“He didn’t look like I thought he would,” my wife said after we binge-watched both seasons of Disney’s The Mandalorian. (Just follow the link to see him for yourself. Sorry for no picture of him here. I asked Disney for permission to use an image as part of this post, and they declined.) The show is part of the Star Wars universe, and centers around an adorable baby Yoda and a bounty hunter – the Mandalorian, who wears an indestructible suit of armor, including a completely opaque helmet he is not supposed to remove in the presence of other living beings, per the Mandalorian creed.
As a bounty hunter, he’s got all sorts of skills and gadgets and weapons he puts to striking use in fights and battles throughout the series, which he typically wins, whether he’s up against one person or fifteen. In short, he’s a warrior.
When he finally does remove his helmet, my reaction was similar to my wife’s. His face didn’t meet my expectations: Where was the chiseled visage, jutting jaw, steely glare, and maybe a well-placed scar or two? Instead, his face expressed emotion and empathy. His eyes conveyed fear, and sadness, and complexity. It just didn’t match what we had imagined he should look like.
We were exhibiting a form of visual prejudice – assuming something about a person based on how they look. We all do it. For example, leaders look stately. Crooks look shifty. Warriors look tough.
Yet, when describing what the future Messiah would look like, Isaiah prophetically states, “He has no stately form or majestic splendor that we would look at Him, nor [handsome] appearance that we would be attracted to Him” (Isaiah 53:2, Amplified). Here is the king of kings, the mighty Messiah, God in human form, come to save his people, and apparently, he didn’t look the part.
Since Christ’s face was essentially a blank slate, he can be anything to anybody:
A solid rock and a flexible vine (1 Corinthians 10:3-4 and John 15:1).
A fierce lion and a gentle lamb (Revelation 5:5 and John 1:29).
A warrior and the Prince of Peace (Exodus 15:3 and Isaiah 9:6).
The beginning, the end, and everything in between (Revelation 22:13).
He does not get boxed in by our expectations, which is good because expectations set limitations. And limitations can prevent someone from fully developing and demonstrating that they are so much more than what we can just see on the surface.
How are your expectations limiting God?
Wonderful Sean.