Posted on 02/22/2016 11:43:54 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Christian audiences have felt a little burned lately by bad movies on biblical subjects. But one really good movie can change all that.
"Ben Hur," "The Robe," "The Ten Commandments," "Quo Vadis?" -- who can forget the golden age of biblical films? But that was the 1950s, and this is 2016.
Biblically based movies these days often comes across as, well, less than inspired. Writers and directors sometimes play fast and loose with the source material, leaving out crucial details and inventing some bizarre stuff. Worse, portrayals of God often come across as flippant or even blasphemous. And that's just not something I enjoy watching.
Well, I want to urge you to give the genre another chance. Because a film hitting theaters this weekend proves that swords-and-sandals productions based on the Bible can still hold their own against "Ben Hur."
"Risen," directed by Kevin Reynolds and starring Joseph Fiennes, is the story of the manhunt for the corpse of Jesus Christ. Spoiler alert: They don't find it.
Fiennes plays a Roman tribune named Clavius. He's tasked by Pontius Pilate with crucifying the latest batch of Jewish rabble and self-proclaimed messiahs. The only catch? One of them really is the Messiah.
Of course Clavius, a good Roman military man, doesn't think anything of Jesus. When the centurion at Golgotha admits, "Surely this Man was the Son of God," Clavius lets him have it. Clavius is tough, and he's immune to Jewish superstition -- that is, until Sunday morning. For Clavius, that's when all Heaven breaks loose.
The tomb is empty, the guards aren't talking, and the Disciples of Jesus are spreading the news that He's come back to life. The high priest warns Pilate that they'll have an uprising on their hands if he doesn't put the resurrection story to rest. So Pilate sends Clavius on a grisly, CSI-style hunt for the body of Christ.
That's when our tribune has an encounter that shakes his pagan worldview to the core.
"I have seen two things which cannot reconcile," he says. "A man dead without question, and that same man alive again."
Everyone on our BreakPoint team who's seen the film loves it, not just because it's a respectful and riveting portrayal of the gospel accounts, but because it shows an unbeliever's crisis of faith when confronted by the Risen Lord.
In anticipation of Easter, I cannot think of a better reminder of how Christianity, as Tim Keller puts it, forces us to "doubt our doubts."
The empty tomb is the most startling fact of history -- something two millennia of skeptics have tried to explain away. But the evidence is just too strong. And "Risen," like a good detective novel, follows that evidence where it leads.
For instance, the Roman officials and Jewish leaders had every motive to produce a body. Yet they couldn't. And Jesus' Disciples had nothing to gain and everything to lose from lying about the Resurrection. But their transformation from cowards to spiritual conquerors testifies that they, like Fiennes' fictional character, saw something -- or Someone -- who rocked their worlds.
Joe Fiennes, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing on the "Eric Metaxas Show," told BreakPoint that he expects this movie to touch audiences in a unique way precisely because it invites them to examine these events through the eyes of a non-believer.
I think "Risen" has the potential to spark a renaissance of solidly biblical movies. But more importantly, I think it will challenge audiences to confront, with Clavius, the question that defies doubters to this day: If Jesus is dead, then where is the body?
Go see "Risen." And take some unbelieving friends with you.
I haven’t seen that one yet.
I’ll wait for the DVD! :-)
What he did was post his false witness for all to see.
Where? It’s a decent movie for a historical fiction.
Since you referred to a movie about the resurrection as "historical fiction" then how was my suspicion and question unwarranted?
And why do you insist on copying all of your “friends” on such a knee-jerk accusation?
It is a practice to ping those on a ping list to the first response made to a thread of interest. But where did i accuse you rather than asking: "You mean the movie or that you deny the very resurrection of Christ, as an atheist or as holding some other belief?" And why not simply explain what you meant by historical fiction rather than attacking my reasonable suspicion?
Give him some more time.
I could take it this way...
It is 'ficition' in that it has some things in it that neither the Bible or most 'tradition' has inferred.
Parts of the dialog could be 'fiction' while parts are biblically accurate.
I groan at most religious movies when the 'fill in the blank' scenes appear.
I just hope that those do not detract from the central message/theme of the entire movie or GOD's unchanging message to man.
I missed this.
Was it in the QUESTION he asked?
You mean the movie or that you deny the very resurrection of Christ, as an atheist or as holding some other belief?
But it was not parts that were said to be historical fiction, but in regards to the movie, "a historical fiction," thus inferring the subject was. I a sorry yet glad that it appears my suspicion was not reality.
My reference to it being a historical fiction was in reference to the Clavius Roman Tribune character and his story of accompanying the Apostles after the Crucifixion.
And this is the problem with internet conversations. They can be misinterpreted or taken out of context. I thought I laid out my initial point pretty clearly. Obviously not.
It’s also why FR has become such a verbal sniper forum.
That was it.
I would in no way ever deny the resurrection of Christ.
We both jumped to conclusions. My fault for spearing the conversation into an unnecessary direction though and I should have just clarified my statement.
God Bless!
These are passionate times.
We are ALL on edge these days.
Praise God, and sorry for suspecting it was another atheist putting in a jab (may do and have!, and so i felt compelled to respond.
As was posted earlier—we’re all on edge lately and it’s hard to know who’s friend or foe.
Interesting and upsetting times!
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