The first Sunday of Advent (the four Sundays preceding Christmas) has a focus not on the coming of Jesus in the flesh but his second appearing at the end of the age. There are lots of second coming jokes in the culture. My favorite is two priests talking. One says, “It’s true Jesus has just returned.” “Oh,” said the other. “What should we do?”  “Look busy,” the other replied. Folks are more than a little ambivalent about a real Jesus showing up.

We tend to make Jesus in our own image. Examples of this in art of a very dubious nature reveals that art with with religious content may not in point of fact not be religious while art without religious content may be authentic religious art. Go figure!