For following the footsteps of the messiah, a man has landed himself an arrest for walking about in town bearing a cross at his back, clad in white just like Jesus.
A 23 year old artist and film maker Ilya Novikov was arrested for impersonating Jesus Christ after he was spotted walking along a road carrying a huge wooden cross on his back in the city of Perm in central Russia’s Perm Krai region.
A video recorded by an eyewitness showed the bearded artist wearing long flowing white robe as he walked along the street with a T-shaped cross. Motorists saw him and called the Police. wo policemen quickly arrived on the scene to arrest him – but struggled to fit his cross in the back of their patrol car. They eventually succeeded and took Mr Novikov to a police station for questioning and was later released.
Mr Novikov explaining his act said :
“My friend gave me some wooden sticks so I made a cross out of them. The experience of Jesus Christ was repeated. People were laughing, shouting and mocking me. This reaction proves that the Bible story was true and that after 2,000 years people have still not changed – we are still cruel and intolerant to our neighbours.”
But Father Igor Anoufriev, the rector of the city’s Church of St George, condemned the stunt as blasphemy.