That's entertainment.
Posted on 03/30/2018 4:22:03 PM PDT by Twotone
We're opening our weekend movie a little early this week, in time for Good Friday. On Saturday night we'll have another seasonal entertainment for you, but this is Mel Gibson's big blockbuster from fourteen Easters ago. Mel has spent the last decade getting a little crazier with every year that passes, and, surprisingly, there have been no attempts to follow the success of this film. But back in 2004 it was impressive not just cinematically but as an interesting business model for bypassing Hollywood:
The headline on the Washington Post review summed it up: "'Passion' Is A Gory Take On A Gentle Teacher's Violent End". Somebody's confusing their Gospel with Godspell. A few days before the "violent end", the gentle teacher had been hurling tables around in the temple. And, even if you overlook the rough stuff, rhetorically Christ was as forceful as He was gentle.
That's the real argument over The Passion Of The Christ. It's not between Christians and Jews, but between believing Christians and the broader post-Christian culture, a term that covers a large swathe from the media to your average Anglican vicar. Some in this post-Christian culture don't believe anything, some are riddled with doubts, but even the ones with only a vague residual memory of the fluffier Sunday School stories are agreed that there's little harm in a Jesus figure who's a "gentle teacher". In this environment, if Jesus came back today he'd most likely be a gay Anglican bishop in a committed relationship driving around in a hybrid with an "Arms Are For Hugging" sticker on the way to an interfaith dialogue with a Wiccan and a couple of Wahhabi imams. If that's your boy, Mel Gibson's movie is not for you.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
He came last as the Lamb...here comes the Lion.
Amen.
“Gentle teacher” is not an option. The Christ is either who He says He is, or he’s as nutty as a fruitcake. Those are the only two choices we have.
Happy Easter beloved “JudyinCanada”...you are always in my prayers.
“He came last as the Lamb...here comes the Lion.”
Well said; well said indeed.
Mel Gibson and Jim Caviezel confirmed for 'Passion of the Christ' sequel 'The Resurrection'
And a joyful, triumphant and blessed Easter to you Rooster! Thank you for your prayers. :)
The Big Guy is coming soon.
Will see you there.
As always, your Rooster.
Thank you and Happy Easter to you as well.
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.
John 14:3
In the “twinkling” of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)
Can’t wait for it.
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!
That point right there is the one that catches my amazement every year that I watch it.... it's on right now as I send this.
For me the Passion is part of my Lenten penance and I force myself to watch it every year. I want what He did for us to remain raw and real. Hearing about Jesus being scourged as a child never elicited the visceral revulsion that it should have, now I know. I often wondered if Jesus’ agony in the Garden was because he knew us too well and had was fighting to convince Himself that we were worth it. I’m glad He decided we were, but I’m still ashamed that Jesus had to go through that for us.
Looking forward to Sunday, a very happy day indeed!
The greatest piece of cinematic Christian art I have ever seen.
That's entertainment.
Part of my Lent too, but I don’t have to force myself to watch. I look forward to it. Yes it’s brutal but He suffered it for LOVE of us.
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