The Color of Christ: As Untold by Megyn Kelly

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Background: Last Wednesday (Dec. 11th), Fox Channel’s News Reporter Megyn Kelly commented on her show that both Jesus and Santa Clause were white. Please watch link here. This article is in response to this and dedicated to anyone who thinks in terms of physical appearance to the story of Love.

Why was Christ born a Jew? What did he look like? I have my own opinions. But I won’t try to impose them on other people. For at best, they’re guestimates that fit my world.

And that’s all we can do, isn’t it? Guess about Christ’s physical appearance as best as we understand?

Few years back, I embarked on a journey to Israel to see the ‘holy land’ of the scriptures. Out of the many wonders and sites of the country, there was this one church that caught my attention the most – the Church of the Annunciation. What I saw there took me by surprise. The church had a collection of paintings of Christ and the Virgin Mary that were donated by almost every nation on earth. The European Marry and Christ were Caucasians and the African ones were Black. The oriental ones looked oriental as well. I paused and started thinking for a moment why there were different versions of the same painting. And I wondered which of these versions was true

In order to answer my question, and as part of my visit to Israel, I started reading the bible with special focus on the times when Jesus was seen in public. It was interesting to read that oftentimes, people had a hard time identifying him from the crowd. In Luke 4:30, when the people outraged by his comments tried to throw him off a cliff, he walked through the midst of them and they couldn’t recognize him. The four gospels also give account of Judas’s betrayal of Christ with a kiss. The reason why he kissed him was because the guards couldn’t identify him themselves, even though they’ve seen him preach and teach in public so many times before!

Reading further on, we find that even his disciples were oftentimes confused about Christ’s looks. Luke 24:13 reads that Jesus talked to two of his disciples after his resurrection. But they couldn’t tell who he was. Mary Magdalene didn’t know him when he revealed himself to her at the tomb; neither did Peter and John when he visited them while they were out fishing in Galilee (John 21:1).

To be unidentifiable in a crowd at different times, Christ must have appeared like the different faces in the crowd. But what did the crowd in Jerusalem look like at that time? Being at the center of world powers in the East and West (and the center of the three continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe), Jerusalem at the time of Jesus had so many visitors on their journey to different cities. It must have been like the current day Washington, DC, which is the melting pot of nationalities. And so did Christ look Japanese at one time and an Arab the next; an African in some days and a Caucasian the next? Possible!

There’s a profoundly interesting story about a renowned Ethiopian painter, Gebrekirstos Desta, who received a painting of a black Christ from his art student. Surprised Gebrekirstos asked the student why he painted Christ black. The student replied explaining that Christ was an African. After Gebrekirstos thought long and hard about the matter, he painted the crucifixion of Christ in bloody red and called it ‘Electric Golgotha.’ He decided the color of Christ was the blood that was shed in an unending love and sacrifice. Through his painting Gebrekirstos urges us to look beyond our restrictive perceptions of physical appearances and provides us with a powerful way of looking at Christ and his passion.

Indeed, Jesus could have looked like the white or black guy in the crowd, the shortest or the tallest, the ‘fat’ or the skinny. His words that, “blessed are those who believe in me without seeing me” justify that Christ cannot be defined in our perception of physical appearances!

The love Christ loved with, doesn’t differentiate between black and white. If it takes on any color, it should be red – the glowing color of his blood shed on that cross. And it was shed so we can love one another regardless of color, race, or religion.

Our children get it! They don’t differentiate skin color and if they do, they don’t judge a person as a result. Sometimes, we learn so much from the little ones we try to teach. Having a journalism degree and expressing opinions on world media might be a mark of career success but the heart’s true success comes from serving others and growing to be more like the models of love we follow.

And so a brief message to Megyn Kelly who decided the color of Christ should be white: If you are among those who believe in Christ, use your status to represent him well. He was a symbol of Unity and not of division. Perhaps pay a visit to the church in Jerusalem; you’ll be surprised how many times Christ just wasn’t painted white.

If Christ is the God who created people in his own image, then he cannot be restricted to the color of just one race.