What Do Most Americans Think Jesus Did?

I find this fascinating. On one of the blog sites I follow via RSS, the Friendly Atheist, the author shared a video of a secular Jew telling what she knows about Jesus' life by piecing together bits from Christmas stories specials (which I admit, I haven't seen many of, if at all...) and the trailer for the Passion of the Christ. Here's a link to the page: A Secular Jew Explains the New Testament

Now, before perhaps a Christian shrugs it off before looking at: Yes, I know it's a semi-impromptu synopsis of the Gospels and NOT the New Testament, but just remember, the blogger Hemant's expertise isn't in the biblical texts. And that's fair enough since he doesn't claim to be (and I take his comment "Sounds perfect to me" to just be him being facetious, hence the :)). And just think, how well do most Christians know the Gospels beyond several snippets?

What Did Jesus Look Like?

I say an article about a week back about Rembrandt's painting(s) of Jesus on Veith's blog (The Face of Jesus). 


What's interesting to me is two things, and they both are related. One, how different people in different ages and countries have depicted Jesus in art. I think it's healthy and good to have Jesus looking different, aka, not ALWAYS a 1st century Galiliean (though those are probably my favorite ones...). This personalizes him and can move people to engage the good news with their senses. Of course, the good news itself that Jesus is Lord and God raised him from the dead is God's power (Romans 1), but that power works psychologically and through our senses.