Art Appreciation Monday

I got this pic in an email the other day, and I gotta tell ya, I don't quite get it.
It's apparently supposed to represent Jesus falling beneath the weight of the cross. I understand that much. But what is the rather large ring around him?

-Is this a feature of Christ's suffering that will be revealed by some newly-uncovered Gospel--that Jesus was forced to carry not only his cross, but also an oversized iron hula hoop? (You know how those Roman soldiers loved the hula hoop!)
-Is the artist trying to say that in the cross, the work of redemption begun in the Old Testament has come "full-circle"?
-Is it a HUGE wedding ring, pointing to wedding feast imagery in Scripture?
-Are they saying that Jesus must become more politically-correct, jumping through ecumenical hoops?
-Perhaps the artist wants to tell us that Jesus is not only the "Alpha and Omega," but he is the Chi and the Omicron as well! (I have no idea what that would mean...)
-Does this image depict Jesus escaping from the "picture frame" of religious art and becoming somehow more real to us as the result of his sufferings?
-Maybe this is a giant halo, and the artist wants us to see that--even in his great suffering and physical failing beneath the cross' weight--Jesus retains his divinity to the very end.
-Perhaps the original caption, lost to the ages, was, "See what Jesus went through for you?"

Listening to: The angry rolling of thunder just before the lightning of Divine Wrath strikes!