“I am not this hair, I am not this skin. I am the soul that lives within.” (Jalal ad-Din Rumi)
My father, also Robert Kinker, was a barber (and
co-owner) at the Drexel Barbershop in Bexley, OH (a suburb of Columbus, OH).
Growing up my hair was always short. As
an adult, I wanted to grow my hair long, but when it got to a certain point; a
haircut happened. There is that orneriness deep inside me. I have always wanted
to walk in to the church I was attending (at the time) with long hair,
piercings in both ears (and nostrils), and visible tattoos. Of course, all of
this stuff would be absolutely artificial. I just wonder how my church family
(at that time) would react.
As a teenager I was very aware of Paul’s
admonition in 1 Corinthians 11:14-15 (AMP), which I learned at my childhood
church: Does not common sense itself teach you
that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him, but
if a woman has long hair, it is her ornament and glory? For her long hair is given to her as a covering.
Now that I am an older adult,
I have a unique outlook on this verse that I didn’t possess as a younger person. I definitely believe Paul was referring to a
specific group of people (and not everyone through the passing centuries), If
this verse applied to the Christian community today, many men and women would
be sinning with their current hairstyle. The other question these verses beg to
have answered is what length of hair is considered long or short (for the
appropriate gender)?
For those men who want their hair as long as Jesus, you’re
out of luck. Nowhere in the gospels is Jesus physical appearance described. The
artists who have painted Him over the years have used their vivid imaginations
to guess what He may have looked like, but they are not inspired like the Bible is. The
closest any kind of description of Jesus is found is in the Old Testament in the
emotions of Isaiah 53:3 (ERV): People made fun of him, and even his
friends left him. He was a man who suffered a lot of pain and sickness. We
treated him like someone of no importance, like someone people will not even
look at but turn away from in disgust.
History tells us the average Jewish man of the
time would have likely had dark brown to black hair, olive
skin, and brown eyes. Jewish men of this time period were an
average of about 5 feet 5 inches in height. Scholars have suggested
that it is likely Jesus had short hair and a beard in accordance with Jewish
practices of the time and the appearance of philosophers.[i]
“It is not about how Christian you look from the
outside. It is about your personal relationship with God.” [ii]God has
always cared much more about the internal attitudes (and emotions) towards Him
and others (than how “just right” you may appear externally). “When will the
real open up to a genuine God who longs to know you better?
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