Caricature Christ

Protests in Mumbai regarding the above image, led to the Times of India apology which appeared in today's front page, saying -

" WE ARE SORRY: An illustration resembling The Last Supper, which appeared in the Sunday edition of the paper (Page 18), has hurt the sentiments of a number of our readers. We sincerely apologise for the anguish it has inadvertently caused. This paper is truly respectful of all faiths; it is one of the cornerstones of our editorial philosophy."

As a Jesus-following iconoclast - I have no problems with pictures of pictures. The Holy Scriptures tells me not to have any graven images - so I hold no pictoral representation of my dear Lord close to my heart.

The common "Jesus" picture seems to be drawn mainly from a self-portrait that the German painter Albrecht Durer made of himself in 1500 when he was 28 years old.

Since I owe no allegiance to the plethora of pictures of pale-faced-jesus which people call 'Yishu-foto' here - I cannot really be too outraged.

In fact, the placing of RK Laxman's 'common man' in the place of Christ strikes me as singularly apt. Jesus was after all fully man - and would have looked like anyone of us. We know that he was Not handsome ("He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. Isaiah 53.2b). The beauty of Christ - the fact that his first disciples confidently said that he was 'full of grace and truth' came from His character, came from the words that He said and the things He did - and the power of a life that was stronger than death.

The Times picture is probably wrong in putting a bevy of Indian political heavy-weights clustered around this 'common man' as disciples. If anything these dear worthies are un-disciples of Christ as seen by the sad spectacle of most of what passes as leadership from them. For the record - the artist feels these are the 12 most important political leaders in India today: Mayawati, Swaraj, Jaitley, Karat (funny to see him poking his head between the BJP big two), Advani, Gadkari, then the dear 'common man' followed by the Congress trinity of Rahul, Manmohan and Sonia, and then the other trioka of Mukherjee, Banerjee and good old Pawar to round off the lot.

Getting back to Jesus (what a relief) - if we do want to draw an image of him - how about something more along these lines.

If anything our Lord, being a praktikas (carpenter/builder/or as we say here in Bharat a 'mistry') would most probably looked far more like those of us who are melanin blessed rather than those poor in melanin (like yours truly for instance).

It is sad that global Christianity continues to be dominated by the European image of our Lord - that vapid bearded Durer-esque form endlessly reproduced in various forms. How I wish that the type could be erased and replaced with a desire to see Jesus through the words of the book - through His amazing life - and all the wonderful things that have been said about him. Even better - that the truth of Jesus would be seen in the lives of all who profess to follow him as Lord.

If we take Jesus at His words, then He is either Lord of all - or not Lord at all. There is no in-between. This is why the very earliest Christian creedal statement - predating even the writing of the first gospel - is these three words: Jesus is Lord. A statement deeply heretical to the understanding of the Jews (who could not see Jesus as fulfilling Messianic Deity) and dangerously seditious to the Romans (for whom Ceasar was Lord).

As for the caricature of a caricature that appeared in the Sunday Times of India ... draw on!