Good title, but the answer is kind of obvious, and is revealed in the first panel- Jesus? But who is He, really? God, of course- the Creator, the miracle worker, the Savior, and your only hope of going to Heaven.
This one is pretty weak, as far as Chick tracts are concerned. Basically “The Adventures of Jesus Christ.” Chick has done a number of “beginner tracts” explaining who Jesus is and why you should pray to him, and this is an example of one of those. The most amusing parts of this tract are the first two panels, and the page depicting things Jesus created and the fact that he keeps the universe from flying apart. “He’s got the whole world in his hands,” indeed. And the pictures of things he created sounds like a kid attempting to answer the questions if you verbalize it: “God created…alligators! And elephants, and Saturn, and…um…ants, and flowers, and kings, and butterflies and…uh…Vikings?”
Is everyone on the first two pages a caricature? I recognize Louis Farrakhan, Moqtada al-Sadr, and . . . umm . . . Bill-Gaines-with-a-handlebar-mustache, and most of the other faces look drawn with someone in mind, but the bikers look like generic Chick ‘sinners’.
Ah, yes, if Eddie Izzard contributed to a Chick tract…
“And on the first day He created light and air and fish and jam and soup and potatoes and haircuts and arguments and small things and rabbits and people with noses and jam – more jam, perhaps – and soot and flies and tobogganing and showers and toasters and grandmothers. And Belgium.”
Wonder what’ll happen what Jack Chick takes on Obama - there are all sorts of angles for someone as crazy as Jack. This of course assumes Jack Chick knows who is currently running for President and isn’t still upset about Adlai Stevenson.
36Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!
37And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?
38Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
39Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
40Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
John 11 36:40 KJV
Chick’s very conscientious about keeping to the King James translation, as you might have guessed from some of his classics.
What about “I believe he was Buddha’s cousin”. Is that intended as just ignorant drivel like the bit about cutting off Jonah’s head? Or is there some obscure weirdness in the world that I’ve managed to miss, where somebody has a family tree with Jesus and Gautamas (and the Greystokes)
Incidentally, the character speaking the line looks remarkably like Abel, from the House of Secrets comics. I didn’t know he new Farrakhan.
I begin to suspect that either Alzheimer’s disease runs in Jack Chick’s family, or else his entire circle of acquaintances has some sort of silent agreement to dick with his mind at every opportunity.
“Yeah, we’re hoping to take the kids to the beach this month, but-- Oh shit, here comes Jack. Watch out, everybody.”
“Hi folks! Praise the Lord, it’s a lovely day. Say, have I shown you all my new tract about Jesus?”
“Er… Jesus? Sorry, Jack; doesn’t ring a bell. Who is this… Jesus?”
“What?! It’s Jesus! You know, Jesus Christ?”
“Nooo… anybody here heard of this ‘Jesus’ fellow? No? Sorry, Jack; I guess we don’t follow sports that closely. What team is he on?”
“But… He’s JESUS! The Christ! The Messiah! Son of God? Founder of Christianity? The guy I’ve spent my entire adult life prosletyzing about? Larry, I told you about Jesus last Memorial Day! I gave you literature and everything! Remember?”
“Er… sorry, Jack. I can’t be expected to remember every last offhand remark you make, can I? Look, why don’t you just tell us all about this friend Jerome of yours.”
“Damn it! Why do you always do this? You are all going to hell unless you pay attention, don’t you realize that? Mom! Mom, help me out here!”
There are a number of incidents in the Buddha’s life that are echoed in Jesus’. Since the stories are some 450 years before Jesus, there are those* who believe that the stories were circulating around the Middle East and were incorporated into Jesus’ story.
More to the point though, boiled down to its simplest terms, the Buddha’s and Jesus’ message is the same: Don’t be a dick.
Don’t he, though? Panel 19 I was humming The Messiah
His name is Wonderful, Counselor
The mighty God, (the king of kings) Which is apparently cribbed from another passage.
I love the little bit of mathematics about the prophecies – “The chances of fulfilling all of them are about a zillion to one.”
I wonder, did he work out those odds all by himself?
They say great ideas can’t be reduced a simple phrase, but you’ve got two major religions summarized in one short sentence. Well done.
*Me too. I think we’re surrounded.
I still don’t quite get how having old stories and sutras floating around in the philosophosphere to be incorporated into a new religion would equal “cousin”- wouldn’t that mean that Jesus is also Mithras’ cousin as well? Of course, if this did make sense to me, that might mean I was at one with the mind of Jack Chick, which is not a fate I wish to contemplate.
