For a long time, the number of women and children in church has greatly outnumber the dudes. Why is this? I think it's partly because guys don't think they can relate to Jesus. We've painted him as this meek, wobbly spined little guy who wasn't a real man. Thus, church is a place for women and children and weak men, the kind of people Jesus related to.
Wrong.
Jesus was a real man. A man's man. The kind of guy who, if he weren't the Son of God, would help you fix your roof, would bring steaks over for a barbecue, and throw down if some drunk guy was asking for it. In fact, Jesus was the father of all 'real men.' All real men are just copying Jesus in some way. Jesus had many sides to him, but today, we're only focusing on the one that gets ignored too often. Behold, the raw power of Jesus' perfect masculinity.
Jesus: A Real Man in Five Steps
Jesus could fix anything.
While many guys today are content with calling a real man whenever something breaks around the house, Jesus certainly didn't have to. Know why? Cause he built the dang house with his bare hands! Jesus learned his father's trade of carpentry, and could probably out shop-class most guys including Ty Pennington any day of the week, and without the use of duct tape or frosted spiky hair. Now where did Jesus get all that wood he used to build stuff? I have a suspicion that Jesus was a lumberjack, one of the most manly of all male jobs. Except that after Jesus had his breakfast of sheep jerky and put on his plaid robe and his hat with the earflaps, he didn't spend all day sawing on some tree like a jerk. He just cursed the tree and it fell over and died! Jesus could have knocked down a whole forest while Little Susy Lumberjack is still working on one lousy tree. Manly.
Jesus didn't take crap from religious types.
A bunch of people told Jesus he was going to hell. Know what he did? Went right up to the biggest, toughest priest he could find and said, 'I've got a beef with you.' He got up in their grills and told them they were going to hell. Direct and to the point, like a real man should be. He didn't take it quietly when jerks went around saying he was in league with Satan and he wasn't afraid to make a scene.
And while Jesus could be nice, like with women or animals, I don't think he was being his 'meek' self when throwing down with Pharisees. He probably pumped himself up by getting a determined scowl on his face and growling at himself in the mirror. Men don't smile when their about to eat someone for lunch. They scowl. Like this:
Speaking of making a scene...
Jesus totally wailed on a bunch of people, and no one did anything about it.
So Jesus goes to Jerusalem, and he's getting super mad at all those deadbeats in the temple. So he just sits in his house, and it's pitch black, except for this little sliver of light on his eyes. There's some eerie music, maybe some smoke rising from the floor. He's shining up his Winchester rifle really good, which in those days was called a 'whip.' He probably does some push-ups. Then he just non-chalantly goes to church...and kicks everyone's butt! He's going nuts, and this guitar is wailing in the background. Everyone's running in slow motion and yelling, 'Noooooo!' and this money changer is so scared, he pees in his pants.
The one time Jesus did get wailed on: that time he got beat for a solid day and then got nailed to a piece of wood, and was legally dead for three days - that one time...even that couldn't keep him down! Nothing's more manly than standing back up from a royal beating, especially one that leaves you dead. And then he hunts down his friends who shrieked and ran off like a bunch of pre-teen girls when he was arrested...and Peter thinks Jesus is going to wail on him now...but instead they just hugged it out. That's what guys do. They don't hold stupid grudges. They hug it out. Manly.
Jesus never had a girlfriend.
Women today are told that it's very feminine to not have a husband, be independent. Guess what - it works both way. The only thing manlier than having a hot babe on your arm is not having a hot babe clinging to your arm (provided it happens in this specific way.) Now, being a young and eligible bachelor, I have to think that there had to be at least one or two ladies who may have had their eye on Jesus. So maybe one of them comes up and is like, 'How about dinner, Jesus?' and he just says, 'How about a forty day walk in the desert with no dinner?' Like I said, Jesus was friendly toward the ladies, but he had stuff to do, and cuddling with some girl on his mom's couch and shopping at Gap wasn't on the list. He was a lone wolf.
Have you ever thought about how much Jesus walked? Oh, only all around Israel, TWICE! In shoes that weren't much more than a dead animal's skin strapped to his feet. That's why he could wail on people so well. Like this guy:
Anyway, Jesus probably had at least one lady interested in him, but he's always like 'Where my boys at?' and chillin' with his homies. What if Jesus was a real live heartbreaker? What if his animal skin shoes were still attached to the animals? What if those animals were still alive? The only thing better than a Chuck Norris brand roundhouse kick to the face would be one with live animal shoes. Chuck would roundhouse kick some jerk and as his foot hits the guy's face, this live badger punches him in the mouth.
Jesus cried (when necessary)
Nothing's more unmanly than a testosterone filled block-head that thinks all sign of human feeling must be purged from his being. Guys like this usually doubt their masculinity, then compensate for it with a car or a hot babe or something ridiculous.
Not Jesus. His boy Lazarus dies, he cries a little bit. He's not made of stone. Even Jack Bauer cried...that one time.
There you have it. Jesus was the dude to begin and end all dudes, not some milktoast wimp. What makes a real man to you? What's the manliest of all male characteristics? Who are some real men today, and some imposters?







25 people say amen!:
Jesus is Da MAN!
Greatest Man Ever:
Two Words...
Dwight K. Freaking Schrute
"How would I describe myself? Three words - hardworking, alpha male, jackhammer. Merciless. Insatiable."
- Dwight Schrute
First of all, truly Amen. He was a carpenter, for goodness sake!
Manliest man characteristic.....protection of the weaker. Which is what Jesus does. He protects us weaklings from Satan.
Dude.. you been reading my mail?
We had a men's group meeting last week where we stood around a grill charring dead animals and talking about what Jesus and His disciples were really like.
I walked into a Lifeway store yesterday and there were 4 shelves of books for ladies and 1 shelf of books for men. Either we don't like to read or we are being overlooked. Gotta be a lesson either way in there. By the way, I bought the book - "Why Men Hate to go to Church". Should be interesting reading.
Live animal shoes! Love it.
Of course a great post Matt.
Have you read Wild at Heart? Jesus was a warrior. A true man's man.
I love Jesus!
Yep.
~Luke
I HATE all the pasty white guy pictures of Jesus. I was a carpenter for a few years and I did all that work with power tools. I was not a scrawny pasty white guy and no one I know in carpentry fits that description. Jesus did all that without electricity so I don't get the lithe models the artists picked .... I hate that this is our image of Jesus. Chuck Norris would wet himself if he met Jesus. I'm just saying that's how frigintastic manly Jesus is.
I LOVE this one Matt. I get so irritated at how artists over the centuries have portrayed our man/Savior. He wasn't wimpy or frail...or BLONDE. He was likely rockin' "guns" because of all the manual labor he engaged in, so why did (do) artists make Him look like Harry Potter?
And if you flip on over to Revelation and see how He's gonna put the smack down on satan...well I just practically want to swoon at His manliness! So I guess I'd have to say his essence of justice over his enemies is the most manly aspect of Jesus--for me.
Matt...I don't know what to say.
A tongue-in-cheek post about a generally irrelevant issue has everyone fired up in agreement.
I thought you were going for laughs, but apparently you have inspired the militant evangelicals into happily defending their He-man-Jesus.
I am confused by everything now.
That said, great post.
Helen, you capitalized satan...middle finger of grammar...remember???
;-)
wv-Barank. There's a joke in that somewhere...
I've posted something in response.
(Matt, I loved the post. Out of nowhere, it got me fired up about our modern obsession with manly Jesus...)
Manly Jesus or Meek Jesus: How it is All Missing the Point
http://theburkholders.blogspot.com/2009/04/manly-jesus-or-meek-jesus-how-it-is-all.html
big ups for the jack bauer mention and the screen shot from gran turino- you rock. this is one of your best yet.
one of my favourite books is philip yancey's "the Jesus i never knew" cus it blows the perception that Jesus was this antique relic with long hair just as you have here.
Jesus must have been manly enough to strike fear into the hearts of the Pharisees cus they tried to throw Him off a ledge but He went into stealth norris ninja mode and disappeared into the crowds.
i mean, how can you put Him into a churchy, smells like old hymnal box when He fell asleep in an open boat on seas that would have made the guys from deadliest catch hurl chunks? you just cant.
at age 12 he was bringing the pwnage to guys 80 years older than him- dropping the torah like it was hot and telling his parents off: in the nicest way possible.
Jesus showed us guys how to live it hard core. Jesus aint no wimp. allah stayed 6 feet under. Jesus came back and layed waste to death, hell and the grave. booyah.
Kyle -
Dwight:
DETERMINED
WORKER
INTENSE
GOOD WORK
HARD WORK
TERRIFIC
Josh - I've read Yancey's book. Very worthwhile indeed.
Any post with a mention of Jack Bauer and pictures of Clint Eastwood AND Chuck Norris gets a thumbs up from me. I feel like spitting and then lifting a heavy object.
I'm more than a little sick of the puny, hippy-fied, Alan Alda-type Jesus, too.
I need a God who knows how to both turn the other cheek AND bring the pain.
Do you think he cursed? Or used salty language? not that that's a sign of a man.. but it kind of goes with the lumberjack thing.
Brad, I think he may have - not cursed, but got 'gritty.' Nothing clean and shiny when talking about the horror of hell or calling people whitewashed tombs.
And Jesus would've driven a big block 69 Camaro RS/SS in cortez silver with black SS stripes. What would've been better is if he'd driven that right into the temple - tables and money changers would've been flyin'.
Suh-weet.
Totally agree. How could anyone read through the Gospel and think Jesus was a wimpy, sissyfied, Barry Gibb kind of Savior? Sure, he was gentle with women and children, but that's how real men are supposed to act.
I BET HE'D RIDE A HARLEY!
Cuz Jesus is cool like that! :D
WV...*blushing*..that "word" has no business being on this blog! :P..the second part of it is "sigh" though...yep, thinking about how friggintastically manly Jesus was has be sighing in awe :P
and LOL at the comment with the Harry Potter reference!
awesome stuff :D
just a sidenote, maybe my church is wierd but there are definitely more guys then girls :D
I just knew Chuck Norris was going to appear there somewhere!
I have a different definition of Manliness, and it's also defined completely by Jesus.
One day I'll get round to finishing concept and write about it.
Great post Matt
I am reading this at work and nearly crying with laughter! Amen! Well said.
When I was growing up my church had a larger-than-life Risen Christ crucifix. He had 6-pack abs and powerful biceps. Oh yeah.
I completely agree with you on the portraying Jesus as wimpy and everything, but are you actually comparing a weak guy to women and children? I can see your point, you know, to get guys to relate more to Jesus, and it's an interesting viewpoint, but come on! It's like there's guys/manly Jesus, and then there's women/children/wimpy Jesus.
You can see how this would make me slightly ticked. Still love your blog though!
Hmm ... like Kyle, I think I'm a little confused here. Are we being serious about this? Manly men take note - Jesus said it's the meek who will inherit the earth. So what's a man? When asked by the big Lebowski “What makes a man, Mr. Lebowski? Is it being prepared to do the right thing, whatever the cost? Isn’t that what makes a man?” - the immortal words of the Dude were, “Hmmm … Sure, That And A Pair Of Testicles”
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