Would America Vote For An Ugly President?

So we’ve just begun our new Sunday morning teaching series called Jesus is President. We kicked it off with a talk about Jesus being an ugly president (listen, download or itune it at www.reedleyfbc.com).
The cynic might suggest that politics is all ugly and so yep, we would vote for an ugly president.
But Jesus was ugly in a different way.

One of the prophets (the 8th century BC prophet called Isaiah) spoke of the coming Messiah and how ‘he would have no beauty that we would desire him’, and comments on how people would hide their faces from him. What ever Isaiah meant, he certainly meant to paint the picture of a coming Mashiach (Messiah) - President – would not fit the normal mold.

And Jesus didn’t fit the normal mold.
The normal mold required you to be born into a certain line – in Jesus’ day the line of the Hasmoneans. It required you to be part of their dynasty. Jesus wasn’t.
The normal mode required you to be approved by Rome. Some called this the genius of the Roman Empire, they approved of client-kings – local kings of provinces within the Roman Empire who were loyal to Rome and could help them administer local and religious matters. Jesus wasn’t.

The normal mode included being approved of by the right people, getting the nod from the hierarchy, learning the right hands to shake, if not the right handshake. Jesus didn’t do any of that …in fact the crowd that he most annoyed in his teachings and behavior were the established crowd.

To them Jesus was ugly.
His teachings were rebellious – too far left.
His associates were outsiders.
His parents unschooled.
And as for his campaign manager – some weirdo from the desert dressed in camel skins and he ate locust on a stix.

And then there was the central reason he was ugly. He appealed to the commoner - a group of people in that day known as the am ha-arets - immigrants, illegals, the religious illiterates. No one bothered with the am ha-arets. They were ignorables.

The Jesus campaign swung through their territory. In fact he spent most of his campaign out in the sticks, in backwater places, border territory where no one else would venture. Jesus connected with the commoner.

Anyone else like ugly – I do.

Going to be a fun series – listen along..