skinned people. That, in my mind, is a grave sin against the Creator of all humanity who breathed into all humanity the breath of life.