“Are We Too Passionate About The Passion?”
by
David Drury
Most
people are nothing if not predictable. The
firestorm of media and religious interest in Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of
Christ has followed a predictable pattern.
Let’s review:
Predictable Stage # 1 –
Mel makes the movie
When
you think about it – the creation of this movie is not THAT much of a
novelty. Religious films are nothing
new. The 10 Commandments, Ben Hur, even the Prince of Egypt presented semi to overly
religious themed stories and hit it big with a secular audience. The difference about this movie comes on two
levels: a) the focus is overwhelmingly narrow, on 14-18 hours at the end of
Jesus’ life. The narrow nature of this
film gives “snapshot
view” of these most crucial hours of history without much before and nothing
since. And b) the movie is
overwhelmingly violent. This latter
quality shouldn’t surprise anyone either, since undoubtedly the scourging and
crucifixion of Jesus WAS violent, and audiences today have come to expect
realistic (or somewhere near it) violence as a way to shock them into feeling
something.
Predictable Stage # 2 –
The Media blows things out of proportion
No
media company reports on things that are boring. They knew from the outset that this movie
would not be boring. Even more, once an
undercurrent about possible anti-Semitism and Jewish concern about the movie
was stated (regardless from whom) the media got what they crave: a controversy
to report, and some say create. Some
even suggest that Mel Gibson should thank the controversy for giving the movie
such coverage. But no one can claim
responsibility here, in this media age, controversy tends to gain a life of it’s own very quickly, especially if the controversy hints
at racism or sex.
Predictable Stage #3 –
Evangelical Churches get on the bandwagon
Evangelicals
are never so easy to mobilize as when there is a challenge in front of
them. The “controversy” created an
amorphous enemy with clear objectives, and very quickly Mel Gibson was able to
casually enlist nearly every prominent evangelical leader in support of the
film (leaders who are not accustomed to making quoted pitches to the media
about films.) Once the buzz factor in
the media and the evangelical machine collided, this thing became water-cooler
conversation friendly and the movie hasn’t looked back since. After a quick start (the usual barometer of
movie success) Mel’s Movie had the fourth highest first week total ever with $144,600,923 in box office receipts
(stats from www.boxofficemojo.com). In an oddly comforting way it assures us to
know that Jesus can hold his own at the movies with the others in the top four:
Neo from The Matrix, Spider-Man & Frodo Baggins of Middle Earth. The
Passion left Harry Potter, Anakin Skywalker and Austin Powers in the dust.
Predictable Stage #4 –
The Evangelical minority registers their complaint
Of
course, there is that group of evangelicals that never speak up until something
is popular with other Evangelicals. A glut of dissenting opinions have now surfaced who decry
the brutal violence, slight inaccuracies & overemphasis of the film. These theologicati
(much like the literati of the literature world) have such skills in critique
that it would be a waste for them not to use them.
Predictable Stage #5 –
I throw in my two cents
Waiting
until all the results are in—heavily weighing my options or pondering it deep
in prayer, whichever you like, I bide my time till the time is ripe, or until I
get around to it, and give my opinion.
Are you on the edge of your seat yet?
Here it is:
5 Reasons
We Needed The Passion of the Christ
(There
may be minor spoilers here for those that have not yet seen the film.)
1) WE NEEDED TO TALK
ABOUT THE BLOOD
Frederica Mathewes-Green
wonders whether the movie’s brutality is a distortion of the message, even if
not the historical facts. She states,
“It’s a mark of our age that we don’t believe something is realitic
unless it is brutal. But there’s another
factor to consider. When the four
evangelists were writing their own accounts of the Passion, they didn’t take
Gibson’s approach. None of them depict
Jesus with a destroyed eye. In fact, the
descriptions of Jesus’ beating and crucifixion are as minimal as the writer can
make them.” She makes a good point. But films are just that: film. And they capture “scenes” that portray a
snapshot of a larger story.
Unfortunately, Lord of the Rings
Epic Director Peter Jackson didn’t film The
Passion. If he did we no doubt would
have seen a twenty minute slow-motion flashback on why the scene with Jesus
crushing the head of a snake with his heel in the Garden of Gethsemane had
massive prophetic and theological depth, and wasn’t in there for no
reason. Instead, we get a snapshot of
the story. But this snapshot is a very
important one because it is so bloody. A
year ago, you could have correctly claimed that the crime of Jesus’ crucifixion
was as bloody as a
We
might consider what John Wesley said of the matter of the blood related to
“working for our salvation”:
We are now more ashamed of our best good deeds than we were
before of our worst sins: and now we cannot but feel that they are so far from
having anything worthy in them… so far from being able to stand in sight of
God’s justice, that even for our best actions we should feel guilty before God,
were it not for the blood of the covenant. (Paraphrased from John Wesley’s “The
Scripture Way of Salvation”)
2) WE NEEDED TO BE EDUCATED
ABOUT THE MEANING OF THE LORD’S SUPPER
An overwhelming response to the film
has been a heightened understanding and appreciation for the Lord’s
Supper. Many people after the movie say,
“I’ll never take communion again the same way.”
After decades of the declining centrality of the Lord’s Supper we needed
to have this central rite of the faith brought back to the middle of the stage
for further reflection. Perhaps it took
the periodic inter-cutting between the Last Supper scene and Christ’s sacrifice
for people to visually grasp the connection so many of us have tried to
verbally, but feebly, make in the past.
In scripture the Lord’s Supper, Crucifixion and Resurrection are the
three pillars of Passion Week. Mel
Gibson may have focused on the middle of the three, neglecting of the full
story of the third. But he succeeded in
showing why the Lord’s Supper was so meaningful to the early church – because
through it we proclaim the Lord’s death
until He comes. Martin Luther (the
guy that really got the Christian ball rolling away from the Catholic Church)
warned us of this 500 years ago in suggesting, “…that those who would be Christians make ready to receive this
venerable Sacrament often. For we see that men seem weary and
lazy with respect to it.”
Have our modern day Pastors, worship leaders and church people grown
weary with the Lord’s Supper? Are we
lazy with planning it and partaking it? I suspect less so after viewing this movie
and that is a very good thing. We needed
to be educated about the meaning of the Lord’s Supper.
3) WE NEEDED TO
UNDERSTAND THE IMPACT OF FILMS
In a 15 year period, the box office gross has
more than doubled so that in 2003 the movie industry made more than $9.3
Billion. Robert McKee tells us that “the
world now consumes films, novels, theatre & television in such quantities
and with such ravenous hunger that the story arts have become humanity’s prime
source of inspiration, as it seeks to order chaos and gain insight into life.” Our culture knew this as long ago as
1982. Before the film “ET”
Reese's Pieces was a fledgling candy maker getting pounded by M & M's. The little alien was lured by a line of
Reese's Pieces in the film and after the movie had record box office numbers
the sales grew 66% in just three months.
While many churches may have jumped too far deep into the movie culture
and need to wade their way to some more sold footing, many Christian leaders
vastly underestimate the influence that films have on the people in the church
and the people we’re trying to reach. In
2002, the average person spent 90 hours that year watching movies (not
including TV & or TV movies). So
even those average people that came to church every single Sunday in 2002
likely spent twice as much time watching movies. The Passion is waking us up to this reality –
and even convincing Evangelicals to promote a violent, R-Rated film. Many are saying, “It’s ‘R’ for Reality.” Well, we haven’t said that before. I wonder if we’ll have more appreciation for
reality of a different sort in films in the future. We needed to understand the impact of
films.
4) WE NEEDED TO SEE THE
WORDS SPOKEN
Jay Leno recently through out the one-liner:
“Because of its success, there’s talk now of turning Mel Gibson’s The Passion into a book!” The great irony here is that God’s Bestseller
is so rarely read these days. People
know it exists; it’s the Bible for goodness sake. But people—even and perhaps especially church
people—don’t intentionally go to the Bible to apply it to their lives. By actually seeing the words spoken the Word
of God pierces us in this movie. Strange
quotes and claims of Christ that seekers have balked at are placed in their
proper context regarding salvation. “I
am the way, the truth & the life” starts to make sense for a seeker when
they see that it’s not the arrogant claim of a cult leader—but instead the
humble offer of the greatest sacrificial servant of all time. And by putting the words into original
languages and using subtitles two effects were permitted in this film for the
“already convinced.” First, we actually
find ourselves reading scripture on the screen in the subtitles, sometimes
translated with more emphasis than we are used to – the words “It is
accomplished” rather than the NIV “It is finished” alone are a major
conversation starter on the task Christ had before Him. Second, we get to hear how things most likely
actually sounded if you were standing there.
The ancient and foreign languages provide a distance and unfamiliarity
that require you to work to get it.
Think of how many parables Jesus taught left his disciples guessing and
you’ll understand how the movie creates some of the same effects in people
today. We needed to see the words
spoken.
5) WE NEEDED TO FEEL
THE PAIN
As much discussion as there is about
the blood, it’s the pain that is really the hardest to bear when watching the
movie. There are reports of people
crying out and moaning during the screenings.
Some people can’t stand the film and run out of the theatre. Some make themselves sick thinking about: the
pain. For centuries the great arguments
revolved around the identity of Christ.
Was he just a man and not God or just God and not a man? Was he both at the same time? The church has continually confirmed that the
latter is the Truth. Jesus is God and
Man in one. Fully
human. Fully
divine. That is the core of our
belief. But we find ourselves most often
today making the case that Jesus is fully divine. We think people need to have this truth beat
over their heads. In fact, Postmodern people don’t have much trouble believing that
there is a Divine God—and that Jesus was God… or “a god.” The truth that needs to be re-conveyed today
is the humanity of Jesus. This film
teaches that truth with its close-up images of the fragile human body Jesus’
noble divine Spirit kept pushing to complete the sacrificial task. But at the same time it confirms the
Divine. Only a man fully God could
withstand such torture and ask that the Father forgive his torturers. Only a man fully God could resist every
temptation that the aptly portrayed “evil one” proposes. Only a man fully God could be mocked,
scourged, beaten, pierced and crucified but still look with love upon every
human soul. But get this; the real truth
behind it if you discuss it enough with your family, friends & small group
is this: God the Father loved us so much that He put his son through all that
FOR US.
But he
was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was
the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed
Isaiah 53:5
For God
so loved the world, that he gave His only Son…
John
3:16a
©2004 David Drury
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