What is it with icons of Jesus?
How come he's always painted with the corners of his mouth turning down? (Sorry, not supposed to say “painted.” Icons are “written,” not painted. It’s an icon thing.)
I guess the downturned mouth corners are an icon thing, too. I don’t judge. I don’t get it, though. Even the lamb looks miserable in this picture.
“Why does he look so DEPRESSED?” asked a woman at a workshop I gave once on spiritual practices. I had tried to explain what little I've gleaned about gazing at icons—that you’re supposed to rest your eyes on the image and let God speak to you through it. Sue said all she could think was, “Is God trying to tell me I should be more depressed?”
No, of course n—
Wait a minute, what IS God trying to tell us with these Sad Jesus pictures?
You know Sad Jesus. He’s the one you see gazing at you in your mind when you’ve failed Kindness 101, or lost your temper in traffic. “I know,” a fellow-church person once said when I mentioned this. “He looks at you with those big sad eyes…” Exactly.
Is that what we’re supposed to see when we gaze at Jesus? That God is really, really disappointed in us? No? Then why is he looking like that?
Is it his unfathomable sadness at the suffering of the world? Then you’d think his expression would be more one of compassion, instead of… I mean, he just looks so stern.
“He who has seen me has seen [God],” Jesus tells us.
Great.
I wonder if this is what the rest of the world sees when they look at the church. Critical. Humorless. Depressing.
Iconic cat