That's entertainment.
He came last as the Lamb...here comes the Lion.
Mel Gibson and Jim Caviezel confirmed for 'Passion of the Christ' sequel 'The Resurrection'
I can’t believe it has been 14 years. We usually watch it every year. It’s a classic and look forward to the sequel.
Stein also takes issue with the cruelty, laughing, spitting, sadistic, Roman soldiers who were not 'professional' enough for his taste. To my mind, I bet the Roman soldiers were every bit as cruel and sadistic as portrayed in the film.
Funny thing is, the mocking, spitting, beating, cruelty, etc., was all predicted by Isaiah around 700 BC.
In addition, then, to being recounted by hundreds of witnesses and observed or otherwise relayed by the evangelists in the New Testament and, unwritten, by generation after generation in the oral tradition.
Here's Isaiah 50:6: "I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting."
David the Psalmist (Psalm 22, written maybe 800 BC) also predicted the soldiers tossing dice to see who would get the robe Jesus had, given that he soon would have no need for it, and the psalm itself begins with Jesus's nearly last words, "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?".
So Gibson was wanting to paint a very realistic set of images about the horror of Jesus's death, AND he wanted to point out that the Crucifixion was also cosmic event of infinite significance, wherein thousands and thousands of years of grace, prophecy and history were being culminated and fulfilled by Jesus saving mankind by dying on the Cross.
Flashbacks had to be mixed with the horrible reality of the Crucifixion to reemphasize this.
If anything we modern viewers are too quick to civilize and candy coat the great Mysteries of the Incarnation and Crucifixion, of Jesus being the Lamb of God, who dying on Passover, took away the sins of the world, as John the Baptist said when he first laid eyes on Jesus (John 1:29).
The pairing of the Passover lamb cooked and eaten by the Jews fleeing Egypt in 1000 BC or so, AND the death of Jesus on the Cross, commemorated with the Preceding night's Last Supper, were designed to associate the two. So, the Mystery of the Eucharist thereby becomes somewhat easier to fathom.
I think that Gibson succeeded in communicating how vertiginous the disciples must have felt; throughout his ministry he said things that seemed to them pretty outrageous, and they probably doubted a lot of things from time to time. Certainly their fear overcame them at the time of the Crucifixion, as it did to Peter when he specifically denied knowing Jesus (the Ultimate Sin, is it not?) The disciples must have inwardly thought, over and over, Is this really happening?
Yet this message, and the anchors of faith, come to us after decades of contemplation of these things. These types of paired events, sometimes seemingly small details, reinforce over time the ultimate powerful truth and reality of Salvation and the unique validity of our Faith.
I just finished watching it again this year. Definitely the best movie about the Passion of the Christ ever produced. Our God is so big he can use a flawed man like Mel Gibson to bring us this portrayal!
The greatest piece of cinematic Christian art I have ever seen.
That's entertainment.