Prettier Jesus

There is a venerable history of depictions of Jesus’ apprehension by the authorities at Gethsemane, drawn from the gospel’s accounts, tracing back to the Middle Ages. A Medieval altarpiece from the late 15th century depicts a similar dark-complexioned and curly-haired prisoner being manhandled by a coterie of guards. A century later, the Spanish painter Juan Correa de Vivar’s 1566 “The Arrest of Christ” similarly depicts the state’s brutality against the future martyr.

It's a comparison that would be offensive to many, not least of all because Jesus Christ didn’t kill a healthcare CEO. Yet Christ’s own feelings about the rich, evidenced by his contention about the wealthy getting into heaven as easily as a camel through the eye of a needle, suggest what a genuine Christian response to predatory health insurance might look like.