I now understand how so many critics could have such a seething distaste for "The Passion of the Christ."  It's disturbing.  It makes you uncomfortable.  And you can't get it out of your head.

Whatever preconceptions I had going in to this movie (and there were a lot), when I left the theater all I could think was, "God...why would you give this...for me?"

Beyond all of the controversy and hype -- which I'll get to -- what Mel Gibson has created is a small glimpse into the sacrificing of the Lamb of God.  That glimpse is bloody and hard to watch, but it's a much more realistic version of an event that was hardly PG-rated.

Is the film unnecessarily gory?  There are certainly parts that make a grown man squeamish, and some parts that probably could have been left out.  But on the other hand, every gratuitous crack of the cord on Jesus' back left me feeling more and more humbled.  Isaiah predicts that "He was wounded for our transgressions...with His stripes we are healed."  If this film's interpretation is even close to accurate, we needed a lot of healing.  Besides that, Isaiah also sees that after the Messiah's scourging "his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men."  Meaning that when His beating was finished, He would barely look human.

Yet some have criticized the movie for never explaining the purpose of all of this violence.  Why is this man put through such torture?  This, of course, is the question that one should be asking if he does not know personally the man who was hung on that cross.  The answers are found in the Scripture certainly, but while the film may not say explicitly that Jesus' sacrifice is for the transgression of mankind, the clues are not absent.

The most striking line in the entire film to me was made by Simon of Cyrene, who bore the cross when Jesus was unable to continue the trek to Golgotha.  Simon does not speak in the Bible's account, but his statement in "The Passion" is brilliant.

"Remember," he tells the Roman soldiers (I'm paraphrasing), "I am an innocent man, bearing the cross for One who is condemned."

Ah, but dear Simon, don't you see that it is you who have been condemned, and the One whose cross you carry is being made sin for you?

This irony may be what makes this film -- and Scripture itself -- so hard to swallow.  The wisdom of this age is slack to condemn anyone of anything.  Thus, the concept of having irrevocable guilt before God contradicts everything that we've tried so hard to believe.  And this movie smacks us in the face with the reality that we are not naturally "good," that we have sinned against the Most High God, and that only by accepting His offer of salvation can we be set free.

"But that's exlusionist!" comes the refutation.  "How intolerant!"

Indeed.  But as Jesus makes clear, even in this film, He is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life."  No one comes to the Father but by Him -- and without that brutal death on the cross, none of us would have any claim to Heaven either.

"The Passion" is an incredibly dark movie, quite noticeably more so than the many other "Jesus" movies that have been produce, including the recent "The Gospel of John."  What those other movies fail to accomplish in squeezing Jesus' entire ministry into one film is the truly dark act that the crucifixion was -- both physically and spiritually.  Gibson's Satan and demons are downright creepy, but they offer a peek at the immense battle going on, in which Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection signify victory over the evil one.

That darkness is artfully contrasted by the more cheerful flashbacks that Jesus sees.  They don't provide any significant plot points as far as the film is concerned, but they are effective in creating a more balanced picture of Jesus from the solemn and beaten man we see during most of the movie.

Yet despite the desperate and manhandled figures that are Jesus and His disciples, the film somehow creates an aura of God's ultimate power and victory.  As the Messiah is being ruthlessly bludgeoned by the Roman troops, and as He is hanging "helpless" on the cross, one still feels the untouchable power that exists in those nail-torn hands.  Even nature itself was unsettled by the murder of its Creator, as shown in Scripture and in "The Passion."

Again, however, that power is difficult to accept.  And many of those who walk skeptically into movie theaters over the next few weeks will have to ask themselves, "Who does that guy think He is?  Claiming to be the Messiah; claiming to be God?"

Those questions divided the people of ancient Judea, and they are bound to divide present-day America as well.  This movie may shake things up quite a bit in the moral conscience of American society.  All of the cultural debates that inhabit news programs and talk shows every day come down to the same set of decisions.  Do you believe that this first-century Jew is the King of Heaven and King of earth?  And, will you give your heart and soul to follow Him?

Having those queries thrust in our faces is jarring to us as individuals, and as a society.  This is surely the reason so many vitriolic attacks have been brought against Mel Gibson and his project.  Charges of anti-Semitism and gratuitous violence are, by and large, just a mask for avoiding the real issue at hand: If this man was God and was offered a sacrifice on my behalf, what am I going to do about it?  If God is real and Jesus is the Messiah, then how now should I live?

The questions only get tougher.  But if you've already concluded that you will give your heart, mind, and soul to the Lord Yeshua, I would recommend "The Passion" as way to gain a tiny glimpse of the brutal mission that He undertook to wrest your soul from the path of destruction.  And if you haven't made that choice yet, go see "The Passion" and be prepared to come face to face with the most important questions of your eternity.
 
 

 

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Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Isaiah 53:4-5