A Man's Most Attractive Trait

Jesus Christ loved men. And men were attracted to Jesus Christ. 

But why? 

What was it about the man, Jesus the Nazarene, that drew men to himself so effortlessly, the way a magnet naturally draws iron filaments?

He worked miracles--healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons--sure. 

He was an advocate for the poor, the outcast, the disenfranchised, yes. 

He promised a greater reward in the next life than what was available to most common people of his time could expect in their present state.

But I think, on a natural level, there was something about Jesus of Nazareth that captivated both men and women alike, and that was this:

He was confident in who he was.

As anyone who has ever dated knows, women find confidence to be an overwhelmingly attractive trait in a man--with some qualifiers. Confidence that veers too far into bravado, or cockiness, has the opposite effect; it turns women off. A lack of confidence does the same. Confidence is like a spice--use it to season the dish, to give it that something flavor but without overpowering the food itself. 

Prostitutes were drawn to Jesus because they sensed he was not engaging with them with ulterior motives, or for the purpose of getting or taking something from them like most men they had transacted with. This man with a pure heart was innocence itself. When Jesus stepped between the mob and the woman caught in adultery, he didn't flinch but disarmed the men of their stones simply by a few words spoken while doodling in the dirt.

But men, too, were attracted to Jesus. Enough so that men would drop their livelihoods and leave their families before they even knew what they were doing. For his closest friends, it was more than the adulation of a prophet. It was love they felt towards him. Eventually, they were willing to die for Jesus, and he inspired their willingness to do so. All because of the confidence that came with knowing who he was, why he was sent, and from Whom he came was unwavering.  

This confidence, of course, is the confidence of divine Sonship. Jesus was only confident in himself because of the love of his Father, with whom there was no cognitive or spiritual separation. But it also comes out in his humanity. He is one who spoke and "taught with authority" (Mt 7:29); even when forgoing speech for silence, people were equally amazed (Lk 23:9). When he was alone and in duress, besieged by temptation, he doubled down on his confidence in his mission, his purpose, and his divine kinship (Lk 22:39-44; Mt 4:1-11). Even a man of authority, Pilate, "marveled" at Jesus' silent confidence before him while on trial (Mk 15:5).

Jesus' cousin John was equally a man who attracted crowds and followers, who inspired repentance, who was confident in the precision and force of the axe he wielded. Yet John recognized the prophecy of Isaiah that in Jesus the bruised reed would not be broken under his foot, nor would he snuff out the smoldering wick (Is 42:3). For "he is gentle, and humble of heart" (Mt 11:29). 

Jesus never went to war. He did not command armies and led no men into battle. He tempered the zealots and commanded unsheathed swords be put back in the scabbard. In the new economy of paradox, it is meekness that becomes strength. And yet it was this very confidence that inspired throngs of people to follow him for days into the wilderness just to hear him speak, to crowd into the temple to hear him speak, who would welcome him into Jerusalem as a king riding on a donkey, that put him on the radar of those who were not attracted to him, but were threatened by him. They ask him "By what authority do you do these things, and who gave you this authority?" (Mk 11:28). These were men who drew their authority from the Law--something outside of them--whereas Jesus claims his authority from above--an exclusive and blasphemous claim.

In the same way Jesus was confident that "I and the Father are One" (Jn 10:30), we can be confident as Christian men and women that we belong to Christ as brothers and sisters, friends, adopted children of the Father, that our labor is not in vain (1 Cor 15:58). This confidence is attractive to non-believers, I would wager, when they themselves possess a purity of heart in seeking the truth, even when they may not know where it lies and even when that purity of heart is not total. When they are not hardened by unbelief, but open to the possibility, confidence in our standing as Christians can serve as a potent attraction to a life of faith, and ultimately, to life in Christ himself.