The Hollywood Jesus is a very handsome, whimsical, statuesque man.  He has beautiful flowing hair, perfect teeth, a glowing complexion, bright blue eyes, and a manly physique.  Movies, plays, and dramas have given us an impression as to what Jesus looked like; but the truth is these images are not accurate.

     The prophet Isaiah gave us a description of the Messiah.  In Isaiah 53 the prophet listed some characteristics that are completely out of step with modern thoughts of Christ.  He said of Christ, “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire.  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:2-3).

     To look at Christ was to look at an ordinary man (though not an ordinary man at all).  He had “no form or comeliness” meaning there was nothing physically attractive about Him.  He was not beautiful or handsome.  On the contrary, to look at Him was to look at grief, pain, and sorrow.  There was nothing beautiful about Him physically, but what He did for us was the most beautiful thing in all of history.