Via Dolorosa

I always thought he said "shame me", not "chain me". In any case, great song :)

I thought he says "shave me" until I read the lyrics.

Anyway I like the idea behind this song very much. Via Dolorosa (Path of Pain) is the name of the street in Jerusalem on which Jesus walked carrying his cross.

What I like though is the arbitrary and somewhat existentialist view upon Jesus' destiny. I think Jesus is depicted as a normal being, not as a messiah, and more than that his life and destiny are depicted as a great and tragic misunderstanding.

"This is not what it seems"

"This ain't no mysterious way"

"This ain't no universal mastermind"

"This ain't no projection of one of a kind"

"This ain't no religious highway"

Now all these lyrics, including all those which end in "alone" express the fact that there is actually nothing religious in all the prophetic charade, in his mind he realizes that there just might not be no universal mastermind, no final purpose for his death, nothing special about him. He is just a man. He has no heaven to go to, he will die alone.

"I carry my burden alone" and "This is just another Sunday" make me think about Sisyphus and his absurd destiny, stressed so much in existentialist works. Especially the "Sunday" part gives the impression that Jesus is doomed to carry his cross just like Sisyphus carried his boulder over and over again until the end of time. And to some extent I dare to say that from this point Jesus, with his earthly depiction represents the absurd condition of the human race.