Looking through the issues of depicting Jesus in art, i'll go over what my own opinions as an artist and as a Christian are on these artistic interpretations.
A painting of God?! This can't hang on my walls, it's technically an idol!
Certain people may think that it's not right because it depicts our all over and spiritual loving God into a single man's body. But that single man is indeed the Lord in flesh, his son and our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. When it comes to art depicting Jesus, he is usually portrayed as a caucasian male, long brown hair, full beard and white or colorful robes on. This is the familiar picture that most Christians have grown up and have grown accustomed of seeing.
But if someone hangs up a picture of him on the wall, and looks onto him and prays to him near this artistic depiction, is it technically praying to an idol...?
According to the bible:
EXODUS 20:4-6 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments."
Personally i don't think this was referring to art based on the events of the bible. I believe that this was meant for people who made idols of other God's such as the ones depicting nature or anything other than our one God. Painting a picture of Jesus or a scene in the biblical text is not creating an idol to worship separate from God. If this were the case, there would not be any cross necklaces or stain glass images of the stories of the bible in Churches. If anything, creating art of God is a way of celebrating him and his glory. It's not starting a religion based on the painting, it's a work inspired by the original text. And things that are inspired by God's glory is one way of spreading the good word about him, right?
What was Jesus's skin tone?
Thinking of the likely possibility that the son of God had a darker complexion does not make me the slightest bit mad. In fact, this would be more historically accurate. He was born, raised and lived in the Middle East. The fact that he is depicted as pale is partially from all of the medieval art from Europe. I don't think a lot of people from Europe traveled down to that part of the world very often in the early days of Christianity. This would be alright in my eyes.
Though most people think that Jesus would be the very image of perfection, we have to keep in mind that there are cultural differences and not everyone will imagine God's son the same way.
How some of the Internet depicts Jesus...
What happens when you look "Jesus" on Google Images? Usually you will be shown a variety of beautiful artistic interpretations of God's loving son. Now what happens when you put the word "funny" in front of Jesus? And the word "meme" after Jesus?
Beware kids, the internet is a dangerous place.
Though some bring images do bring a bit of a chuckle out of me, other images are seen as kind of offensive.
The big question is, as Christian artists, how do we combat the depiction of Jesus in memes? Since meme's are the jokes of the internet, there is no real fighting them. But if we as artists depict Jesus in ways that are good, then maybe, just MAYBE we might be able to show his love in both a deep loving way that is not offensive to him. Meme's may be funny but in the long run we need to focus on the end goal.
What i'm trying to say is that we need to find a way of artistically portraying God in a good light for everyone, not just for Christians. We need to find open minded ways of bringing the gospel of Christ through art that is able to speak to everyone.
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