What does Jesus look like?

John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia: grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father--to him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen.

Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea."

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone "like a son of man," dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades." (Revelation 1:4-18)

What does Jesus look like? In particular, what does He look like today? This question has fascinated Christians for nearly two thousand years. You need only visit a Christian bookstore to see a wide selection of paintings and illustrations that offer different opinions on this subject.

But of Jesus’ looks, the Gospels remain silent. In Isaiah chapter 53, we are only told He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. According to this prediction, Jesus was going to be an ordinary looking man; no wonder, then, that when Pilate interviewed Jesus on Good Friday, he was surprised that such an unremarkable looking man was seen by the Jewish leaders as such a threat. "You are the king of the Jews?"

Jesus’ appearance did not change after He rose from the dead, save in one respect: His body now permanently bears the marks of the crucifixion. When Jesus appeared to the disciples, he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe" (John 20:27). Jesus looked no different than He did before; followers like Mary Magdalene only had trouble recognizing Him because they were not expecting to see Him alive again.

And then we have this vision given to John. By the power of the Holy Spirit, John is given a glimpse of Jesus, of heaven, and of what the future is going to bring to the churches of Christ. But our interest today is in John’s description of Jesus. What does this vision tell us about our Lord and Savior?

First of all, it does not tell us what He looks like! Jesus does not have a sword for a tongue any more than a two-faced woman actually has two faces. A person who speaks with a forked tongue doesn’t really have the tongue of a snake, nor does a beady-eyed man have black marbles for eyes. These are figures of speech which tell us more about what a person is like on the inside than about how he looks on the outside. And so when John describes Jesus in Revelation, we must understand that the apostle is describing Jesus using figurative language.

But what does it mean?

The vision of Jesus begins with seven golden lampstands. A Jewish reader would immediately think of the seven-branched lampstand that God instructed Moses to place in the tabernacle. That lampstand represented God’s chosen people. A little further on in Revelation, Jesus tells John that the seven lampstands are the seven churches that are listed in the beginning of the vision. Each church is a lampstand. Jesus is the light; in John chapter 8 our Lord says, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." The Church is the bearer of that light. This recalls Jesus’ words from Matthew chapter five where He says, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." God gives us the gift of Jesus as the lamp that drives away the darkness of evil; we are called to hold that wonderful Light out to all those who are lost in the darkness of their sins.

Jesus is the light of the church. Now John goes on to describe Him as someone "like a son of man." A Jew hearing this would immediately think of the prophet Daniel, who had a vision of someone "like a son of man." In Daniel chapter seven we are told, In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. Daniel’s vision was of Jesus—Jesus was the one who looked like a Son of Man, He approached the throne of the eternal God (the Ancient of Days), He was given everlasting rulership over the universe, and He is worshipped by people the world over.

Jesus’ followers knew that He often referred to Himself as "The Son of Man." Jesus became human so that He could suffer and die to pay off our sins. God cannot die, so the Son of God must also be the Son of Man. When Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man, it is to call attention to the need for Him to suffer on our behalf; we read one example from Matthew chapter 17: When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life." Jesus became the Son of Man to save us from sin and everlasting death.

John goes on to speak of the Lord as being dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet. This robe calls to mind the robe worn by Aaron the High Priest when he served God in the Tabernacle. The job of the High Priest is to offer sacrifices to God so that the sins of the people might be forgiven. Jesus is the great and final High Priest. He sacrificed Himself so that all who believe in Him might be forgiven. Hebrews chapter 13 tells us, The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.

John also notes that there was a golden sash around his chest. A golden belt symbolizes royalty, the right to govern and the right to judge. Jesus earned this sash. Gold only reaches purity by being smelted with fire; only by passing through hard testing does anything reveal its full glory. So it was with the Son of Man; even though He was without sin, Jesus too had to go through testing to be proved worthy to stand as judge over all mankind. That testing was His devotion to you and me that nailed Him to the cross. Hebrews chapter five tells us, Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once he had brought everything to perfect completion, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest.

His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow. In eastern countries, white hair commands respect and suggests wisdom that can only come with age. Proverbs 16 compares such hair to a crown: Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life. The oldest and wisest being in the universe is the Ancient of Days; in a vision, Daniel describes Him this way: "As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool" (Daniel 7:9). In the Revelation to John, this white hair, the symbol of divine wisdom which commands our respect, is now attributed to Jesus. This is consistent with Paul’s words in 1st Corinthians 1:24--Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Next, John tells us his eyes were like blazing fire. This harkens back to another vision Daniel had of a heavenly being, which is described this way: I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold around his waist. His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude (Daniel 10:5-6). Fire is God’s way of removing sin; John the Baptist said of Jesus, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Luke 3:16). When John compares Jesus’ eyes to blazing fire, we are made to think of eyes that can see every hidden sin, and the desire that burns within our Lord to extinguish our sins forever.

His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace. In the ancient world, a king would often demonstrate his victory in battle by placing his foot on the head of the defeated king lying in the dust before him. Paul uses such imagery of the victorious Christ in 1st Corinthians chapter 15: Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. Thus, the reference to Jesus’ bronzed feet speaks of His glorious triumph over everyone who opposes Him.

His voice was like the sound of rushing waters. John had this vision on the Isle of Patmos. The surging waters along the shore made a sound of transcendent depth and power. This is the effect that hearing Jesus’ voice had on John. The Word of God is powerful and irresistible. In a different vision of the Lord, Ezekiel wrote similar words: I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters (Ezekiel 43:2).

John notes that in his right hand he held seven stars. Later in Revelation, Jesus explains: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches (Revelation 1:20). The right hand is the hand of love; Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, the place reserved for those who are most beloved. At the Lord’s Supper, the disciple whom Jesus loved most dearly of all reclined to the right of Jesus. When He separates the redeemed from the lost on the Last Day, we will be on His right side, as Jesus spells out in Matthew chapter 25: Then the King will say to those on his right, `Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. In His loving right hand, Jesus holds seven angels, one for each of the churches. This is further evidence of Jesus’ love for us; He has appointed His angels, which the Bible often compares to stars, to keep watch over His churches here on earth.

Out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. This image reveals an important truth about the Word of God—it can cut two ways. For the unbeliever, the Word of God is judgment; it is the Word of condemnation that kills and sends to hell. But for the believer, the Word of God is a scalpel that cuts away the infection of sin and preserves life; it is the Word of forgiveness that welcomes to heaven. Hebrews 4:12 says, the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Finishing up His description of Jesus, John says His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. John reminds us of his first look at Jesus’ face in all it’s glory on the Mount of Transfiguration: Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light (Matthew 17:1-2). The light shining from Jesus’ face gives witness to His divinity as the Son of God.

Jesus says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega…I am the First and the Last." It is important to remember that this vision of John was originally written in Greek. In the Greek alphabet, the first letter is alpha and the last letter is omega; had Jesus given this vision to an American He might have said, "I am the A and the Z, the first and the last."

Why does Jesus refer to Himself in terms of the alphabet? Remember that according to John, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John chapter one). Jesus is the Word of God incarnate. God does everything by His spoken Word. God spoke and the universe was created. Jesus spoke, and the sick were healed, the dead were raised, and sinners were forgiven. The Holy Spirit creates faith in our hearts through the speaking of God’s holy words. Our Lord will speak on Judgment Day, and His words will condemn to hell or welcome to heaven. God acts through speech, and Jesus is the spoken will of God made manifest in a human body. So when Jesus says that He is the entire alphabet, He is telling us that He represents every spoken desire of God; to listen to Jesus is to hear everything that God has to say to us.

What, then, does Jesus look like? He looks like the Son of Man. He looks like the Son of God. He looks like our resurrected Savior.