In the brutality of the crucifixion, the political and religious order that put Jesus to death was laid bare. But the church has sweetened and sanitised its saviour far more than chocolatiers can ever do, says Jonathan Bartley.

Following the creation of a controversial naked statue of a chocolate Jesus by an artist in New York, Christians in New Zealand have hung a picture of a chocolate Jesus on the country's busiest street.

Christians in the US have been angered by the decision of a New York gallery to exhibit a milk chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ.