Is Jesus a Person or a Symbol?

Good reading over at the NYT. My take, as simplistic as this might sound, is that religious ideologues (in general) confuse the truths that shape their collective identities for the symbols that point toward these truths. Of course, there must be a relationship between the symbol and the thing represented, so these must be overlapping fields. But, in the case of Jesus, we have been given multiple symbols for his person from the earliest Christian memories. Lord, Christ, Son of David, Son of Man, Son of God, Bread, Gate, Life, Lamb, High Priest, and the list goes on and on. We Christians should know better. Once this distinction is understood, we will be less scandalized by depictions of Jesus that don't look familiar to us.

Sidebar: Two entry points to the first person who can name the artist who created the imaged series of portraits above.