The Beauty of Christ

True Beauty Sermon Series

As we continue on in the season of Lent, I wanted to do a series that really invites us to look at Jesus. As Hebrews 12 says, “to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”

In our spiritual formation group, we’ve been going through James Bryan Smith’s book, the Good and Beautiful God. We often talk about God’s goodness, but not so much God as being beautiful.

John Eldridge has a book on Jesus called, “Beautiful Outlaw” - a wonderful book, one that captures so well the wild beauty of Jesus.

So, that’s what we’re going to be doing - my hope and prayer is, by end of our time, that your heart will be drawn more and more to our beautiful savior.

Prayer

Beyond Skin Deep

When you think about beauty, what comes to mind?

Flowers? Gorgeous scenery - a sunset? Rainbow?

Perhaps an attractive woman? After all, we have “beauty contests”, “beauty products”, even a movie, “Beauty and the Beast” (there’s a fun Saturday Night Live sketch, debates arises between Belle and the prince about exactly which one of them is the Beauty and which one is the Beast.)

If we go to dictionary, the primary definitions for beauty has to do with the pleasure it gives our senses, especially sight. Beauty relates to combination of qualities such as shape, color, form.

So, in it’s simplest form, something is considered beautiful is because it’s pleasurable to look at. We have sayings in our culture that reflect this

“Beauty is only skin deep” - it has to do with outward appearance

Or, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”

It’s fascinating question (at least I think it’s fascinating) to consider - why does concept of beauty even exist?

Why do we find people or things beautiful? What’s the purpose of beauty? Why this sensation of pleasure? Why are we attracted to beauty?

Those who hold a purely evolutionary view would say that it has to do with survival of species - it brings sexes together in order to procreate.

That seems to make some sense, clearly, as humans beauty attracts us to one another sexually. There are examples in animal kingdom, various differences between males and females that seem designed to attract members of the opposite sex…male cardinals and their bright red coat, male peacocks bright plummage.

Bees attracted to flowers to spread pollen.

But that doesn’t explain why we find pieces of music beautiful. Or we’re mesmerized by a work of art. Or our hearts are stirred by poetry.

Or why we sit and gaze at a sun setting over ocean, look in awe over a mountain valley with a river cascading through it.

Beauty Points Us to God

Our opening Scripture, Psalm 27:4, we see the heart of David expressed - One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek…to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.

RC Sproul says: “Just as the normative standard for the good and for the true is God, so the ultimate standard of beauty is God.”

But what does that mean? How can God be the standard of beauty? How can we gaze upon his beauty when we can’t even see him?!

It’s helpful here to dive into language in Scripture

There’s a Hebrew word used throughout the Old Testament that helps us understand the beauty of God. The word is “tov”. (T-O-V)

It’s most often translated “good”, but it can also be translated as beautiful or sense that something is working the way it’s supposed to. It is well crafted. Put together just right.

One of the primary places we see word “tov” is in Genesis 1, it’s repeated over and over again throughout the story of creation. At end of each day, God steps back, looks at what he’s formed and fashioned - way he shaped oceans, raised up mountains, filled the night sky with billions of celestial bodies, rich variety of animals roaming all over…and he declares, it is “tov”.

This is good. It’s Beautiful. It’s working exactly way I made it to. Nathan Albert expresses it well, our experience of God’s tov:

When I eat a delicious meal at a nice restaurant, I get lost in the meal. I quickly become so overwhelmed with the tastes, flavors, temperatures and smells that, for a few minutes, I become a horrible dinner partner. I usually eat while every so often muttering the words, “Oh, that’s good.” Something similiar happens when I go to an art museum. I love standing in front of a painting that was created decades, even centuries, before I was born. Inevitably, I get lost in a painting. As I stand before the masterpiece, I usually mutter the words, “Oh, that’s beautiful.” And, when I am in nature seeing an animal moving and living as it was created to live, I get lost in the moment. This happened the first time I saw a dolphin swimming through the ocean. It was doing what it was created to do. I end up amazed, muttering, “Wow, God, it’s working the way it’s supposed to. It’s doing what it was created to do.” Good. Beautiful. Working the way it’s supposed to. That’s tov.

On last day of creation, 6th day, it goes a step further. When God creates us, male and female, in his image - he steps back and declares it, “tov meod.” Very good. Amazingly beautiful. My best work.

This points us beyond skin deep notion of beauty

It’s why there are other sayings that aren’t quite as prevalent, but speak about the fullness of what I would say is “True Beauty”

“Beauty, unaccompanied by virtue, is as a flower without perfume.”

“A good character is true beauty that never fails.”

Peter, in his first letter, is writing to wives about inner beauty., he writes: ”Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”

The heart of this applies to not just to wives, but all women - and all men! The beauty that we’re to seek to cultivate in our lives is true beauty, tov - goodness, living as God made us to live.

That’s how we’re to adorn ourselves. That’s what’s truly attractive.

And isn’t that exactly the case? Aren’t we are drawn, attracted to, things that are truly beautiful? We want to share in them somehow.

It may be the physically attractive person who first catches our attention, but honestly, that’s fleeting.

In long run we’re much more drawn to that person who may not be most physically attractive, but there’s something wonderful about their spirit, their heart. They have that easy laughter, a gentle spirit, they immediately make you feel comfortable, cared for, they compliment quickly. They don’t take themselves too seriously, they delight in life - in others!

There’s a scene in the movie about Mr. Rogers, It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, where writer comes to interview him for story his editor has assigned him. Writer can’t figure out why editor thinks Mr. Rogers is a hero. Interview ends awkwardly and writer leaves without saying good-bye. Early the next morning, his phone rings. As Glen Vanderkloot tells story:

The wife answers the phone and when she realizes that it is Mr. Rogers, she attempts to give the phone to her husband. But since Mr. Rogers has her on the phone, he wants to talk to her. It is evident he cares about her, her life and her feelings.

When she finally puts her husband on the phone, Mr. Rogers reminds the writer that he left without saying goodbye. That’s why he is calling, so that things are not left hanging. Mr. Rogers asks the writer “Do you know what is most important to me right now?” Dumbfounded, the writer remains silent. So Mr. Rogers answers his own question. “I’m talking to you, so right now you are the most important person to me. Our conversation is the most important thing to me right now.” The writer does not know what to say.

Fred Rogers lived tov out. He saw tov in other people. That’s why he could declare every day, It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Such people are tov. Good. Beautiful. Their heart is working the way it’s supposed to.

I bet you can think about people you know in life who fit that description…former teacher, a beloved family member, neighbor down the street. I hope and pray those are the kind of people we’re becoming. Beautiful people. People like Jesus.

Sharing in the Ultimate Beauty

This is exactly who Jesus is.

You know, we spend a lot of time and effort focused on our physical appearance.

Much of our day is spent making sure we’ve got right clothing, getting our hair right, putting on make-up.

We exercise. Some of us even go to the point of surgery. Heck, I even watched videos on how to remove skin tags (it worked!)

Not just on ourselves, but on our things: time, effort and expense we spend on our homes - we paint and decorate and remodel - often because we’re just tired of the way it looks, we want something new. And our yards, weeding, fertilizing, seeding, mowing, planting flowers.

Some of this is good and right, we’re sharing in God’s good work - he made the world tov! It’s absolutely beautiful, well crafted.

But like so many other things, we often make it into an idol - we spend too much money on it. Too much time. It matters too much to us. One definition of sin in Bible is to miss the target - and that’s what we do. We miss target on beauty and get caught up in skin deep beauty.

As far as we can tell in Gospels, Jesus was rather unconcerned with physical appearance.

I’m sure he delighted in beauty, the tov of his Father’s world. We know from his teachings that he paid great attention to creation all around him - he would use things all around him as objects lessons, pointing to how wonderfully his Father in heaven takes care of the birds of the air, and how God filled flowers of the field with splendor, which are “here today and gone tomorrow”.

But he warned us a lot about focusing on outward appearance of things - he confronted the religious leaders in Matthew 23:27, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.” Skin deep beauty.

As for Jesus himself, what he himself looked like, the only suggestion we have from the Bible is that he was not physically attractive - Isaiah 53:2…”He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.”

Apparently, Jesus wasn’t much to look at. He didn’t have penetrating dark eyes. No six pack abs. Flowing locks of hair. Perfectly straight, white teeth. My guess is, he was pretty average, type of person who wouldn’t stand out in crowd.

And yet, he did. Not only did he stand out in crowd, he was cause of the great crowds. People would flock to him by the thousands.

Think about that for a minute - in a day and age when there was no TV or internet, social media (instant messaging) - only word of mouth. And the vast majority of people had to travel on foot - which means it would take days to get from one place to another. Under those circumstances thousands of people would come to surround Jesus.

Don’t miss what this tells us about who Jesus is. About how absolutely tov he was - tov meod. Exceedingly good. Wonderfully beautiful.

John Eldridge writes this about Jesus in “Beautiful Outlaw”:

To live in such a way that there is always something of an element of surprise, and yet, however he acts turns out to be exactly what was needed in the moment. Oh, his brilliance shines through, but never blinding, never overbearing. He is not glistening white marble. He is the playfulness of creation, scandal and utter goodness, the generosity of the ocean and the ferocity of a thunderstorm; he is as cunning as a snake and gnetle as a whisper; the gladness of sunshine and the humility of a thirty-mile walk by foot on a dirt road. Reclining at a meal, laughing with friends, and then going to the cross…That is what we mean when we say Jesus is beautiful.

And because of this crowds came running - from all over - Sea of Galilee region, Judea, all way from big city, Jerusalem, Syria, Decapolis. They were so compelled by his love and goodness - his beauty shone forth.

Crowds would pack in so much on edge of the Sea of Galilee that Jesus asked Peter to let him get in his boat so he could safely teach from there.

Crowds would literally chase him down - he would leave one area, get in boat with his disciples to go to the other side, and the crowds would run around edge of Sea of Galilee in order to meet them when they came ashore. Just so you know, this is no small lake - 7 miles wide and 13 miles long. They did a lot of running just to be with Jesus.

And then they would stay so long to be around him that they run out of food. Jesus didn’t feed 5,000 to show off his power - he did it out of love and concern for these people who had made so much effort to be with him.

Think about that for a moment - What - who - would spur that longing in you? Do you see that beauty in Jesus?!?

And it was because, time after time, Jesus expressed tov to these people

I think about blind Bartimaeus on the road going into Jericho, who cries out to Jesus and everybody shushes him - he’s not important enough for Jesus. Except that he is. Jesus tells those around Bartimaeus to bring him to him, and he treats him with dignity and love, then heals him.

Later, he makes his way into Jericho, and there’s hated Zacchaeus, hiding up in Sycamore tree. He’s drawn to Jesus, wants to see him, but he’s afraid. Jesus isn’t afraid to love him, give him honor of Jesus staying at his house.

This is beauty of God. This is beauty David wanted to gaze upon.

Here’s the thing - we were made to share in that beauty. We asked the question at the beginning of our time of teaching, “why beauty, why does it exist”? Because we were made to share in it - to share in God’s love and goodness. To become beautiful ourselves. Truly beautiful, inside and out.

That’s why God made things “tov” - because they reflect his character, who he is. As we look around and see that beauty, it should draw us to him. To want to be “in Christ”, to make us want to be like Christ.

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory - “We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words - to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.”

Ultimately, to be united to our good and beautiful God. To receive his grace and goodness. To bathe in love of Jesus.

John Eldridge - says the whole purpose of our lives boils down to three things:

To love Jesus with all that is within you. This is the first and greatest commandment. Everything else flows from here.

To share your daily life with him; to let him be himself with you. On the beach, at supper, along the road - just as the disciples did.

To allow his life to fill yours, to heal and express itself through yours. There is no other way you can hope to live as he did and show him to others.

That starts by simply loving Jesus. Telling him that. I love you, Jesus. Opening your life his love. Everytime you experience that love, his tov (goodness, beauty) - sun shining through window, think of an old friend, squirrel dashing up tree, a favorite song…I love you, I love you.

Or even, for no particular reason at all - simply because he is who he is! I love you.

Let’s close by expressing that love to him now...

Our Closing Prayer, “Oh Lord, You’re Beautiful” by Keith Green