THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST

tall73 · Seventh-day Adventist Joined: 04 Aug 2004 Posts: 96

I saw the film because we were going to make an outreach event of it...not by going to the film, but by distributing literature outside of the movie. As it turned out we did not do even that.

I saw the film first myself and I will say that it had way too many errors in it, but that has been layed out quite nicely. The marian themes were unmistakable. It also didn't portray the weight of sin overly well, which as Michael pointed out, was the key element.

I would however say that the gospels did not avoid any record of the brutality of the event.

We see accounts of Jesus bleeding in the garden, the trial beatings where his head was beaten multiple times while people mocked Him. He was spit upon, and his beard was pulled out. The account talked of his being scourged, the crown of thorns, Jesus' nakedness, the offer to take liquor to get through it, the nails through his hands and feet, etc. While it is true that no graphic verbal descriptions were engaged in, this does not mean that it did not convey to the audience of the time what the realities of crucifixion were. There was no point in elaborating, since the hills were laden with examples that one could go see. How many of us would not want to gloss over even those details if our friend was killed in so graphic a way? The fact remains that the crucifixion must have been very disturbing for those present. But for them, the disturbing element was not the bloody details, because they had seen such treatment before, as was eluded to, it was a violent time. But the fact that this inhumane punishment was administered to God's Son was the real shock. It was for this reason that the cross was a scandal. The very fact that God would let this happen to His Son was inexplicable to some.

Having said that, it is still a question whether such a portrayal is necessary to bring about faith. Obviously it was not the burden of the disciples after the event. And it was not necessary to millions of Christians throughout time.

One of the more disturbing scenes of the movie for me was the HUGE contradiction between Jesus' words "Father, forgive them", and the IMMEDIATE scene of a bird of prey pecking out the eyeball of the unrepentent thief on the cross who had mocked Jesus. Not only was it extra-biblical, but went completely againt the whole theme of the cross.

I did not recommend the movie, and wouldn't. But we did wind up holding a short series of meetings that investigated some of the real truths of the Bible, but tied into the craze.