Jesus Shows Up In Some Weird Places
Oliver was just minding his own business, making a hamburger, when Jesus showed up. As he looked down into the pan with brown fat on the bottom, he saw an image that appeared to be the face of Jesus. So he took a picture and made the news. In 2006, an unmarried couple saw the face of Jesus in the ultrasound of their baby, declaring in their mind that the Son of God approved of their situation.
These stories float across the wire all the time (though none is better than “Cheesus”…the Cheeto that looks like Jesus on the cross). Many times the person isn’t really even a close follower of Jesus, but somehow they looked at a food item and said, “That looks like Jesus.” Clearly the first problem would be, how do we know what Jesus looks like? I think there are going to be a lot of confused people when they get to Heaven and Jesus doesn’t look like the painting hanging in their church foyer!
Colossians 1:15 says that Jesus is the “image of the invisible God.” Does Jesus have a physical appearance? Certainly He does, but does it trouble you that people see His face in a grilled cheese and they go nuts? The only reason I can attribute to this is that they don’t really understand His purpose in their lives. They feel blessed that Jesus has shown up! Maybe they believe they did something good to merit His appearance, or in the case of the unmarried couple having a baby it was an indication to them that they had the blessing of Jesus on their situation.
Jesus is not a picture. He’s a person. Instead of leaving it to food items and ultrasounds, let the world see Jesus in us. Let us love people in such a way that others would look at us and say, “Why are you loving the unlovely?” Let us give in such a way that people would look at us and say, “Why are you giving to the unworthy?” And when they have seen our actions, let us use words to explain the truth about sin, the cross, and the real Jesus.