Every once in a while there are people you know who glow. They do this glowing in a very specific manner, which makes them resemble my idea of Jesus.
Just to set things out from the beginning: I perceive Jesus as a historical figure who had extraordinary qualities, and who was mythified over time. I believe that he was a person, and entirely a person (as opposed to fully a person And fully a god and spirit, which is the whole trinity thing). I do not think he was an incarnation of god, but I think he was a remarkable person, and had all and more of the qualities I will get into below.
The Jesus aesthetic is an overall personality trait, a feeling you get when around the specific people who possess it. While the person may or may not physically resemble Jesus (and there are certainly enough physical interpretations of Jesus that it would not be hard to find a way to apply this criterion to many people), they resemble him as people, as beings. The act of being is what makes one alive.
So you meet these people and may not notice it right away. Then you talk and talk to them and watch their eyes on you and you start to feel them radiate. Maybe you go over to their house and they are on the porch with a glass of water, just sitting and waiting in a quiet manner, smiling. Maybe when you ask what they are doing they say "oh, nothing" or "I was just watching the birds" or "it was just so nice out."
There was a kid in my high school youth group named Adam. I have a vivid memory of him letting a girl in the group named Monica draw flowers in ballpoint pen all vining around the inside and upper ridge of his ear. And he seemed very happy and content in this situation. This is what Adam was like. So one day we had to do an exercise in which you pictured yourself somewhere that you were comfortable, saw Jesus coming over to you, and had a conversation with him. And we were supposed to do this in as much descriptive detail as possible. Then we talked about them. And Adam said: "I was at a Phish concert." This after fifteen people talking about silent beaches and forests. And so he met Jesus at a Phish concert in his head, and they were content and serene there together.
A person with the Jesus aesthetic is like this. They find good things everywhere. They are excited and enthusiastic and snap their eyes in a happy and forthright manner. They are open and open-armed. They love everyone and everything, even the people they hate. They love everything so much that they get not just sad but angry when things turn wrong. They cannot stand terrorism, pollution, bureaucracy. They want desperately to restore the world to its ideal state, and it hurts them deeply that they know they can't just do it. They cannot ignore their knowledge that everything hurts.
And so it makes sense that they start to exude this fantastic intense presence, this wave of concern and awareness. Their appearance and actions then begin to reflect who they are. They think and talk intensely about the world and what there is to do. They go barefoot and breathe in the breathing air around them like a tonic. They are a part of their world in a way that is remarkable and invigorating. They gather energy like a lightning rod. They go to Washington D.C., to Quebec City, to the Czech Republic. Sometimes they break windows. They wear simple clothing and tie their hair back in a minimal fashion. They are more concerned with more important things. They look straight at you, into your eyes. They meet you head on.
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