February 29, 2004
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Jesus: Omnis qui est ex Veritate audit meam vocem. (Everyone who hears Truth, hears my voice.)
Pilate: Veritas… Quid est Veritas? (Truth… What is Truth?)
–from The Passion, directed by Mel Gibson.
Now I know why The Passion has been so controversial.
I’m not talking about the charges of anti-Semitism. Yes, the high priests Caiaphas and Annas were portrayed as the instigators of Jesus’ execution–but you also saw Jewish priests objecting to the entire affair. Yes, at one point a mob of Israelis shouts for Jesus to be executed–but you also saw Israelis crying as Jesus carried his cross down the street, or bringing him water, or helping to carry his cross. No group is portrayed as a stereotypical mob, but as a crowd made up of individuals, with individual motives and individual actions. No, it was not an anti-Semitic movie.
And I’m not talking about the blood. My fellow Xangans, this movie is bloody–and it is bloody for a reason. Crucifixion is perhaps the most painful form of execution in the history of humankind. I cringed when they were beating Jesus with canes, or scourging him with the hooked whips. I had to close my eyes when they began nailing his hands–it was too much–which was the very point of the film. But yet I knew it would all be there. Hence the big “R” next to the movie’s title. It’s not a movie for children–not a whitewashed Jesus cartoon like you see around Eastertime. And if anyone brought their children, they apparently missed the big “R.” So as gory as it was, the gore is not the real reason for all the controversy.
The reason The Passion is controversial is because of Jesus.
Pastor Greg Laurie tells the story of a woman shopping in a jewlery store. She asked the jeweler if she could see some crosses. After he showed her several, she commented, “I like these, but do you have any that don’t have this little man on them?”
“That is what people want today,” Laurie continues. “A cross without Jesus. A cross without any offense.”
The Jesus’ message of the cross is offensive by nature. Just look at 1 Corinithans 1:22-25, it openly admits the offensiveness of the Christian message. Jesus claimed that the world was corrupt and inherently evil–and that only by the loving sacrifice of His life could anyone get right with God. This is an offensive claim! No-one likes to be told that they are inherently evil.
But if we aren’t inherently corrupt, then Jesus was just another person who was killed for his beliefs. If you and I don’t need saving, then what good is a savior? We like it that way–Jesus being a nice person, a good teacher, someone who told us to love everybody. But not a savior. If we admit to this claim of His, we admit that we need saving.
Yet The Passion won’t leave it alone, will it? This movie makes the claim that through his willing death, Jesus was taking away the penalty for–something. It implies our guilt: OUR part in his death. It was my hands that held the hammer and the nails–not just Mel Gibson’s. It was my hands that needed to be cleansed of their blood–not just Pilate’s. And yours as well. This is the statement that the movie makes. This is what offends our sensibilites.
Pastor Greg Laurie goes on. “If there had been any other way, do you think God would have sent His Son to suffer like this? If there had been any other way we could have been forgiven, then God surely would have found it. If living a good moral life would get us to heaven, then Jesus would never have died on the cross for us. But He did die, because there was and is no other way. He had to pay the price for our sin…
This is where the cross comes in, because we were separated from a holy and perfect God by our sin. But God loved us so much that He became a man and walked among us and went to a cross and died in our place and paid the price for every sin that we have ever committed…
“At the cross, Jesus purchased the salvation of the world. This message is so deep and profound that you could spend the rest of your life studying it and still not grasp its full signifigance. Yet it is so simple that even a child can understand it. Still, may people do not understand the significance of what took place on that Roman cross 2,000 years ago. Jesus died so that we might live.”
If you’ve seen the movie, I want you to think back. I want you to remember Jesus hanging on the cross, dripping from a hundred wounds, spikes through his wrists, thorns in his forehead. Caiaphas the high priest stands below him, mocking, “He said he would destroy the temple and repair it in three days. Yet he cannot get down off the cross!”
As the old priest turns and begins to walk away, Jesus gasps out, “Father…please forgive them. They don’t know.”
Caiaphas freezes in his tracks and half-turns, an incredulous look on his face. At that moment, one of the other crucified men says to the priest, “Listen! He’s praying for you!” Caiaphas stares up at him, and then hurriedly walks away.
Comments (19)
that scene really got me. it showed that Jesus not only suffered physically, but also as deity…how painful for Him it must have been to know that these people could not understand the full extent of His sacrifice, that it was neccessary for Him to die!
Honestl…I think now I can really fully appreciate what Christ did for me that day. I used to go through life knowing the story of Jesus Christ dying on the cross for my sins and I’ve seen the other movies about Christ. But this movie really showed how much He really did suffer for us….it makes me see things in a whole different light.
I am praying for boldness of Christians everywhere to share the message of love, of that horrible mode of torture, the cross. Why Jesus had to become (incarnate) God in the flesh and die such a horrible death for our sins so we could be reconciled to God the Father. Be ready to give those who ask, “a reason for the hope that is within you.” Know your Word so you can share with the authority from His love letter to us. lala
It sounds very powerful. I am dying to see it. I think you made some interesting points here, Chris. And again, we may believe different things, but I really do appreciate your arguements & respect what you believe & the fact that you are willing to stand up for & to think about it in such a philosophical way. So many people just follow, like mindless lemmings, or people say they believe in something because it it’s trendy, or they simply do not know/understand. You have a strong faith, but you also research & think & have answers for questions that are posed to you. I applaud you (and Mel Gibson) for that. Hopefully the movie can get more people to THINK. Take care, have a great night!
Great, great blog. I think I’ll recommend it to some people who do not completely comprehend the story. Also, the weirdest thing happened when I came here-the music I was listening to on winamp blended in beautifully with the music on your site. At first I thought I hadn’t noticed an element to the song I was listening to! Crazy… Anyways, good work!
I cannot wait to see that movie
hmm… don’t know who willie is, but connery, he’s so the best.
You know, everything leading up to the release of the Passion has felt almost like a battle between Satan and God, just like it happened in the movie. (well, not felt like it, I’m sure it truly was) Of course Satan didn’t want people to see the Passion, just like he didn’t want Jesus to die on the cross. He fought both with all his might. I think that is why all this controversy exploded. But, I think with its release, and people finally seeing the truth, its just like Jesus stomping on that snake’s head. He defeated Satan, once again.
Ahh…. now the secret of Scottish Willie has been revealed to me. danke.
Moving Pictures is turning out to be great. Have you read Mort yet? It’s my favorite of Pratchett’s novels (so far). I recommend that one to everyone.
Hey Chris! Just wanted to tell you that there are many ways one can dance while driving…If LaDonna & I ever get together, you’ll have to join us & I can teach you some of my moves (not all….like a good magician, I can’t reveal it all!)
LOL…Take it easy! Talk to you soon!
what you wrote was awesome! Jesus is the controversy. oh and I am extremely jealous that you’re going to Venice…lol, jk. Anyways, my name is Jessie. Bless you.
I believe that the opening of the book “More than a Carpenter” has a story about how you can talk with anyone about God, because that’s so open-ended… yet you mention Jesus and it’s instantly the potential for a confrontation because that’s what Jesus does – he confronts people. The more you know about and experience Him, the more difficult it is to reject Him out of hand. Tough stuff, that. “Jesus claimed that the world was corrupt and inherently evil” – not sure if you typed what you meant. The world itself (lit. the earth) isn’t inherently evil, both it and man were inherently good but that has been distorted, often terribly, by sin. Quick devil’s advocate question here: I one heard that the earth must be good because Jesus walked in it (therefore He would deny the nature of God if He were to exist in a place which were inherently evil). Any comments on this? Anyway, I’m trying to make an interesting comment but it’s way too late. ~blessings~
chris, check out my site, and ‘ShootIt’ as well
your becoming somewhat of a ledgend on both of these sites
-ctide
Well, yes–I didn’t exactly type what I meant because I’m trying to sum up about three complex theological ideas into two sentences. *grin* I guess a clearer statement would be that Jesus claimed that the world as it was in his day, as well as the world as it is now, is inherently evil. (And what is evil but distorted good?) (Oi vey, that’s an entire other subject–I’ll shut up now and stick to this one. LOL)
Interesting…Jesus couldn’t walk in the world if it was evil, being that he is holy and perfect and the world is sinful and the two cannot co-exist? I don’t have time to sit and think this out, being that I have to shower and go to class, but let me try to do this on the fly. *grin*
Jesus did walk in the world, obviously. Not only that, but God the Father has been omnipresently in this world since it began, from His “hovering over the waters”, to coming down Himself (not sending an angel) to cause the death of the firstborn as the 10th plague of Egypt, to appearing on Mount Sinai and showing Moses his back, to appearing to Isaiah and Ezekiel in one form or another. Not only that, but in Psalm 139 David says to God, “Even if I make my bed in Hell, behold, You are there.”
I would hazard the tentative theory that it would not deny His nature to exist in an evil place, but rather it’s just really really dangerous for the sinfulness. Moses, after seeing God’s back, his face glowed for a long time after–and it freaked the Israelites so much that they asked him to wear a veil. Isaiah, who saw “the Lord’s train filling the temple,” had a seraph press a coal to his lips because he had “unclean lips.” And if we assume (which we have no basis for, but let’s do it anyway) that these were not the FULL presence of God, then imagine how much more purification is needed for that!
Does it deny the nature of God to co-exist with sin? I always saw it like asking, does it deny the nature of a blast furnace to co-exist with a Kleenex? No. But the Kleenex isn’t going to last very long in the presence of the blast furnace…
I don’t know–I’m out on a limb with this one. I’ll comment again when I’ve mulled it over and had some breakfast.
Chris-thank you for this. It is excellent. In America, we live in a post-christian, subjective, relative “Your-truth-is-not-my-truth” society. You hit the nail on the head. The “controversy” surrounding the passion has all been a smoke-screen. The TRUTH in the Passion smacks you in the face from the opening with the verse “He was bruised …for US.” Jesus declaring He is the truth. Jesus stating He is the only way to heaven. MY truth, Jesus, I absolute and that is why people hated this movie, Jews and Gentiles alike. Why else would be local paper have a discussion among the movie critics printed in the paper, comparing this powerful work of art to “porn” comparing the beautiful Latin and Aramaic to “sounds like the Klingon language”, and get away with it?
Why would Andy Rooney call Mel Gibson a “nut-case” and “crazy” on national television??
People think He looks weak in the movie. My GOD! How could you have endured that knowing with one word, it could be over – you could call down an army of angels to take you away. That was the hardest part of all-battling His will, battling the pain, battling the humiliation knowing He could make it stop. THAT took strength.
The Greg Laurie quotes were perfect. He is an awesome teacher.
It was only a matter of time before you became a legend on Xanga Chris – congrats
Chris, when God created the heavens and the earth, He pronounced it good. When man sinned, the ground was cursed because of our sin. Now that Jesus paid the price for our redemption, the creation groans and travails waiting for our full adoption. [Romans 8]. Even the animal kingdom awaits this final adoption when there will no longer be prey and predator [Isaiah].
So the creation is inherently good. Its our sin and fall that is the problem, the full redemption accomplished by Christ, the final renovation coming by fire in the future [II peter]. Sorry I dont have time to do the full references but I know you can find them.
Blessings
if you baked me good bread.
Wow–I seem to have fallen into one of the classic blunders. Blame it on trying to do theology in the morning, I guess. I knew it felt wrong, but I didn’t know why. Now I see why.
What I originally said in the post was, “Jesus claimed that the world was corrupt and inherently evil–and that only by the loving sacrifice of His life could anyone get right with God.” I didn’t define my terms–I was thinking world as in all the people. But what I ended up debating this morning in my comment was whether the world, the place, was corrupt.
It’s confusing because the word “world” can mean either. blueletterbible.com ‘s Greek lexicon has multiple definitions for the word Kosmos, one of which is “The world, universe” and other of which is “the inhabitants of the world, people.” When John 3:16 says For God so loved the world, I think it’s more referring to the people, not the place. The same thing for Matthew 18:7.
Sorry for any confusion, my fellow Xangans. Just let it be a lesson as to why we need to define our terms. *grin*
i don’t know if the book was fiction or philosophy…all i could tell was that it had an orange, paperback cover and ”chris russo” on the spine under the title. i don’t even remember what the title was. the book looked kind of old too, which was the weird thing. i was trying to figure out how you had published this book like in the 1970′s when you weren’t even born yet, and how this book ended up in my possession. maybe the dream was supposed to be 30 years in the future. but then i don’t know why i was still in my room in my parents’ house…i hope that wasn’t foreshadowing something for me….