The Towel of Jesus

John 12:12-16 12The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Blessed is the King of Israel!" 14Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, 15"Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt."

Images of Christ have been crafted for ages, icons and portraits that attempt to put us face to face with our Lord. But what is Jesus really like?

What did Jesus look like?

A laughing, short-bearded Jesus with dirty blond hair and blue eyes?

What about an African Jesus?

Or a clean-shaven Jesus, arms outstretched at the Last Supper?

Or an Asian Jesus with his Asian mother at his side?

Take your pick.

Picture the face of Jesus in your imagination. What do you see? Does he have an aquiline nose? Hair the color of walnut wood, parted in the middle, hanging straight to the ears, maybe turning to waves down to his shoulders?

Does he have a dark beard, dark eyes, tanned olive skin, high cheekbones, a narrow, handsome face filled with passion and kindness, and in his dark eyes, fire and compassion?

Is this how you picture him? Is this his true likeness?

Many centuries ago, an icon of Jesus was painted with these very familiar features. It is called The Mandylion Icon, from the Greek, meaning The Towel. Orthodox Christian tradition claims this icon as the first painting of Jesus. It is believed to be an accurate representation of his true likeness.

In the writings of the Ante-Nicene Fathers there’s a story of how The Mandylion Icon came to be: The fame of Jesus, the wonder worker and healer, had spread far beyond the lands of Judea, where he taught and worked and walked. Across the Euphrates River, in the city of Edessa — believed to be the modern southeastern Anatolian city of Sanliurfa in Turkey — lived a governor named Abgarus who suffered from an incurable disease that neither herbs nor doctors could heal. Hearing of Jesus’ miracles, Abgarus wrote him a letter, as recorded by Eusebius:

To Jesus called Christ, Abgarus the governor of the country of the Edessenes, an unworthy slave. The multitude of the wonders done by you has been heard of by me, that you heal the blind, the lame and the paralytic, and cure all the demoniacs; and on this account I entreat your goodness to come even to us, and escape from the plottings of the wicked authorities who hate you. My city is small, but large enough for both of us.

Abgarus convinced Ananias to deliver the letter and, while in Judea, to take an accurate account of Jesus — his appearance, his stature, his hair and his words. Ananias delivered the letter to Jesus, then stared at Jesus, trying to fix in his mind the face of Christ. Try though he did, Ananias couldn’t memorize the countenance of Jesus. Jesus, knowing Ananias’ heart, asked a disciple for a wash towel. A wet cloth was handed to him. He wiped his face on the towel, then gave it to Ananias. On the towel was the very image of the face of Christ. A miracle!

“Take this towel to Abgarus,” said Jesus, “and tell him I cannot come, for I must fulfill my destiny here, but later I will send my disciple, Thaddaeus, to heal him.” Ananias fell to the ground and worshiped Jesus, then returned to Abgarus in Edessa, who was healed by means of the miraculous towel long before Thaddaeus arrived.

Orthodox tradition claims that it was from this Towel of Edessa that the first ancient icon of Jesus, The Mandylion Icon, was later painted, which became a prototype for the faces of Jesus down through the centuries.

***Scripture teaches that we are made in God’s image, but often enough we remake Jesus as a reflection of our own image — projecting ourselves onto him. It isn’t just his features we reimagine. At times we reimagine and misunderstand his character, too.

We aren’t the only ones who do this. His true likeness, his character, has always been difficult to capture — even for those who knew him personally. When Jesus was with his friends, teaching, laughing, drinking wine and eating bread, visible, touchable and knowable, even then, he was rarely seen or understood for who he was.

On the day of the big festival when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, everyone present seemed to misunderstand who he was and where he was headed. Thus began a week in which the world, finally gaining a true likeness of him, finally understanding him to a certain degree, decided they didn’t like what they saw, preferring to put him away, permanently.

The adoring crowd expected a conquering king who could restore Israel’s ancient greatness, throwing off the weight of Roman servitude. What they got was a humble servant Savior.

The religious authorities thought he was a dangerous, riot-rousing rebel who’d lead the people astray. Little did they know that by killing him, he would become far more powerful, leading generations to God.

So what is the character and true likeness of Jesus?
Throughout the week to come,
• We’ll see Jesus righteously indignant at the materialism of the temple.
• We’ll witness him overturn tables while simultaneously turning the table-owning merchants against him.
• We’ll watch Jesus challenge his disciples while he faces their betrayal.
• We’ll see him prayerful in the garden, desiring not to fulfill his destiny, but knowing he must.
• And finally we’ll see him demonstrating sacrificial love on Friday.

This and more is the true likeness of Jesus.

The danger is that we, like the disciples, like the crowds of Jerusalem and the religious leaders, might be among those who “did not understand these things, Who did not see them clearly at first” (John 12:16).

They “did not understand.” They did not understand — what?

[NOTE: Here’s the part where you can drop in your own ideas. The following is what we suggest.]

They didn’t understand humble service. Jesus whipped out his towel and washed the feet of the disciples (see John 13). It blew them away. The disciples had continually bickered about their pride of place in the coming kingdom. Even at the Last Supper, only days after his entry into Jerusalem, the disciples of Jesus were still arguing about who among them was the greatest. It’s totally unreal: They have just eaten the bread and shared the cup, and a fight breaks out (Luke 22:24). They didn’t get it.

They didn’t understand sacrificial love. Jesus told them, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). At this, those in his hearing thought he was stark, raving mad (John 10:20 NIV). He would later say to his disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 NIV).

They didn’t understand his redemptive mission. He had come, he reminded his disciples, “not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32 KJV).

There’s more. They didn’t understand his welcoming compassion. While his heart broke for the multitudes, his disciples tried to send them away. They didn’t understand intercessory prayer. They had to ask Jesus how to pray. They didn’t understand the cost of discipleship; Jesus had to teach them the meaning of self-denial.

On Palm Sunday they didn’t understand him. They didn’t get it during the week, either. On Maundy Thursday, they understood him even less. On Good Friday — they gave it up, going home to return to their previous occupations. They had yet to perceive the true likeness of Jesus. They had seen the towel in action, but — unlike its effect on Abgarus — they had not seen a likeness of Jesus.
It was just a towel.

True Disciples, are those who bear the True Likeness of Christ. Are we up to the task? How are we doing? We are the sermons people hear. We are God’s art, God’s way of showing Jesus to others.

Participation pointers:
• The Procession of Children. Purchase palm branches (available through Christian bookstores or many secular flower shops), put one in the hand of each of the Sunday school children, and create a processional to open worship. The branches can be placed on the altar or in some other designated place.

Source:
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College, ccel.org/fathers2. Retrieved October 18, 2002.
“Icons through the centuries,” American Bible Society Web site, americanbible.org. Retrieved October 18, 2002.
Interview with Protopresbyter George Dion Dragas, Th.M., Ph.D., Tenured Professor of Church History and Dogmatics, Hellenic College, Brookline, Massachusetts, editor of Greek Orthodox Theological Review, gdragas@aol.com.
“True Likeness of Christ.” Christian Century. September 11-24, 2002, 49.

Commentary

It is relatively uncommon to find details from the life of Jesus that all four of the gospels tell in the same way. The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is one of those uncommon stories. Although John’s version of the story is much shorter than those found in the other three gospels, it shares with the other versions all of the central details: the crowd’s ceremonial greeting of Jesus, their cry of “Hosanna” and Jesus’ riding into the city on a donkey. All of these details paint a portrait of Jesus as the rightful Davidic heir to the throne of Israel.

Although John reduces the element of the story in which the crowd spreads their garments as well as their palm branches on the road, narrowing it down to just the bringing of palm branches (Matthew 21:8; Mark 11:8; Luke 19:36; John 12:13), the act of covering the road under the feet of the one anointed to be king recalls the coronation of Jehu as king of the northern kingdom (2 Kings 9:12-13). After the crowd covers the ground in front of Jehu they also proclaim, “Jehu is king.” In the procession of Jesus, a proclamation also follows, though it is not as direct as this.

***The proclamation of the crowd is a quotation from Psalm 118, a processional psalm in which a victorious warrior, perhaps the king, re-enters Jerusalem and is greeted by the crowds on his way to the temple to give thanks for victory. The quotation from this psalm in the gospels, however, does not pick up until verse 25. Although it is hard to tell from the NRSV translation, the first word in Psalm 118:25 is Hoshianna, the Greek Hosannah which translates to the English phrase, “Save us we beseech you!” The rest of verse 25 is left out of the gospels, however, and what follows instead are variations of verse 26, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” John also, however, inserts the phrase “the King of Israel.” That pronouncement isn’t in the original psalm.

The use of ceremonial palm branches is contained in the wider context of Psalm 118. Verse 27 reads: “The LORD is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar” (Psalm 118:27). The scene is so full of the same royal symbolism as that of Palm Sunday it is no wonder that this psalm was quoted by the gospel writers in their account of Jesus’ triumphal entry. While it may be going too far to point out this detail, in verse 21 the psalmist says, “I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation” — my yeshua. It is intriguing to think that the gospel writers knew that the noun which is also Jesus’ Hebrew name, Yeshua, occurs in the psalm in a verse which could then be read to mean “I thank you O God that you have become my Jesus.”

Although all of the gospels tell the story of Jesus riding into the city on a donkey, only Matthew and John cite the Old Testament prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 as the foretelling of this event. It is ironic that Matthew, whose gospel is targeted at a Jewish audience, seems to misunderstand Hebrew poetic parallelism and places Jesus on the back of TWO donkeys instead of one (Matthew 21:1-9). It is the more ironic that John, who is so steeped in Greek culture, correctly understands there to be only one animal in the picture. Aside from the issue of one donkey vs. two, another common misconception about this scene is that it is the act of riding on the donkey that made Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem an act of humility. The donkey or the mule, rather than the horse, however, was the traditional animal on which kings of Israel would ride to their coronation.

The tradition started with Solomon. In 1 Kings 1, which is, in fact, much like the scene of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, David instructs Nathan the prophet on how to ensure Solomon’s right to succeed him even though David’s eldest son Adonijah had already assumed that right. David instructs Nathan to take Solomon to the Gihon spring below the city near the Mount of Olives, place him on David’s own mule, anoint him together with Zadok the priest, blow the trumpet and say “Long live King Solomon.” Then they were to follow him up to the city and seat him on the throne (1 Kings 1:32-40). Aside from the public anointing by priest and prophet, and the actual sitting on the throne, Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem looks very much like an official coronation ceremony for a Davidic monarch.

What makes this a scene of humility is that the king arrives, not displaying the trappings of military might, such as the horse and chariot of the military ruler, but rather he arrives wearing only those signs that mark him as the true son of David, the rightful, if humble, heir to the throne. In Zechariah, the prophecy that begins with 9:9 continues to say “He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” Zechariah envisions the same thing (looking forward to the coming of a Davidic messiah) that John does when he looks back at Jesus — a king who comes, not in military might, but in the quiet possession of the divine right to rule.

But John has to lament that even those who lived at the time of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem did not realize what they were looking at. They were looking for a king with military power. They were looking for the conquering hero. They were not looking for David’s son, or if they believed they were, they were hoping for a Davidic king who could also provide the military leadership necessary to defeat the occupying Roman legions. The fact that Jesus had resisted becoming king earlier in his life (John 6:15) appears to have escaped those who were longing for him to take up that role. The whole message behind the triumphal entry appears to be that although he had every right to claim the throne as David’s heir, Jesus’ kingdom was indeed, not of this world, nor was his plan ever to limit his sovereignty to the occupation of David’s throne.

Animating Illustrations

We start with a cute little story that’s been around before. Normally we don’t use such stories, but this one is so perfect for the sermon theme, we want to remind you to use it:

A kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they drew. She would occasionally walk around to see each child’s artwork. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.

The girl replied, “I’m drawing God.”

The teacher paused and said, “But no one knows what God looks like.”

Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, “They will in a minute.”

Several legends circulated in medieval Europe about the source of a “true likeness” of Christ. According to some stories, an image of Christ’s face was retrieved from a towel on which Christ had dried his face. Another legend concerned an ancient emerald onto which the profile of Christ had been carved. The Grand Sultan of Constantinople presented the emerald to Pope Innocent VII in 1492 for a political favor. [A portrait, with the inscription “the similitude of our Lord” painted in England, reflects this event and the legend of the emerald. The painting is in oil on oak and dates from the reign of Henry VII (1485-1509).]

— “True Likeness” of Christ, Christian Century, September 11-24, 2002, 49.

Megan Choate is from Texas. She’s a senior in a high school where most teens, she says, might call themselves Christians, but tend to confuse that with wearing bracelets that ask WWJD? (What Would Jesus Do?) and singing in church. “We’re here [at The Duke Youth Academy] learning about what a Christian is and what one is not. We’re discussing issues most people tiptoe around, like racial prejudice and abortion, things that are very difficult to agree on — and often we don’t. But we aren’t here to get that warm, fuzzy feeling. We learn in depth about who Christ really was, and that’s not always pleasant. He was poor and hated, and his death was gruesome.”

— Patrick Adams, “Faith goes to school,” Duke Magazine, September-October 2002, 18.

What did Jesus look like? There are no known portraits made of him when he was alive and not even any descriptions of how he looked. Of course, the gospel writers were primarily concerned with how Jesus lived inside them making ripples in the world in his name.

Over the centuries, painters, sculptors and artisans from all over the globe have imagined the face of Jesus. His countenance has been conveyed in illuminated Bibles, paintings, sculptures, icons, mosaics, murals, stained-glass windows and pieces of cloth. All this despite the campaigns of the iconoclasts who argue that images of the Holy One detract from the mystery of divinity ....

The variety of images shows the struggles artists have had in portraying the one who is viewed within Christianity as both human and divine. As you watch this extraordinary documentary, keep in mind the words of Frederick Buechner, who once wrote about the face of Jesus: “Like the faces of the people we love, it has become so familiar that unless we take pains, we hardly see it at all. Take pains. See it for what it is and, to see it whole, see it, too, for what it is just possible that it will become: the face of Jesus as the face of our own secret and innermost destiny, the face of Jesus as our face.”

— Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, review of the movie The Face: Jesus in Art, by Craig MacGowan. Spirituality & Health Web site, spiritualityhealth.com. Retrieved October 18, 2002.

Icons were used in the first centuries of Christianity, first as objects of decoration or private devotion, and later exposed in Christian churches for public veneration. Apocryphal writings of the second century relate that the icon of the Blessed Mother painted by St. Luke was the first icon. According to another legend, Jesus himself gave an “image of his sacred face,” called the Icon Made Without Hands (Nerukotvorennyj Obraz), to the apostle Thaddaeus, who used it for miraculous healing and the conversion of the Chaldean King Abgar of Edessa (cf Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. I, 13). Although these are only legends, nevertheless they confirm an historical fact that in the East the veneration of icons originated in the Syro-Palestinian region, the cradle of Christianity.

— “Veneration of Icons in the Byzantine Rite,” byzantines.net. Retrieved October 12, 2002.

Christ is recognizable in all sorts of images: in painting, sculpture, film and illustration. His likeness is familiar, yet the gospels and early Christian texts do not provide any information about his appearance. [A book called The Image of Christ, by Gabriele Finaldi] reveals how the challenge of representing Christ has been confronted through the ages. It explores how artists have portrayed someone who is both God and man, human and divine, mortal and immortal ....

In the earliest items he is represented principally by symbols and images — the Good Shepherd, the Light, the Vine, Alpha and Omega, and so on; these have proved to be potent and enduring metaphors. The authors go on to show how a concern with his “true likeness” emerged, based on miraculous “true” images — particularly the “Veronica” image — the likeness Christ imprinted on the cloth held out to him by Saint Veronica on the way to Calvary.

Also illustrated are a number of works focusing on Christ’s childhood, which confront the problem of representing the paradox of his dual nature as someone who is weak and powerful, victim and victor.

— Description of The Image of Christ, by Gabriele Finaldi (Yale University Press, 2000), Web site of the Yale University Press of London, yaleup.co.uk. Retrieved October 18, 2002.

There appears to be a cloth discovered in Edessa, Turkey, in A.D. 525 that bore a face image that was declared “The True Likeness” of Christ, “Not made by human hands.” Following this discovery, Byzantine images all began to conform to this True Likeness. That iconographic tradition still holds today in Eastern, Greek and Russian Orthodox churches. The cloth that was discovered in 525 was known as “The Image of Edessa.” In later centuries it became known as “The Mandylion.” The Legend of King Abgar tells the story of how it came to Edessa from Israel in the first century ... but that’s another story.

There are remarkable resemblances between early icon images and the image that is on the Shroud [of Turin]. Could these early artists have been looking at the Shroud image? Or was the Mandylion just another fabricated artwork that disappeared in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade? Critics have a legitimate claim because the documented history of the cloth does not begin in Western Europe until 1353, when if first appears in France. That date also coincides with the carbon-14 date.

Yet the last Shroud Report told of the remarkable discovery of pollen from plants that grow only in Israel and flower images that indicate it was used in an actual burial. A dilemma indeed.

— “The Mandylion and the Shroud,” The Shroud Report, shroud2000.com. Retrieved October 18, 2002.

Children's Sermon

Ask the children to tell you what they would do if they heard that Jesus was coming to town today. Find out if they would put on their best clothes ... go out and buy some chips and dip ... clean their rooms ... put up a big banner. Let them know that all of these are good ways to prepare for a special guest, but the people of Jerusalem did something different: “they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him” (John 12:13). Ask the children if they can guess why the people pulled down “branches of palm trees.” Hold up a palm branch, and explain that palms were symbols of national triumph and victory, and the people waved them for Jesus because they considered him to be their national hero, the one who would free them from the Romans. Wave a small American flag, and suggest that the people of Jerusalem waved palm branches the way we might wave flags at a parade for our war heroes. Then ask the children: Was this the right thing to do? Was Jesus really a national hero, who was coming to save the people from the Romans? Shake your head “no,” and explain that Jesus was coming to lead them to a kingdom in heaven, not a kingdom on earth. Stress that when we hold up palm branches today, we point them toward the kingdom of God in heaven.

Worship Resources

Call to Worship

L: Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
P: Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
All: Hosanna in the highest heaven!
— Mark 11:9-10.
Affirmation of Faith

Assurance of Pardon
We already know the ending to this story. Though we participate in Christ’s betrayal, our salvation is sure because God raised Jesus from the dead. Hear and believe this incredible good news: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.
Music Links

Hymns
Ride On, Ride On in Majesty
Filled with Excitement (Mantosy Palmas)
O Trinity, Your Face We See

Praise
Hosanna
I Will Seek Your Face, O Lord
I Love to Be in Your Presence