The Evangelical Outpost has rounded-up an excellent list of rappers who have posed as Jesus prior to this month’s Kanye West Rolling Stone cover.
So that’s why it seemed so trite. One would encounter several CD covers depicting rappers posing as Jesus while simply browsing through the used Rap section at the local Rasputin (I’d pass those up to buy though. Not my cup of tea – ‘cept for Nas).
Shock is far from what one feels when reading about the Kanye/Jesus cover. In my case, the SDA church we rent space from has had a picture of a black Jesus displayed in the lobby for several months. In addition, all the evangelical churches I have attended since my youth have always taught that the blue-eyed, flowing-haired, Scandinavian-looking Jesus depicted in pictures is so far from the real Jesus of the Bible. It’s interesting what the Scriptures does say about Jesus’ appearance:
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
He was just an ordinary looking citizen of 1st century Palestine. Prophetic words those were though, coming from the Old Testament (Isaiah 53 is all about Jesus Christ).
One little thought that came to mind about the Rolling Stone cover was that the publication seemed to want the issue to coincide with the showing at Sundance of a South African movie depicting Jesus as a black man. But the one thing that caught my attention more than anything was Kanye West’s revelation in Rolling Stone that he was addicted to porn. He says “he remembers first seeing his father’s Playboy magazine when he was 5 years old.” He then admits, “Right then…it was like, ‘Houston, we have a problem.’ ” Hmmm, sounds familiar. We all need a Saviour, don’t we?
this is a bit trivial but isaiah also mentions something about jesus sporting a beard (Isaiah 50:6).
Good one, Ariel.
There are also a couple of places in the Bible that talk about Jesus’ hair being like wool. Now some people say that that’s evidence that he was black, because he had an afro. But the passages often cited (in Daniel and Revelation) are metaphorical, I think. And even if these were literal, haven’t they heard of Jewfro?