LUKE 9:18-27
Gordon E. Ellis
March 14, 2004
REFLECTIONS ON THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
You know: I don’t think I’ve ever THOUGHT so much, or PRAYED so hard, about a MOVIE as I have about Mel Gibson’s, The Passion of the Christ. It’s a movie that truly GRIPS us, and WON’T let us go. One thing I really appreciate about this movie, and yet also HATE about it, is how true-to-life the crucifixion IS. Mel Gibson has said what I often say -- that OTHER portrayals of Jesus’ suffering do NOT convey the HORROR of Roman crucifixions. They WHITE-WASH the AGONY that Jesus endured. Well, to HIS credit, GIBSON’S movie is just HORRIFYING! He DOES, in fact, capture the agony, and the sadistic VIOLENCE of the crucifixion! It’s like traveling BACK in time and watching the events unfold as they MUST have unfolded in REAL life. And you can’t HELP but be HORRIFIED by it, because the violence just goes ON and ON! At least 100 minutes of this 126-minute film are GRAPHICALLY violent. BUT, it IS true-to-life, and I APPRECIATE Mel Gibson for making it so.
I ALSO appreciate Mel Gibson’s attempt to offer us a DEVOTIONAL, to offer us an opportunity to contemplate the SUFFERING of our Lord, and THUS, to feel CLOSER to Him in His agony. As Cyndie Holden said, I just kept my focus on the FACE and EYES of Jesus, and I felt CLOSER to Him than EVER before. Friends, do you realize what a gift THAT is? Mel Gibson has BLESSED us with a piece of CONTEMPORARY artwork which, LIKE the beautiful stained glass windows of an EARLIER era, can become the FOCUS of our contemplation and devotion, and in the process, draw us closer to JESUS. Ted Andrzejczuk said, When I saw ALL that suffering, and KNEW that He was enduring it for ME, and for US, I felt LOVED and VALUED as NEVER before. I just felt SO close to Him. And friends, THAT is such a GIFT!
ANOTHER gift is the TRUST in God that we see in Jesus THROUGHOUT this torturous 12 hours. I mean, He could NOT have known that the resurrection, as WE know it, was coming. Otherwise, His suffering was POINTLESS. HOWEVER, He DID know that our God is a REDEEMING God, and He TRUSTED that God would SOMEHOW redeem this HORROR that He was experiencing. And after WITNESSING His deep and abiding TRUST in God as He endured such pain, how can WE not trust God when WE feel like we’re being crucified by life? WHAT a wonderful MODEL this movie provides, and that’s because it IS so GRAPHIC.
At FIRST, however, I had trouble with the fact that Gibson TAKES just 12 hours of time, Jesus’ passion, OUT of context; WITHOUT offering us more of the TEACHINGS of Jesus, or the POLITICS that led UP to His having to ENDURE the cross. Plus, there’s NO explanation about the culture in which these events take place. And WORSE, Gibson takes LIBERTIES with the gospel narratives, and his liberties DO color HOW we experience the PASSION of Christ. And quite frankly, I don’t blame the Jews for WORRYING that this movie might provoke some anti-Semitism. First, Gibson shows the Jewish TEMPLE guards TORTURING Jesus when they first ARREST Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. THEN, they throw him off a BRIDGE and dangle him there. Now, neither of these stories is in the gospels, but they’re BOUND to incite some ANGER at the Jews. And remember: the gospels were WRITTEN between 70 A.D. and 100 A.D., shortly after the Jewish UPRISING, when the Roman legions came into Jerusalem and left the TEMPLE, and the center of the city, in complete RUINS, with not ONE stone standing upon another. And IN those years, Christians were trying to win FOLLOWERS to the teachings of Jesus, so they AVOIDED blaming the ROMANS. You see: the GOSPELS are NOT meant to be HISTORY. They were EACH written for a REASON, and each to a PARTICULAR audience. THUS, most of them lay the BLAME for Jesus’ DEATH squarely at the feet of the JEWISH leaders. In TRUTH, however, ONLY the Romans, and their governor, Pontius Pilate, had the power to EXECUTE people. And even though PILATE may have been politically SAVVY, as Gibson suggests, he was NOT as WEAK as Gibson portrays. HE was VICIOUS, and we know from other sources, that he crucified TENS of 1,000’s of Jews, MANY without a TRIAL. And GIBSON’S portrayal of Pilate vs. the Jewish leaders makes the JEWISH leaders look extremely CRUEL and hateful. And THEN, to add insult to injury, Gibson keeps picturing SATAN as floating IN and amongst the JEWISH leaders, especially as they watch the brutal FLOGGING of Jesus with these looks of approval, and even satisfaction, on their faces. So, in MY opinion, the JEWS have a RIGHT to be concerned.
Now, I have OTHER concerns with the LIBERTIES that Gibson takes with the gospel narratives, but I HAVE to keep REMINDING myself that THIS is a piece of ART, and Mel Gibson is an ARTIST. And in THAT sense, it doesn’t NEED to be exactly TRUE to the gospels. It’s just ONE man’s perspective on the PASSION. And therefore, for Christians, the movie can BECOME like a stained glass window, a DEVOTIONAL, which draws us CLOSER to Jesus. It doesn’t NEED to tell the WHOLE story, or EVEN to tell the story CORRECTLY, because it is a piece of ART! And besides, we CHRISTIANS are supposed to KNOW the story! When I preach to you at Christmastime, I don’t need to TELL you the story of Good Friday and Easter. I TRUST that YOU, as believers, can put it into perspective, and PLACE it within the CONTEXT of the story. SO, this 12 hours of time, Jesus’ Passion, can be like just ONE stained glass window in a SERIES of them. And we Christians can contemplate those windows ONE-at-a-time.
HOWEVER, there lies my FIRST major concern with the movie. To ME, it takes what OUGHT to be PRIVATE, and makes it PUBLIC. It takes what OUGHT to be a devotional for CHRISTIANS, and offers it to the WORLD. And MOST people out there have NO CLUE as its CONTEXT. IF this movie were being shown in CHURCHES, I would be calling it the BEST thing since sliced bread! BUT, Gibson is making it SO public, that it BOTHERS me a LOT.
Now, you might say: well, it’s BOUND to motivate LOTS of people to LEARN the rest of the story. And quite frankly, I HOPE and PRAY that that’s TRUE. HOWEVER, given our human nature, my FEAR is that it may spark lots of FEELINGS and discussion, but VERY little education, and only a FEW conversions. Now, I hope and pray that I’m WRONG, but that’s my FEAR. I also pray that this movie will help draw the CHRISTIAN community together, because we are SO divided these days, and that’s VERY troubling. The Body of Christ is truly BROKEN.
And THAT brings up my SECOND major concern: What RESPONSE will this movie illicit from CHRISTIANS? Now, the movie OPENS with a quote that WE use on Good Friday, and it states the THEME of the movie. It’s a quote from the prophet, Isaiah: HE was wounded for OUR transgressions, crushed for OUR iniquities… and by HIS stripes, WE are healed. And from that moment on, the camera constantly focuses on His STRIPES, and it only STRAYS from Jesus’ WOUNDS in order to PAN the crowd, or the face of Mary, to CONFIRM the HORROR of what’s happening to Jesus. And Gibson is SO attentive to the PHYSICAL suffering of Jesus, and it’s SO relentless, that we soon REALIZE that there’s THEOLOGICAL significance to it.
Well, in theology, this is called the ATONEMENT. Now remember: the crucifixion made absolutely NO sense to Jesus’ first disciples. SO, they had to RE-READ their scriptures, which would be OUR Old Testament, in order to discover WHY this mighty prophet of God, this One whom God had RAISED from the dead, had to DIE such a HORRIFYING death. And they FOUND passages like this one from Isaiah, and slowly but surely, it all began to make SENSE.
Now, when someone says ATONEMENT, I always think AT-ONE-MENT. And when someone says SIN, I always think SEPARATION. So, our SIN is our SEPARATION from God, and God’s creation, CAUSED by our CHOICES. And ATONEMENT, or AT-ONE-MENT, is what BRIDGES that separation, or HEALS that divide. And THAT’S what Christ DID on the cross. I like to picture it as a MARRIAGE between God and humankind, but a marriage that has been totally BROKEN by what APPEAR to be IRRECONCILABLE differences. However, IN the person of Jesus Christ, in His life and ministry, and ESPECIALLY in His death and resurrection, GOD is like the marriage partner, who decides to do ALL the work of RECONCILING the marriage. It’s like ONE partner saying to the other: I have done the work of RECONCILING our marriage. All YOU need to do, or ever WILL need to do, is turn around and EMBRACE me. Just turn around and LOVE me! In other words, GOD has done the WORK of reconciliation, the WORK of AT-ONE-MENT. And SO, a good marriage is OURS for the taking. WE just need to turn around and EMBRACE God, and ACCEPT God’s love.
However, WE keep turning AWAY from God! WE keep DOING and SAYING things that continue to SEPARATE us from God and from God’s creation. WE keep making SINFUL (separating) CHOICES. And therefore, as I see it, WE STILL crucify Christ TODAY -- over and over and over again. In other words, Christ STILL dies for OUR sins, because WE still CRUCIFY Him – as individuals and families, as communities, and even as NATIONS.
HOWEVER, the good news IS that, no matter what WE choose to do or say, God has already DONE the work of AT-ONE-MENT, in and through Christ. And SO, ANYTIME we CHOOSE, we can just TURN around and EMBRACE God, LOVE God, and experience God’s KINGDOM, experience that GREAT marriage. That’s what Jesus MEANT when He said: REPENT (which simply means turn around) and believe the good news, for the Kingdom of GOD is AT HAND. Friends, it’s ALREADY here! So, anytime we WANT to, we can CHOOSE to EMBRACE it and EXPERIENCE it. BUT, we DO have to turn around! We DO have to change! We DO have to love God. And HOW do we love God? Well, it’s MORE than just singing hymns and songs! And it’s MORE than just saying prayers! And it’s MORE just giving money! LOVING God means LIVING our lives, living each and every MOMENT of each and every day, according to GOD’S values. And therefore: the PASSION of Christ OUGHT to change our behavior. My FEAR, however, is that SOME will SAY, as some have ALWAYS said: OUR behavior DOESN’T matter anymore, because JESUS already TOOK the punishment that WE deserve. And IF we’re already SAVED, we can do ANYTHING we want to. Well friends, that’s JUST not true! Remember: Jesus was crucified for His POLITICS! He was a NOT a business-as-usual, don’t rock the boat type of person. He stood up AGAINST the status quo! He spoke out AGAINST the INJUSTICES of His day! He refused to keep the LAW of the land when it ran COUNTER to a HIGHER law, GOD’S law of LOVE. Yes, Jesus was totally RADICAL in His commitment to GOD’S values! And THAT’S why He got HIMSELF crucified! It was NEITHER the Jews, NOR the Romans, who DID it. JESUS chose it! And because WE are still CRUCIFYING Him TODAY, WE are just as guilty as THEY were. But remember what He said? He SAID: IF anyone wants to be a follower of MINE, he must take up HIS cross and FOLLOW me. You see: WE need to DUPLICATE Jesus! If WE are His followers, we CANNOT just accept and allow the injustices that we see happening around us. When I saw this movie, I didn’t just say: THANK You, Lord, for SAVING me by doing the work of reconciliation, the work of AT-ONE-MENT. NO! I said: if JESUS could endure THAT much agony for the sake of GOD’S values, and God’s Kingdom, then I ought to be able to commit MY life to the things of God as well: to PEACE and JUSTICE; to LOVE and to ending RACISM and SEXISM, HOMOPHOBIA and ALL the “ISMS” that oppress our society these days; and to BRIDGING the ever-widening GAP between the haves and the HAVE-NOTS in our world today. THAT’S what I need to do! Yes, it MOTIVATED me!
You know: as I watched this movie, I thought to myself: if I didn’t know the REST of the story, JESUS would seem NO DIFFERENT from ANY political prisoner TODAY, who is tortured and murdered for his or her beliefs. And THEN I thought: but ISN’T that the POINT of it? WE are STILL crucifying Christ TODAY. His crucifixion DIDN’T just happen ONCE, back THEN in Jerusalem. It’s STILL happening -- right HERE and right NOW! And by standing in SOLIDARITY with those who are BEING crucified TODAY – with the POOR, with the oppressed, with victims of prejudice and abuse, crime and hate and war – we UNITE with Jesus IN His work of reconciliation! We help Him accomplish His mission of bringing AT-ONE-MENT to this world, and BUILDING God’s glorious Kingdom of LOVE, PEACE and GOODNESS. And what BETTER, more MEANINGFUL work IS there in this life than THAT? And that’s what I MEAN: HOW are CHRISTIANS going to respond to this movie? And even Mel Gibson himself: What will HE do with all the MONEY he makes from this movie? IF he CHOOSES, he can do a lot of work for GOOD, and for GOD, with it. So, WHAT will COME of this movie?
SO friends: watch Mel Gibson’s movie IF you wish, but SEE it for what it IS. It’s a work of ART! It’s a GIFT to draw us closer to Jesus in His suffering, and to help us to trust GOD at ALL times. But ALSO know that it’s just GIBSON’S interpretation of the PASSION. It’s NOT the gospel. BUT, let it motivate you to READ the gospel YOURSELF. And WHEN you DO, may the Passion of the Christ TRULY come ALIVE for you and IMPACT everything you DO and SAY. AND, may it MOVITAVE you to take up your OWN cross and FOLLOW CHRIST, pursuing and promoting JUSTICE and PEACE, goodness and love, and ALL the values of GOD and God’s kingdom. AMEN.