I promise not refer to Jesus as a “hottie.” It’s plain wrong — on so many levels.

But it’s Holy Week and a good time to present “Head of Christ” by Dutch Master Rembrandt. This painting was created in the mid-1600s, and is part of an exhibit that travels around the world. Home base is the Louvre in Paris.

Counting the stars in the sky would be easier than adding up the number of times Jesus has been depicted in paintings and sculptures. But of all the Jesus’s in the world of art, I love the way He looks in Rembrandt’s paintings. In the work above He’s still a man; not quite yet a Deity.

Also, it is plausible that this painting is what Jesus may have actually looked like. In Renaissance art, Jesus is often imagined with Northern-European features. But the living Jesus was neither Latin nor Germanic. He was Semitic. Rembrandt painted Jesus based on a Jewish model, which was revolutionary.

In the end, it doesn’t matter who paints Jesus best. If you believe in The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit like I do, and if all goes as we hope, we’ll see His real face one day soon enough. And won’t that be awesome?