Reflections on

The Passion of the Christ

 

By J. Rob Hutto

 

            On February 25^th, 2004, I already had my ticket.  I arrived early at the theater to make sure that I could get the ticket I had reserved on the internet.  As it turned out, all I had to do was insert my credit card in a machine and my ticket was printed while I waited.  I took my ticket and walked to the nearest bookstore.  Since I was so early, I was able to browse the bookstore for a while.  This was probably good for me since I had been somewhat apprehensive about seeing this movie.

Yes, I wanted to see The Passion of the Christ.  But I suspected it wasn’t a movie to see if you wanted to be entertained.  At least this was the impression I got as I viewed the pre-release reports of this work.  I had heard it was violent. 

I had seen how the Good Morning America hosts had attempted to discredit this work, even to the point of having Monica Lewinsky comment on the movie.  Lewinsky reminds us of one thing and one thing only.  The mention of her name in relation to the movie was, to my wife and I, just one more attempt to discredit the production.

            The Diane Sawyer interview of Mel Gibson was handled well- by Mel Gibson!  He was straightforward, in spite of the fact that Sawyer seemed to try hard to find something wrong, something negative about the movie.  She failed, and America wanted to see the movie even more.  It’s interesting that the GMA crew and the media in general are not this hard on most other movies using violence.  But, of course, this movie was about that Man!

            At about thirty minutes before the beginning of the movie, I entered the theater and found my seat.  It was odd, but not totally unexpected, that the auditorium was almost full in spite of the fact that it was the middle of the day on a work and school day.  I had succeeded in obtaining a ticket to the very first public viewing of the movie in our area.  I settled into my seat, and then….

            The movie grabbed your attention.  Forget that it was one of the most anticipated movies since the prequel to the Star Wars trilogy.  Since the movie was in Latin with English subtitles, I had anticipated some difficulty in actually seeing the visual aspect of the movie because I would be so busy reading the text.  Not so!  In spite of the subtitles, this movie grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go. 

            I have grown up in church.  I have seen perhaps hundreds of pictures of the crucifixion of Jesus.  But I never realized how clean those pictures were.  Yes, they showed the nail-pierced Hands, and the Blood streaming down.  But they were still clean.  I never thought about that until I saw this movie.  This movie is probably a truer depiction of what a person looked like when they were about to be crucified.  The scourging scene, a graphic scene, showed what happens to the body of the criminal about to be nailed to a tree.  The Jesus nailed to the cross in the movie was marred almost beyond recognition.  This movie showed us what it was probably like to suffer under the hands of the Romans and the Jewish leadership.

            Later, after leaving the theater and doing a few other things, I found myself alone in the truck, thinking about the movie, and crying.  It came to me that everything else we do, much of which is probably important, is nothing to compare with what Jesus did for us.  We don’t realize it because we have seen the clean pictures.  Mr. Gibson, thank you for helping me get a better idea of what Jesus went through!

            This movie is historical, and it is historic.  It is historical in that it depicts a real event from the past.  It deals with something that really happened.  It is historic because it is the best depiction of the last twelve hours of the Life of Jesus that has ever been produced outside of the Gospels.  In saying this, I don’t mean to equate the movie with the Bible.  But in our society, with all of the technology available to us, it’s about time someone used the technology to help us get a clearer view of the plan of God.

            I did not see this movie as anti-Semitic.  It was not about the glorification of violence.  It was about the Answer for the sin of the world.  It is about Jesus Christ.  If the media is against this movie, it is because it is about the death of the Savior.  They can’t stand it.

            I heard one conservative radio announcer talking about how he couldn’t identify with the Jesus of the movie.  Okay.  By this time in the Life of Christ there was something going on that we couldn’t fully comprehend.  He was alone.  Even the sky was darkened, apparently in order to signify God the Father turning away from Christ for one brief moment.  Jesus suffered the ultimate alienation and pain to pay the price for our sin to the fullest extent.  How can we honestly relate to this? 

            Doctrine is not the most important thing, though it is important.  Church is not the most important thing, though it is important.  Family is not the most important thing, though it is important.  What is most important is God and what He accomplished for us one day on a cross in Palestine approximately 2000 years ago.  The price was paid for your sins and mine, and nothing else can match that!

 

 

 

2/04-3/04