Jesus Had Facial Hair, Not Fancy Hair

I'm excited that in a few days John Piper's new book, What Jesus Demands from the World, will be released. I like Mark Driscoll's endorsement of the book:

This is a peculiar book. It assumes that the four Gospels are true and unified. It assumes that Jesus not only does things for us but also makes demands of us. And it assumes that Jesus has authority over everyone regardless of their religion, gender, race, income, sexuality, nationality, or culture. You will likely not agree with every point. But you will hear from a Jesus who is more than a soft-spoken, effeminate, marginalized, Galilean hippie-peasant in a dress and has the peculiar notion that He alone is Lord.

During my seminary years I became frustrated over how some of my professors and classmates depicted Jesus of Nazareth--making him out to be effeminate rather than masculine, soft rather than sovereign.Recently, for our study of the parable of the Diligent Woman in Luke 15, I wrote the following intentionally overstated (though serious) set of paragraphs for our 20s study guide in order to address this false, effeminate, mealy-mouth image of Jesus. Here's a cut & paste of what I wrote in that study guide:Now, before we discuss how the diligent woman is symbolic of Jesus’ tireless search for lost sinners, let’s get a few things straight: though Jesus most certainly loved women, though the Gospels teach that Jesus treated women with an unrivaled level of respect, dignity, and equality--Jesus was (and still is) a man, not a woman. Some have said this parable exposes Jesus' suppressed feminine side. Well, yes we serve a triune God whose nature is beyond mere maleness and femaleness. Yes, both the male and female sex equally display God's image. But, the God-man Jesus of Nazareth had (and has) a human nature that is male and masculine.One of the reasons why most American churches are full of women, but missing men, is because most men have a faulty, effeminate view of Jesus. It seems that many men envision Jesus to have been more like Boy George or Richard Simmons than like Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King Jr.--men who were prepared to lay down their lives for others. Ladies, especially single ladies, if you'd like to see more men coming to our church, it’s only going to happen as men gain a correct image of Jesus.Jesus was not effeminate. He was masculine. Jesus grew up working as a carpenter with his dad. He used his hands. He worked hard, carried wood and stone, nailed things, built things, sweat without the aid of deodorant, got calluses on his hands, and probably shaved with a knife.Though all of our paintings and pictures tell us otherwise, Jesus probably didn’t have long flowing wavy hair. He didn’t wake up each morning and style his locks with a purple hair dryer and pink curling iron after having nourished his silky mane in the latest double-herbal-mint-aroma Pantene Pro-V conditioner product line. Nor did Jesus sleep on a therapeutic pillow-top mattress with a paisley-patterned fitted sheet, eight heart-shaped pillows, and a white lace duvet cover. No, the Bible tells us that Jesus didn’t even have a stone to lay his head on (Matt. 8:20).See, Jesus was a man who often slept outside. He definitely knew how to build a campfire when he turned in for the evening. Jesus regularly worked out as he hiked miles and miles between villages and cities. Jesus was no mild-mannered, "look-at-me-I’m-a really-nice-person," "check-out-my-baby-blue-W.W.J.D.-bracelet" school boy. When the going got rough, Jesus knew how to get rough. When people were doing what they shouldn’t have been doing in the temple, Jesus grabbed a whip, threw tables around, and began to yell (John 2:13-17). Jesus was more like Indiana Jones than Mr. Rogers.Mr. Rogers never sweat blood.Mr. Rogers never laid down his life for other men and women.Ladies, if you want to see a guy become more godly and manly, don’t give him a magenta colored book mark with a picture of an effeminate Jesus having his hair braided while he sips a nonfat, sugar-free mocha and stares at the clouds. Return that bookmark that you bought from a Christian bookstore that doesn’t sell books, but instead sells sparkly pastel Bible highlighter pens and posters of Jesus hugging lambs, picking freshly blossomed flowers, and having cute little picnics with other guys who wear sea-shell strapped sandals and play with their hair. Ladies, ditch the bookmark and instead give the dude a Bible and have him read Revelation 1:12-18 & 19:11-17, where we read that Jesus has eyes of blazing fire, a shirt that’s been dipped in blood, a big tattoo running down the side of his leg, the set of keys that opens up the door to Hades, and a huge sword coming out of his mouth. Guys will want to follow a Jesus like that.Did Jesus treat women with a revolutionary level of respect and dignity? Yes. Did Jesus, through his sacrificial life and death, hold up THE model for how men are to love  and treat women? Yes. In telling this parable about the diligent woman, was Jesus exposing his suppressed feminine side? No.Okay, so all of that was probably entirely unnecessary, but I had fun writing it. Back to the parable. The point Jesus is driving at in this parable is that his persistent seeking of sinners is akin to a village woman’s diligent search for a precious lost coin. Jesus’ audience would have surely been familiar with such a scenario. Jesus is saying: “If a lost coin is that valuable, worth that intense of a search by a housewife, how much more important is the Son of God’s search for lost people!”...