How tall was Jesus?

We have reserved the greatest example to the last, even that of our Lord Himself. No words can exaggerate the greatness of His undiminished Deity, nor the graciousness of His stoop to man’s estate, nor the affectionate solicitude of the Father as to His every word and action. And yet there is no account of His physical appearance given to us in the Scriptures. We do read that “His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men” (Isa. 52:14), a prophecy made centuries before our Lord was born at Bethlehem. The mind of the Spirit of God was filled with the spiritual anguish that would be His, “a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3)—a spiritual anguish that marred His very features. Blessed Saviour!

In the writings of men we get such presentations as the following: “He stood well over six feet high, with noble head and white-flowing locks, eagle eye, majestic alike in looks and manners.” This is not the method of the Bible, and we may learn a great lesson therefrom.

In the Bible we get very little description of physical appearance, but more of moral characteristics, and even that very sparingly. For instance, take the case of the Apostle Paul. Of all the servants of the Lord in the New Testament he was the most remarkable, and yet we have no description whatever of his personal appearance in a favourable sense. The little he does say of himself is to report what his adversaries said of him, that, “his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible” (2 Cor. 10:10). Tradition tells us something of his physical appearance, but the Bible never does so in the way of adulatory description, usual in the writings of men.

When they saw Him, however, He bore no royal appearance in their eyes there was “no beauty that we should desire Him”; there was “no form nor lordliness.” Had one come with the towering height of Saul, or the attractiveness of Absalom, Israel would have followed Him; so utterly unable is fallen man to learn. Physical and outward show he esteems: moral and inward perfection he despises.

Verse 2 presents Him to us in two ways. First, as He was in the eyes of God. Mankind in general, and Israel in particular, had proved themselves to be "dry ground," quite unproductive of anything that was good; yet out of this there sprang up this "tender plant," which drew its life and nourishment from elsewhere. The Lord Jesus truly sprang out of Israel, through the Virgin Mary His mother, but the excellence of His holy Manhood was due not to her but to the action of the Holy Spirit of God.

But second, He is presented as He was in the eyes of men. He had "no form nor lordliness," (New Trans.), nor the kind of beauty that men admire and desire. Some haughty, imperious man of imposing appearance would have caught the popular fancy; but instead of this He was "a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," as verse 3 says. Being who He was, such a One as He could not be otherwise, as He entered and walked through a ruined creation with all its degradation and woe. This men did not understand, since they were insensible to their own degradation, and consequently they despised and rejected Him, as the prophet here predicts.

"His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars." The spouse having already portrayed her Beloved from head to foot, she now refers, we doubt not, to His general appearance - to all His glorious features together - His full stature. And His stature "is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars." This figure, evidently, illustrates His glorious Majesty as the Messiah. The lofty cedars "on that goodly mountain Lebanon," are the standing type in scripture of exaltation, glory, and majesty. Resplendent as the "most fine gold" from head to foot - adorned with every grace - fragrant with all sweetness - glorious and majestic like the cedars of Lebanon, is the Person of her well-beloved.

"His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars." The spouse having already portrayed her Beloved from head to foot, she now refers, we doubt not, to His general appearance — to all His glorious features together — His full stature. And His stature "is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars." This figure, evidently, illustrates His glorious Majesty as the Messiah. The lofty cedars "on that goodly mountain Lebanon," are the standing type in scripture of exaltation, glory, and majesty. Resplendent as the "most fine gold" from head to foot — adorned with every grace — fragrant with all sweetness — glorious and majestic like the cedars of Lebanon, is the Person of her well-beloved.

"His countenance (or bearing, see J.N.D's N.T.) is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars." How excellent is He in all His ways. There is an elevation of character and dignity about His person and bearing wherever we see Him. He never showed an attitude that savors of aloofness; He was always accessible. There was a love and tenderness in His ways that drew one to Him, and yet there was ever an excellency in His bearing that made one realize that he was in the presence of his superior. See Him in the gospels before the multitudes, alone with His disciples, with little children in His arms, alone with the adulterous woman of Samaria, eating with publicans and sinners or in the Pharisees' houses, or standing before His accusers and the governor of the land, there was always a dignity and excellence about His bearing that marked Him as superior to all that was around Him even in His deepest humiliation. He always knew just what to say and to do. There was never any indecision or hesitation and never an unwise act or misplaced word. How excellent was He in all His ways as a Man down here.

Tradition, that very probably has a substantial foundation for it, tells us a little about Paul’s personal appearance. It states that he was little of stature, bald, with a long dark beard, aquiline nose, piercing eyes and bushy eyebrows. We must remember Scripture gives us no description of his personal appearance, but engages us with the description of his labours, and introduces us to his writings.

"He has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him."

Thus He appeared to the eyes of men. He had attracted no notice during those hidden, quiet years. The absurd and blasphemous legends of the Romish church have no foundation in fact. Men had no eyes to see or hearts to appreciate Him, who was altogether lovely in the eyes of heaven. If He had come with power and arrogance, crushing all opposition to His will beneath all-conquering feet, they might have admired and followed Him, but they could not understand His holy separation to God, His loveliness, His meekness and His lowliness. The grace of heaven was unattractive to their eyes; they had no use for Him who sought only the honour that comes from God and lived only to serve, who came not to be ministered to but to minister.

As God He is all-wise, yet as a child in this world He "grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him" (Luke 2:40); and in verse 52 of this same chapter it is written, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." It is indeed an inscrutable mystery that the source of all wisdom should, as Man, increase in wisdom; but this only brings out the perfection of His Manhood. We cannot wonder that some said, "Whence hath this man this wisdom?" (Matt. 13:54), as we retrace the steps of this "Poor Wise Man" in His sojourn down here, and listen to the wonderful revelations that fell from His lips.

From the Scriptures considered we learn that the features of the poor wise man were seen in Jesus, who in becoming MAN became POOR, and in Him all divine WISDOM was manifested here in this world. But these were not features that attracted the natural man, for, as the prophet had written, "There is no beauty in Him that we should desire Him." The features that appeal to man in the flesh are altogether contrary to the features of moral beauty displayed in Jesus, and that belong to the divine nature that is given to those who are born of God.