Beauty Salon Jesus

I want  to publish Kosuke Koyama's meditation.  I always enjoyed reading his books.  The first time i knew him, when i took Asian Contextual Theology class for master degree.  My lecturer gave an assignment for me to discussed Koyama's theology, a well-known theory Water Buffalo Theology. And our class had an interesting discussion about his theology. Kosuke Koyama is senior lecturer in religious studies, University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.  He was a Japanese Kyodan missionary to the Church of Christ in Thailand, 1960-1968, teaching at Thailand Theological Seminary in Chiengmai.  From 1968 to 1974 he was executive director of the Association of Theological Schools in Southeast Asia. Koyama died on March 25, 2009.

Beauty Salon Jesus
The New Testament does not give us any information about the physical appearance of Jesus, how tall he was, the shape of his nose, the colour of his eyes and hair. Did he have big strong shoulders? We have never found out these things. The whole New Testament is silent about them. But what about the Apostle Peter? Peter was a fisherman. Naturally we assume he must have been a strong, suntanned, robust fellow. But who knows? Scholars have made some conjectures (that's all they can don) about Paul on the basis of II Corinthians 12;7 ('I was given sharp physical pain') and Galatians 4:13-14 ('As you know, it was bodily illness that originally led to my bringing you the Gospel, and you resisted any temptation to show scorn or disgust at the state of my body'), that the apostle might have had epilepsy, or some offensive eye trouble, or even malaria. But here again we do not really know about Paul's appearance.

The centre of the New Testament message is found in John 3:16 'God loved the world so much that he give his only Son'. Obviously, in order to communicate this love of God the New Testament felt no need to give a description of the physical appearance of Jesus of Nazareth.  It is as though they are clearly telling us that the love of God can be perfectly communicated without our knowing how Jesus looked. Humanly speaking Jesus may have looked attractive, or he may have looked unattractive. We don't know. A photograph of Jesus is not needed for the Christian faith. The Bible does not speak of his appearance, but his deeds. We only know 'Christ bought us freedom from the curse of the law by becoming for our sake an accursed thing'  (Galatians 3:13) says Paul. 'An accursed thing'! What a bold thing to say! What an 'ugly' remark to make about Jesus Christ! How did he look when he became 'an accursed thing?' The Gospel does not speak. But the entire story of his becoming 'an accursed thing' for our sake is the heart of the Gospel.

Every time I see the picture of Jesus - i hope you know the particular one to which i am referring - a beautifully groomed Jesus looking as if he has just stepped out of a beauty salon (and he is brunnette!) - i am puzzled. This Jesus is a middle-class Western society bourgeois (with an income of 5,000 poundsterling a year!). He does not look 'an accursed thing.'

We do not know what he looked like. We do know what he became for our sake. Yes...amen!!

karya terkenal DR Koyama