Review of the movie, The Passion of the Christ
A lot of people have chimed in on Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ”, so I might as well do it too.
On one hand, the movie is good, because it brings the central topic of Christianity (Christ’s sacrifice for our sins) to the forefront. It fulfills a great need. On the other hand, it’s also bad, because it’s subjective. It focuses purely on the physical suffering of Christ, and concentrates too much on the violence.
What Christ experienced physically was average treatment for a criminal of the time. What he experienced mentally is what would have been impossible for any one but Him to experience. He felt the weight of all the sins of the world on His shoulders. (We can’t even fathom that concept.) When He died, He died for all of the sins of humanity, those of the past, present, and future, so that all might have a chance to be forgiven if they repent. When He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, He felt the deep chasm of separation between Him and The Father brought on by the weight of all of those sins He bore.
When He died on the cross, He died because His heart was broken. His physical body couldn’t handle the weight of all the sins any more. How can any mortal portray this in a movie? It simply can’t be done. Personally, I think it’s blasphemous for a mortal to portray Christ, the living God. How dare we present any one of us as Christ, even it it is just a movie? We’re not worthy. We haven’t lived a life like Christ lived, a life of no sin. We’re tainted. We can’t possibly portray Him properly, nor should we try.
If you’ve read this far, allow me to direct you to a written account of Jesus’ last hours and resurrection that has stood the test of time since the 19th century. It was developed directly from the Bible verses of the New Testament. I highly encourage you to read this. It’ll take a half hour and give you a refreshing perspective on the death of Jesus Christ. I guarantee that you will come away from this with a newly gained reverence and understanding of this crucial event. Read it here: “Jesus - The Final Hours“.
