Christ with Shopping Bags, occasionally referred to as Consumer Jesus, is one of Banksy’s most brilliantly controversial works. The artwork shows a crucified Jesus agonisingly holding shopping bags in his outstretched hands that buckle under the weight of the gifts contained inside. Christmas is referenced in the image with a candy cane and the Mickey Mouse ears poking out of the heavy bags.

The scene can be read as to how the festive season and celebration of Jesus’ birth has lost its original and truest religious and moral meaning as society places more importance on gifts and shopping rather than hope, forgiveness and salvation. We see the modern world building up new gods in the consumption of brands and goods to the detriment of spiritual growth. Jesus and the shopping bags are melting in Banksy’s recreation of the Crucifixion portraying how consumerism temporarily fills a satisfaction, but the satisfaction does not last.