Ready-to-use Reflection: Seeing Jesus

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Protestant Christians can feel nervous about using images of Jesus in worship - perhaps we are breaking the third commandment and worshipping the image, rather than Jesus himself? But for centuries the Eastern Ortho­dox Church has practiced a form of contemplation using images called ‘icons’ - not ‘graven images’ to be worshipped, but windows through which we look to see a spiritual reali­ty. We can learn from this, especially as we have so many images around us all the time - on our phones, TVs, magazines and in the people we meet. We can learn to ask ‘which spiritual reality is this image pointing me towards?’, rather than adoring the image itself: icons, not idols.

BIBLE REFLECTION

Encourage each young person to find a comfortable sitting position. Read this verse: ‘That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched - this we proclaim concerning the word of life’ (1 John 1:1).

You could get a number of young people to read the same verse from different transla­tions, either the ones they have brought with them or that you have previously prepared and printed out. Leave silence after each reading.

• Ask the following questions for the young people to silently reflect on. You may want to provide pens and paper to aid focus:
• Imagine being John writing this passage. What emotions do you think he is feeling as he is writing?
• Imagine each way that John would have experienced Jesus with his hearing, his eyes and his sense of touch.
• When you imagine the human Jesus, what kind of image is in your mind? What does he look like? What expressions are on his face? 

After this time of quiet reflection, ask the young people to share some of their thoughts in small groups. Once each person has had the opportunity to share without interruption, ask the following question to the group: where do you think your imagined images of Jesus come from? Allow each small group to reflect on this for a moment.

ART REFLECTION  

Find several very different images of Jesus. The Church Mission Society has produced a resource called ‘The Christ We Share’ (the link is on this website in the links section) or you could find a selection of images online. Make sure your pictures have a real breadth: images from different cultures of the world, showing different aspects of Jesus’ character, and possibly from different periods of history.

Prepare some way for the group to look at the images, either on a slide show, printed out and, placed around your venue, or handed around. Play some instrumental music in the background and invite the young people to spend time looking at the images. Explain that they represent different ways that people have pictured Jesus, and that it is okay to wrestle and disagree with some of the depictions, but that they should be asking God to show them the spiritual reality behind the pictures. You may want to give out pens and paper for jotting down reflections, and open with a prayer.

Once the reflection has gone on for as long as your group has attention, gather peo­ple back together and ask everyone to get comfortable and close their eyes.  

Say: Call to mind the image that you connected with the most. What did it look like? How could you describe the Jesus in this picture - his features and his charac­teristics? What spiritual truth did the pic­ture point you towards? Spend some time thanking Jesus for all the things about him you noticed in this picture. [Pause] Next, try to remember if any of the pictures surprised you or made you think differently about Jesus. Were they difficult or helpful sur­prises? What spiritual truth did this picture point you towards? Lift your reflections to Jesus in prayer - the struggles and the ques­tions.

Leave some space and then end with some form of corporate worship; it could be a song focused on Jesus, or perhaps a prayer to read together out loud.

OPTIONAL DISCUSSION

If you want to expand this session, and it feels appropriate to pause the reflective atmosphere for a moment, you could offer these discussion questions for small groups:

• What image did you most relate to? Which did you find most challenging? Why?
• Did any of the pictures highlight a side of Jesus you had not thought of before?
• Do you think there are reasons why artists have depicted Jesus in such a variety of ways? How much does the artist’s culture and experience affect their art?
• Are our imagined images of Jesus shaped by our culture too? In what way are those imag­es true and in what way are they false?  
• What are the benefits of trying to ‘picture’ Jesus in art, and what are the limitations? 

RESPONSE ACTIVITY

Based on the reflections, you could invite the young people to create their own responses to how they ‘see’ Jesus. If your group is happy to create visual art then you could do this with paint, pencils or modelling clay. It doesn’t have to be a literal ‘picture’ of how he looked but more a representation of his character.  

For a less confident group, it might be easier to hand out magazines and invite them to rip out pictures and create a col­lage of images which helps to express who Jesus is to them. Or you could allow them to express their image of Jesus in other ways - writing a description of who Jesus is, in prose or poetry, or in a song.

Additionally, you could have a take-home challenge about ‘seeing Jesus’ in people’s everyday lives. Ask them to try and treat an aspect of life as an ‘icon’ - how can they see Jesus or an aspect of God’s charac­ter in his creation this week?