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Gibson’s The Passion of Christ Faithfully Presents the Gospels 1/13/2004 Commentary: You can use this new movie to introduce others to the message of the cross.
My wife and I attended recently an invitation-only screening of Mel Gibson’s upcoming movie, The Passion of Christ. It was shown to an overflow audience of about 5,400—mostly pastors—at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.
Mel Gibson was on hand and spoke for about an hour following the movie, responding to questions posed by Lee Strobel, author of The Case for Christ, and Saddleback’s pastor, Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life.
The message of the day was: “Christ crucified.”
I’m confident in saying that never before in film history has this subject been more honestly and painfully depicted. Many viewers wept. The 90-minute movie, still in rough-cut format, was an uncompromising depiction of the monumental price paid by our Lord in order that we may be saved.
Only when we realize how excruciating, how humiliating and how forsaken Jesus’ suffering was can we begin to understand how depraved and in need of Him we truly are.
Without Jesus paying the price to cover our sin, there would be nothing standing between us and the eternal agonizing damnation that we rightly have earned as fallen sinners:
Someone had to pay that enormous price for our offense against God. Either us, or Jesus.
If you haven’t been to your knees lately to thank Him for paying your price, this movie will help you assume that posture. Every whip of the scourging, every blow of fist and club, every piercing of the nails, every excruciating breath drawn during His suffering, is graphically and ultra-realistically portrayed in the film.
And every punishing blow is what you and I have earned as our punishment for being the sinners we are.
Go see this movie with the understanding that in each unbearably painful moment it should be you doing the suffering, not Him. And not just for 12 hours, but for eternity. If that doesn’t stir your gratitude and love for your Savior, I don’t know what will.
The film appears to be a blended rendition of the four Gospels’ accounts of Jesus’ last 12 hours from Gethsemane to His resurrection. Most movies have good guys and bad guys. The Passion of Christ has one good guy, fully God, fully man, and the rest of the cast are bad guys, fallen sinners, some of whom followed Jesus, others who rejected Him.
In a column that has appeared in several Christian and secular publications, I previously had written that it was my prayer Mr. Gibson would not water down the Gospel message in response to complaints about the movie from liberal theologians and non-believing Jewish critics, who had expressed fears that the film would incite anti-Semitism.
Now that I’ve seen the movie it is abundantly clear that there is absolutely nothing remotely anti-Semitic about it. It is equally clear, at least in this pre-release version, that Mr. Gibson has not toned down the Gospels’ message one jot or tittle. Even a segment that reportedly had been deleted from the film remains in the version we saw Monday. It is the passage from the Gospel of Matthew in which an assembled Jewish crowd urged Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus with the words, “His blood be on us and on our children.”
As every Christian knows, Jesus’ followers at the time of His crucifixion were exclusively Jewish. He was a Jew. His brother, His mother and her husband were Jews. His disciples were Jews. The movie faithfully depicts the Jewishness of all of these people, as well as that of a dissenting protester on the Sanhedrin, who objected to the late-night kangaroo court proceedings instigated to railroad Jesus.
The Passion of Christ is not a Christian versus Jew story. It is the story of His sacrifice and the roles played by believers and nonbelievers. To any unbiased eye, there is nothing anti-Semitic about the movie. It is a truthful portrayal of history as recorded in the Gospels.
That said, it also is absolutely imperative for us to remember that despite the roles played by nonbelieving Jews and pagan Roman authorities in bringing Christ to the cross, the Lord willingly and sacrificially gave His life. No one was capable of killing Him or having Him killed without His cooperation.
Monday Mr. Gibson and the other speakers urged the assembled pastors and church leaders in their audience to use the movie to reach out to Christians and non-Christians alike this Easter. The film will be released on Ash Wednesday, February 25. Not surprisingly, Hollywood isn’t crazy about the idea. But Mr. Gibson has wisely taken the message straight to the people who can evangelize for Christ – believers like you and me.
His prayer is that we can spread the word about the film in order that God’s Word can reach those who need to hear it. I recommend that you urge your church to do just that. Our church has plans in the works.
There is a world out there that needs to know what Jesus did on the cross. This movie can help them understand that.
If the film has a failing, it may be that it is long on the “how,” but not so keen on the “why.” That’s where the believer’s role comes in.
Non-Christians may well applaud the movie as they did in a recent screening to a secular audience in Texas. After all, in one sense the film has a common Hollywood theme: A good man suffers at the hands of evil-doers, but prevails nonetheless. But if that’s all non-Christians get out of the movie, they may as well watch an Indiana Jones re-run.
I urge every believer to take nonbelievers to see this movie. Then be prepared to answer their questions. What is abundantly clear to Christians will very likely be a mystery to nonbelievers: Why did Christ have to suffer so? Why did He have to die?
The message of the cross is not merely that we are saved. It is why we are saved, and from what we are saved. Without the full story, the full meaning is lost.
If you are interested in helping Mr. Gibson reach believers and nonbelievers with the message of the cross, here are some ways that you might do that:
Mark Landsbaum is a Christian freelance writer, member of the Evangelical Press Association, and former award-winning Los Angeles Times writer from Diamond Bar, California.
Scripture references are taken from the New King James Version.
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