What Did Jesus Actually Look Like?

Have you ever gone to a carnival or fair and had a caricature drawn of yourself? Did it seem to highlight some parts of you but fail to really create a complete picture of who you are?

Today, Fr. Mike explores the nature of Jesus’ true physical appearance, and the spiritual reasons he may appear so diverse in different works of art.

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[anitajackson]

IDK what He actually looked like, but I will know him when I see him. As a nurse, I see him in my suffering patients.

[erinmcglue]

My daughter always refers to you as the guy with the really talky mouth, she has been listening to you for a year or more and is now 5 and still calls you this. We love your insights, thank you for this. May God Bless You and your quest to bring as many as possible to Jesus.

[normalopez]

I don’t care what Jesus looks like what I care about is that Jesus loves us.

[Malgus]

I’ve asked God many times to help me see Him and reveal Himself to me. Not in some miraculous way (although that’d be nice) but just to see Him as He is. I remember praying in a large group at a church event, and when I looked up, something told me “I am in everyone you see around you.” It was just simply put a really cool, revealing moment to know God is in all of us always

[davidmorton]

Merry Christmas Father Mike. I love you, God bless you. You will never know how much you help me as I become more and more faithful to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Thank you.

[myfakinusername]

St. Faustina painting of Jesus is what I imagine Jesus looking like...

[dianeuecker]

Fr. Mike I truly love you. That may sound crazy but I mean I love your kindness. I Love the way you light up when you talk about our Lord & Savior. I love listening to you read the bible, while doing my second year of Bible in A Year. When I see & hear you, I see Jesus in you. Thank you!

[edwardfabela]

St Faustina, expressed the same struggle in her Diary. It's a beautiful witness to Our Lord. Thanks Fr. Mike.
Vivat Jesus.

[johnhaggerty]

*All humanity wants to claim Him and He wants to claim all of humanity.* Well said, Father.
The Gospel still has to win the souls and hearts of all those people with a materialistic outlook, who are convinced that this life is all there is.

[carolinetheberge]

Merry Christmas Father Mike!
My 17 yr. old autistic grandson who never goes to mass or taught by his parents, asked me what Jesus looked like. It was an amazing opportunity to share some things about Jesus to him, …never baptized I am aware he is more tuned in than the other children.
When he was eight yrs.old he said, Nana there’s something about Easter that is more than Christmas…I don’t know what that is but I think it’s more important. How mysterious the Holy Spirit/God is🙏🎄❤️❤️

[csongorarpad]

The Shroud of Turin is the answer to the question.
TL;DR: A priest shared in his testimony on how he went from being a juvenile criminal, heading down a destructive path, was saved from his sinful life and converted to Catholicism, studying to become a priest, after bearing witness to a personal revelation from Jesus Christ himself. Years later when the priest visited Turin, he immediately recognized the face in the Shroud, as the face of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.


A priest that I know shared his testimony about how he was a small-time criminal early in his youth, as a boy, and how his criminal behavior escalated little by little. One day, he was caught and given the option of a juvenile centre (prison for under-aged criminals) or a school of charismatic evangelicals. His father gave him no other option but to go to the evangelical school and told to behave and never get into trouble (or he would be sent to the juvenile prison.)

His days at the evangelical school tore greatly at his patience and provoked his violent urges constantly. One day, he was overcome with such rage and impulses of committing violence that he felt as if evil itself were welling up from inside of him.
He retreated into a bathroom as the symptoms became unbearable and at the height of his raging emotions, a demon appeared before him. (The priest explained that his guardian angel had taken a step back and allowed the demon to appear, so that he (the priest) would realize the gravity of his situation, what path he was leading and where it would lead him.)

In his despair and anguish, after having witnessed the demon, he stumbled out of the bathroom, crying and sniveling as he stumbled upon a priest in the hallway. The priest saw the state he was in and brought him, as well as another priest, to an empty classroom. The priests started praying for him and as they prayed, the wall that separated the classroom from the outside, began to disappear little by little, faded away completely, leaving the outside to be seen entirely. The priest continues his testimony in saying that outside of the classroom, where there had been a wall just a moment before, millions upon millions of little lights started to glow, stronger and stronger, until it illuminated the entirety of the outside.

He calmed down and he started to feel the warmth and love of Jesus Christ, as he was filled with the Holy Spirit and the presence of Our Lord, Jesus. The presence of Christ stayed with him constantly, until the third day, when the love had become too unbearable for him - He, alone, could not contain and endure the love and goodness that Jesus is and so Jesus did as asked and distanced himself.

Now, having personally experienced love incarnate, he was overcome with joy and a sense of duty to serve him who had saved him from his personal anguish in the previous incident, but also, in general, in the sense that we all know how Jesus Christ died on the cross for us.

In another revelation, Jesus Christ revealed himself, personally, face to face, with the young man and told him that he was to become a priest, a shepherd for Christ's people.
He was a bit disgruntled at first because he had a girlfriend and he had planned to have 16 babies with her, if possible. But since he had been personally asked by Jesus to become a priest, he eventually had to give up himself and entrust his life to the Lord and enact his will.

Now, the priest gave an answer to the question before anybody had been given the opportunity to ask it; Namely, what Jesus Christ looked like, since that was the only question on everybody's mind after hearing his testimony.

His answer was short and simple...
During a trip to Turin, to see the Shroud of Turin, upon seeing the shroud, he immediately recognized the face as the person that had revealed himself to him, many years prior. He recognized him as Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. The only difference is that, the face he saw in his revelation, was of the resurrected Jesus, which the shroud of turin doesn't depict, with the many wounds, bruises, dirt and dried blood after having suffered so much through the torture and crucifixion.

[theclapaolini]

I learn so much every single time l listen to your talks.that you for such spiritual richness.
That is why the CHOSEN ISHSO EFFECTIVE BECAUSE IT IS THE HUMAN SIDE WE LIKE IT AND IT HELPS TO APPROACH HIM FREER.

[msgoodyshoes]

This is divinely inspired, and thus super timely to the minute! Exteme to the right time in the liturgical calendar: a grace.

[seans.]

He was not recognized on the Road to Emmaus until the breaking of the bread and the opening of the Scriptures.

[childofGod]

This opened a new mindset and idea! Seeing Jesus in the poor, rejected and the Eucharist. Thanks Fr Mike

[kjosemaria]

Blesed Christmas to you, Father Mike Schmitz and family! Thank you for this video. "To see the face of God is my heart's desire" as the church hymn goes.

[nishamarythomas]

I don't disagree with anything Father's said, but there's a side missing from this discussion. Yes, it's not wrong, but the influence and impact of Caucasian Jesus is not equal to an African/Asian Jesus.

African/Asian/Hispanic/etc Jesus are either modern creations from the last century or two, or from Christian communities that were evangelized before/separately from colonialism. Most Christian communities around the world use depictions of Jesus as Caucasian as a byproduct of colonization's influence on evangelization. Catholicism has been in the south of India since the first century, and yet I have never seen a depiction of Jesus in India that isn't the palest of white/pink skin (while I know only one dark skinned depiction of Mary in India).

This has fed into existing issues of colorism, internalized and externalized racism, and a labelling of Jesus as a "white man's god". As Catholics, we use symbols all the time and know how essential and influential they are for us as humans. How many of us, especially us who come from different races, think of these diverse faces of Jesus in our daily prayer lives, or is the default in our minds white Jesus? How many of us are confronted with the image of Jesus in a racialized body at our parishes? Caucasian Jesus isn't wrong, but understanding the ways that depiction has been misused and decentralizing it is worthwhile.

[miasantos]

It's almost 6 am, Christmas day, I look at my phone to see the time, and I see your video, and it's a timely reflection ... Thanks Fr. Mike, have a wonderful Christmas

[trishamilne]

Fr. Mike you give us the best things is Christ to ponder. God bless you as He had blessed us with you.

[jeffwebb]

Best video to ever address this question! Thank you, Father.