What is the beauty of Jesus? Isaiah prophesies, “When we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him (Isaiah 53:2). Jesus was not given extraordinary handsomeness. He possessed an inner beauty composed of a myriad of traits—gentleness, love, wisdom, generosity, humility, honesty, patience, forgiveness, creativity, justice, playfulness, toughness, authority, faithfulness, dependability, gentleness, etc., like a diamond expertly cut into many facets.

Inner beauty is not always recognized as such. We call it by other names such as character, temperament, disposition or personality, but when we call these things beauty, it elevates them to a higher level. In Jesus, they are practiced with perfection.

Lord Jesus, exploring the conversations and events of the Last Supper we find beauty in Your intense concern for the disciples, a beauty of both toughness and gentleness. You were tough enough not to hide what was coming that night, the next day, and the days following, but You were intuitive enough to know You needed to reassure the disciples, as everything suddenly began to fall apart, that You would continue be there for them and You were still in control. 

GENTLENESS / TOUGHNESS

Jesus and the disciples sat down to the Passover dinner the night before Jesus’ crucifixion the next day. He felt considerable pressure to prepare the twelve for what was to come tomorrow, the days, months, and even years afterwards.  

John’s gospel records the Last Supper as an intense time between Jesus and the disciples. It called for toughness carried out with discerning care. Jesus knew it was going to be hard for the disciples to hear that He was leaving them. How to say it? How to let them know He was leaving but everything would work out? How to show them He was not leaving because they no longer mattered to Him?

And there were other things He must tell them. The imminent betrayal, not by a stranger, but one of them. This was going to be shocking. They really had no idea. Then there was the future persecution and hatred of them because they identified with Him. And Peter’s impending denial that He even knew Jesus. This all seems too much, but they must know before tomorrow. They won’t understand much of it but the Holy Spirit will bring it back to them later with understanding.

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LEAVING / BETRAYAL / DENIAL

So, how to begin? Jesus got up from the table, put His outer garments aside, girded Himself with a towel, poured water into a bowl and began to wash the disciples’ feet. The disciples must have known something was up. Why is Jesus taking the role of a servant? What is He doing? If anything, shouldn’t we be washing His feet? Jesus knew exactly what He was doing. He even said to them, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but You will later.”

Washing the disciples’ feet set the right tone. It certainly got their attention and cast Jesus in a different light than they had previously imagined. It prepared them to hear that He was going to leave and they were to carry on after He was gone, servants of one another. This was a beginning. He would need to talk further about leaving and the future, but first, He must announce that one of them would betray Him. How He didn’t want to make this announcement. John tells us, “He was troubled in spirit.” As John reports, it was perplexing news and afterward Judas quickly left in the night.

Jesus courageously continued with further troubling news. Gently, addressing them as “little children”, He firmly told them that He would only be with them for a short while longer and, for now, they would not be able to go with Him. He softened this news with the promise that they would follow Him later. This was all too much for Peter who vowed to lay down His life. Jesus finds this to be the moment to tell Peter of His impending denial. Things are becoming heavy.

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LEAVING / RETURNING

With great mindfulness for the disciples, Jesus speaks to their troubled hearts:

Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, ^[I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.

John 14:1-4.

The concern voiced in Jesus’ words and tone emboldened the disciples to speak their doubts and perplexities. Thomas: “where are you going?” “How do we get there?” Philip: “Just show us the Father and we’ll be satisfied.” Was Jesus surprised by Thomas and Philip’s questions? Probably not. Did He know they still did not grasp the full reality of who He was? No doubt. As always, Jesus didn’t moderate His response. He spoke to Thomas’ concern. “I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), and said to Philip, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

Jesus was speaking truth that the disciples were unprepared to comprehend. He, of course, would know that. Wouldn’t it have been so much easier to make it less opaque? Jesus was never one to compromise, but along with difficult things, He always provided a way forward. This was part of His beauty. He thus said, “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you.But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you (John 14: 26).”

Understanding what it is to feel abandoned and alone, Jesus touchingly promised not to leave them as orphans. He repeated His reassurances. “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. I am leaving but I will return.” Why the repetition? Jesus knew the news that He was going away was swamping them. They needed to hear his assurances more than once or even twice, but many times. 

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Lord Jesus, the Last Supper discloses Your beauty as brilliance. This last meeting with Your disciples before Your crucifixion unfolds many facets of Your beauty—gentleness, generousness, humility, commitment, honesty, wisdom, toughness, integrity, grit, and decisiveness. Realizing the care and love with which You handled this final time heartens us, communicating that we too can expect the same from You in our lives. How many times since writing this devotional have I been comforted and strengthened to realize Your considered love and devotion given to the disciples at the Last Supper is meant for us as well. Your beauty does not change.  

As John, Andrew, Peter, James, Thomas, Philip, Nathaniel, Thomas, Judas (not Iscariot), Simon the Zealot, Thaddeus, and Matthew, we require both gentleness and toughness from You. It would be unloving of You to disregard the bruising aspects in our lives, but You color them with God’s reality rather than the world’s. In this context, You serve up our disappointments, crises, predicaments, upheavals with hope, showing us that when we love God and are called according to His purpose, He, indeed, does work all things in our lives together for good (Romans 8:28).

Every event described in the gospels has the potential to reveal facets of Your beauty. Would that we would contemplate the brilliance of Your beauty in its specificity and complexity. Would it not deepen our relationship with You, change our expectations of You, enlarge our vision of who we can become in You?

With David, we say to You:

One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,

Psalm 27: 4

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THE PAINTING

The painting is intended to remind us of qualities of beauty found in Jesus:

soft, airy, lucent, cloud-like forms denote gentleness;

dark, sharp, angular forms suggest toughness;

blank slates betoken forgiveness;

stair steps point toward higher insights of wisdom;

unchanging forms exhibit endurance;

expansive forms signal generosity;

upright sturdy geometries evince honesty;

lively animated appearances reflect playfulness;

warm, rounded, heart-like forms signify love;

equally divided configurations evidence justice;

unwavering, constant, true structures witness integrity.

lowly figures connote humility;

Lord Jesus, we don’t know how to see or desire Your beauty. Teach us.

Sydney Walker, April 22, 2023

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