What does Jesus look like? Though most of us know that the true answer to this question is, “We don’t really know” or, “Like a first century Palestinian man,” we still have an image in our minds when we think of Jesus. Maybe our concept of Jesus looks like the actor who played Jesus in “The Jesus Movie” or “Passion of the Christ.” Perhaps our image of Jesus comes from an illustrated Bible we had, or grandma’s wall art. None of these are necessarily wrong to have. It’s only natural for our minds to imagine a man we have never seen as someone somewhat familiar.

The danger comes when our image of the savior encroaches on his essence. It’s dangerous when our concept of Jesus is as a card-carrying Republican, life-time NRA member with a Reagan Bush yard sign. Or, perhaps a socialist, Marx-reading hippie Jesus who attended Woodstock and wears bell bottoms. We ought not to mold the savior into a caricature from our culture. Republican Jesus, Democrat Jesus, Communist Jesus, Hippie Jesus, American Jesus, over-tolerant Jesus, prosperity gospel Jesus—none of them will do.

The fact of the matter is; Jesus transcends all of these labels. None of these hyphenated Jesus’ are the one we read about in Scripture. We create a savior in our image when we approach the Bible leaning on our own pre-understanding, rather than allowing the Scriptures to shape our understanding. The first century Jews had the same problem of approaching Jesus and the Scriptures leaning on their pre-understanding. They confronted Jesus expecting a powerful earthly king and messiah who would overthrow the suffocating bondage of Roman rule (John 6:1-15; Acts 1:6-7). However, the messiah they received—the messiah they needed—was different.

The messiah we have all received and need is a suffering servant who suffered for the sake of the unrighteous (Isaiah 53). His purpose was to serve and to sacrifice (Mark 10:45). The savior is God in the flesh (John 1:1-4, 14), and he is above whatever worldly label we can conjure.

Let’s not create a savior in our image. Rather, let us be recreated in the image of the savior (Romans 8:29).