Jesus Memes

The People Were Astonished At His Doctrine

The internet has a complicated relationship to Jesus. In America, Christianity remains the most popular religion with 65% of adults identifying with some sort of Christianity. Christianity permeates through our daily lives whether we choose to associate ourselves with it or not. In the canon of life, Jesus is one of our stock characters. He’s an ever present figure in fiction, politics, and of course, the Internet. Leftists quote him to call out hypocrisy. The right quotes him to further subjugate those they disagree with. The rest of us use him to represent a chill guy who likes to hang out. 

Jesus’s legacy online is primarily a funny one. The church may have plenty of trouble with other aspects of their messaging but most people understand what Jesus was about. We all get the sense that someone who mostly hung out with thieves and lepers would probably do well on the modern internet. His name carries weight because he’s the only religious figure who would do well on 4chan.The mere mention of his name can win an argument, regardless of religious affiliation. Most people not affiliated with the Christian church can take or leave the whole religion but that Jesus fellow made some points. 

There are several memes where Jesus features as a man character. My favorite is one that stands alone, though there is a similar format that can be edited. Everyone knows not to change this one though. Why change what is already perfect? It is a comic of Jesus from what I assume is some youth catechism book. It looks similar to the ones I read from as a child. The text of the meme reads: If you ain’t given mutual BJs then you homophobic. That’s just tea. Never before have a more perfect series of words been strung together. Never before has an image been so perfectly blasphemous in such an over the top and modern way. 

I think about this picture every Easter. My family petered out our easter traditions as I got older and we stopped going to church when I was in high school. While American Capitalism really did a number on  Christmas  and its secular celebrations, they’ve yet to really nail Easter.  I refuse to watch the Ten Commandments and while I like parts of the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack I simply can’t commit to listening to the whole thing every year. I’d love to not feel this way but every year during Holy Week I have the sense that I should be doing something. Say what you will about the Catholic Church but they sure know how to instill the unshakeable sense that you should be doing something. 

On the years when there is nothing else there is this meme of Jesus that makes me laugh. I have yet to really find a secular Easter that works for me. It scratches an itch that needs to be attended to every so often, especially on Holy days of obligation.  It is an acknowledgement of a part of my life I don’t think about much, or try not to think about much. I can laugh about this meme because I spent every Sunday morning in catechism for years. It’s funny to me because this version of Jesus is probably closer to the one that I was taught about even if he would probably never say those exact words. It’s everything someone who’s no longer invested in their religion could want. Using Jesus as a rhetorical device to win an argument that is both stupid and explicit. It’s a reminder of religion that is getting everyone involved sent straight to hell. 

The other version of this meme, the editable one, is also good, but in a different way. It takes a premise many of us are familiar with. Comics to teach children about Jesus, and adds a level of abrasiveness and moderness that kills every time. The Pharisees responding Shut Up to Jesus feels like an oversimplification of what happened but gets the point across to children. In the hands of the internet it gets plenty more mileage. “The people hated Jesus because he told the truth” is a great phrase to have in one’s back pocket when you are getting clowned for your unpopular opinions. To compare one’s experiences being made fun of for unpopular opinions, to religious martyrdom is certainly one way to win an argument. 

As much as we would like to completely remove ourselves from religion, especially the archaic ones we were raised in, we cannot get away from it. Jesus remains fodder for tweets and memes and jokes for those who have had every relationship to faith from full deconstruction to just kind of not invested anymore. The things we’ve chosen to take from the cultures we were raised in are usually things like kindness, helping our fellow man, and love for all God’s creatures. Sometimes those things aren’t enough and we miss the culture. In the absence of that culture we have created our own. The thing that persists, is jokes about Jesus.