Jesus Christ, It's... Jesus Christ?

Miracle of miracles! A life-sized "painting" of Jesus Christ "appeared" overnight last weekend on the wall of Premier Video, located on Lund's Corner in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and the lives of hundreds, if not hundreds of thousands, have changed.

At least a thousand devotees have made the pilgrimage to Premier Video. Some placed candles, flowers, and other gifts before the Jesus image. Others knelt reverently before the image in prayer.

Some wept.

Many of the reverent have deeply analyzed the image, considering it as an art critic would the Mona Lisa. They focus on the bleeding sacred heart, and say Jesus' heart bleeds because things are so bad in the world he can't take it anymore. They focus on his covered eyes, and say Jesus can't stand to see things as they are. That, or this Jesus is wiping away tears.

Or Jesus is covering his eyes because of the pornography available in the video store.

In one way, I'm surprised by this reaction. What amounts to little more than a Fathead image of a "see-no-evil" sacred heart Jesus has drawn the attention of the masses. All we need is "hear-no-evil" Jesus and "speak-no-evil" Jesus, and we've got a set.

I mean, come on. It's not like Jesus appeared on a potato chip. Or Jesus showed up in the humidity between two panes of glass. Or Mary appeared to three children in Fatima. Some dope simply took one of the many examples of Jesus one can find on the net, blew it up to full-size proportions, paint-by-numbered it, and stuck it on a wall. No miracles involved, and little artistic talent needed to accomplish the deed.

But in another way, I'm little surprised by this reaction. A Fathead Jesus has the attention of the massed unwashed. Big surprise.

As to who put up this Jesus, I'd look no further than the tenants and owner of the Premier Video building. After all, business has been up since Jesus made his appearance. Given the principle of Occam's Razor, one oughtn't look far to find an explanation for "see-no-evil" Jesus.

Unfortunately, the knuckleheads who have their kids on their knees, in public, praying to an image pasted on a porn shop, have little time for reason.

Or common sense.