I'm not trying to hate retweet here. But please remember that people of every culture have depicted Jesus and the saints according to their own ethnic features and this is a beautiful thing because it shows that they viewed themselves as part of God's family. https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1275153250371551232

Jesus was depicted as white by white Christians because:
1. they couldn't fly to Jerusalem and didn't have Google image search, so they depicted him like the folks the saw around them.
2. they believed that Jesus, His mother, and His brothers in the faith belonged to them.

This is the same reason Northern African Christians depicted Jesus as Northern African and sub saharan Christians depicted him likewise.

All who believe and are baptized belong to Jesus and Jesus belongs to them. All nations are made one through His Lordship. But being made one doesn't mean our ethnic and cultural differences disappear. It means those differences are sanctified.

And it's a wonderful thing when people who aren't called to cast aside their culture and ethnicity use those things to depict the mercies and love of their Savior in various forms of art.

Likewise, the purpose of sacred art is not to present the most historically accurate depiction of Jesus possible. It's to teach who Christ was. And Christ is the Son of God who took on human flesh to be our brother.

Making Him look like one of your brothers, especially for people of previous generations who didn't have the luxury of traveling the world, is a great way to teach that.

So European Renaissance artists depicting Jesus as a European isn't racist. It's their contribution to Revelation 7--their part of all nations, tribes, and tongues gathering before the slain yet risen Lamb.

I mean, if you have no problem with European Jesus but are bothered by Black Jesus, sure, that's racist. But let's not pretend that white Jesus in European art is the same thing as Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's.