On vacation, we drove by a full-size tractor-trailer parked by the road, painted to look like a billboard. The stars and stripes of a rippling American flag stretched across the background. A fighter jet in flight, against a backdrop of the flag’s stars, was painted on the left. In the middle was Jesus Christ wearing a crown of thorns and the words: “I am the way, the truth, the life.” To the right flew a bald eagle with talons extended.

It was an impressive and eye-catching image. But jarring. A real head-scratcher.

How does a picture of a bloodied Jesus and his declaration of divinity belong on the American flag with a fighter jet and a bald eagle?

Perhaps the artist sees the United States as a Christian nation, founded on Christian principles, to be defended for the same righteous purposes that led Jesus to the cross.

My ancestors, however, came to America to flee the Christian nations of Europe, where they had been persecuted. Separation of church and state and religious freedom lie at the foundation of what I love about this country.

Or maybe the artist sees a parallel between the self-sacrifice of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins alongside the sacrifice of military personnel for the nation. There might be something to that. But the way Jesus lived and died was without borders. He sacrificed himself without a weapon in hand. His way was peaceful, nonviolent and healing.

I admire the ideals inscribed in the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Martin Luther King Jr., a Christian pastor, called on the nation to live up to this vision for the common good. Is that what the artist was reaching for? It didn’t seem that way to me.

The painting seemed to portray an American Jesus. I think that is what bothered me the most: If Jesus belongs to my country’s tribe, it’s only another small step to claim him for my denomination, my race, my political party. It’s not hard to co-opt Jesus as religious justification for my self-centered passions, whatever they are.

You can make Jesus your nation’s ­patron saint only if you ignore or dismiss the Jesus we meet in the Gospels and the rest of the New Tes­tament.

You can blend the flag, a fighter jet and bald eagle with “I am the way, the truth, the life” only if you dodge Jesus’ most important moral demands: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. . . . [And] you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31).

I can imagine that my observations will get under the skin of some readers. Others will scratch their heads at my naivete about evil in the world and how things really work. Some may think that I hate America or that I’m a flaming liberal.

I may be naive about realpolitik. But I’m not unaware of the horror, brutality and suffering inflicted on enemies by “realistic” experts. I also assure you that I love America. Most of my acquaintances consider me theologically conservative.

I love Jesus Christ — his way, his truth and his life — most of all. Followers of Christ must be utterly clear about our primary identity as his disciples. This is the Mount Everest of every other identity and allegiance.

If I could redesign the painting on the tractor-trailer billboard, what would it show?

One thing would stay the same: the suffering Christ at the center with his timeless words, “I am the way, the truth, the life.”

But instead of a U.S. flag as background, I’d paint a map of the world. Where there was a fighter jet, I’d put a circle of human hands. Rather than a bald eagle, there would be a dove with an olive branch.

All of these things belong together.

Mark R. Wenger, a retired pastor and seminary educator, writes a column for the Lancaster Sunday News, where a version of this article first appeared. He is an LMC bishop and attends Groffdale Mennonite Church in Leola, Pa.