Surely the reader of this text must be completely distressed!  It seems to fly in the face of everything the pious follower of Jesus generally fabricates about this man.  We do, you know, manufacture many inventions about Jesus.  He is a gentle, mild-mannered, generous, kindly, even-tempered, loving and lovable, intense (but in a nice way, of course), courteous, compassionate, sympathetic, benevolent man devoted to righting the wrongs of this world. 

He does go through some hard times and his death is a really, really tortured one, but by and large he is the kind or person who knows and understands…