Lexington a 30-year old man from Kentucky underwent some radical plastic surgery in order to physically resemble Jesus Christ.
According to the Lexington Daily Tribune, Mark Emery has already been following Jesus’ footsteps in many different ways for several years, becoming a carpenter himself, as well as studying ancient Jewish law and religious texts.
He went so far as to spend more than $215,000 on two years worth of plastic surgery to change his physical appearance to resemble Jesus.
After undergoing a total of 21 surgical interventions, he claims to be “almost satisfied” with the results.
“Some people buy fancy cars or fancy mansions… I use my money to show my love for Jesus by getting surgery to look more like him,” says Mr. Emery. “I try to live by his example and to be as much like him as I can. For me, acting like Jesus wasn’t enough, I really wanted to be like him and look like him.”
Many critics have already arisen in the social media, both denouncing or mocking Mr. Emery’s attempt to resemble Jesus Christ.
Hundreds of people, including various religious leaders, have made some religiously oriented critics, denouncing as “blasphemy” or “heresy” his desire to physically imitate the appearance of Christ.
“Christians love Jesus and try to act like him, not look like him. Shame on you. That’s ridiculous and anti-Christian” wrote Pastor John Hagee on his Twitter account.
Many critics have also described Mr. Emery’s surgery as “ridiculous” since the physical appearance of Jesus Christ remains unclear and is still subject to a lot of debate.
The Bible itself gives no physical description of Jesus in the sense of describing his skin tone, hair style, or facial traits.
Many theories have been elaborated by scholars over the years, some of them incredibly far-fetched, claiming that Jesus could have been West African, Egyptian or half-Roman among others, but none of these claims were backed on any proof.
It is generally accepted among historians, that Jesus was not of European descent, as he is usually depicted on icons and crucifixes. He would instead have resembled a modern-day Arab, Turk or other middle eastern man, having a slightly darker skin color.
Despite all these critics, Mr. Emery says that he is really happy with the results of his surgery, claiming that he now feels closer to Jesus than he had ever felt in his life.
