How do we see Jesus?  Paul Gauguin, the French artist known for his impressionistic paintings, particularly of the people and landscapes of Tahiti, where he spent the last years of his life, once painted the crucified Christ.  Called the "Yellow Christ," the painting stirs us to ponder.  Why would an artist who, though he earnestly sought meaning in his life, to uncover, as he put it, the "unknowns" inside him, never, as far as we know, fully came to believe in Jesus, paint him?  And why would he depict Jesus at the hour at which Jesus was fulfilling the mission for which he came to earth?  Why would he focus on Jesus' most agonizing moments?
     We may never know.  The point I wish to make with this painting is that, except for the most hard-core atheists (or anti-theists), we humans, be we living in the East or West, continue to be fascinated with the person of Jesus.  His entire life spent searching for what he didn't know about himself and perennially fascinated with the Bretons and their devotion to God, Paul Gauguin painted Jesus as the crucified Christ.  He painted the Jewish Messiah who died for the sin and alienation of the world.  For whatever reason, Gauguin captured the essence of that for which we, consciously or not, spend our lives seeking:  the love of God.
     How else can we explain the presence of humility, care, and compassion in a broken world?