Perfect Imperfection

What if Christ wasn’t as physically pristine as He frequently portrayed? What if He had a visible, chronic disease? To look at Christ in video portrayals, He was muscular, charismatic, and flawless. While I hold that He was the only physical being to experience mortality without sin, isn’t it a bit much to say that He experienced mortality without physical infirmity? So why do I have such a hard time imagining Christ giving the Sermon on the Mount with a stuffy nose?

The idea of perfection may arise from the mandate that the paschal lamb be “without blemish”. However, that was a physical ordinance foreshadowing a spiritual reality, not necessarily a physical reality.

As far as charisma goes, Isaiah strictly denies that such would be present in the Savior, testifying: “When we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” Abinadi adds His testimony to these words, confirming their accurate translation. In other words, there was nothing about His appearance or physical prowess that would have drawn you to Him: He did not rank high on “Hot or Not?” To the contrary, "we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted."

Alma the Younger’s Messianic text describes Christ taking physical infirmities, sicknesses, and pains upon Himself as literally as taking death upon Himself. When Christ revealed Himself to the people of Nazareth, He expected their first response to be “Physician, heal thyself,” possibly indicating some infirmity on His part that His audience would have been aware of and which may have served as a barrier to their belief, if they, like we, were prone to over-value physical appearance, health, and strength. He reported others as critically appraising His physical appearance as that of “a gluttonous man, and a winebibber.”

Did He borrow Simon Peter’s ship to avoid the pain of being seated on the ground? Was the cross carried by Simon of Cyrene because of physical illness at baseline, exacerbated by the exhaustion of Atonement? Was he permitted to sit at meat with Simon the Leper due to leprosy that afflicted Him as well? Was that why lepers felt comfortable asking Him for help? Was that why it required faith for people to touch Him or His clothes?