Second, this film emphasizes Christ's physical suffering at the expense of the suffering of his soul for sin. Besides, Jesus observing the weeping of his followers said not to weep for him, but for themselves.
Third, Gibson stated and admitted that this is a film which is patterned after Roman Catholic theology. There are deep theological and historical reasons why the Protestant and Catholic churches exist. This film did not create that distinction. Rome pronounced a curse on Protestants long ago and has never recanted.
Fourth, my Protestant forebearers suffered extreme persecution at the hands of the Roman church because they refused to worship in cathedrals filled with so-called images of Christ.
It is curious that the litmus test is not whether something conforms with the teaching of scripture, but whether the thing "works." Pragmatism has apparently replaced a biblically-informed worldview.
We have no desire to see this film. OTOH, it will generate discussion about the Lord, and that is a reason to be thankful.
Your assignment is to see the film and submit a report. :)
For those same reasons I was tempted not to go view it. It is always best to dig deep in the Word for the faith. However, I did watch the movie and I must admit it was an artistic masterpiece,
In my childhood--about 7 or 8 years old, as I recall. I was traumatized. I somehow started pondering THE CROSS and THE CRUCIFIXION. And I was literally histerical that Christ would have suffered such pain for me. It was beyond what I could comprehend or handle. I pestered my mother relentlessly with questions about it trying to get some peace that Christ didn't really suffer such pain for me. Mother finally had to send me away in her typically harsh way.
And, I still cringe somewhat at vivid depictions--whether in fiction or historical films or sometimes even in text. I don't like violent movies. I get tooooo 'into' them.
I expected THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST to be devastatingly impactful on me. I didn't go see it eagerly with cheery expectation.
It was not the . . . dramatically, overwhelmingly life transforming event for me that I thought it might be. I think that is probably because The Lord has led me through quite a desert of extensive suffering the last 3+ years and I'm still not out of it. So, a lot of the drama that comes from vicarious identification with the sufferings of Christ HE HAS BEEN POURING INTO ME with great intensity the last 3+ years. There seems to have been few heart-strings left to pull very dramatically in that ball park by such a historical film--regardless of how accurate or well done.
But it was moving. It did touch my heart and spirit. In a sense, it was life-changing. It did deepen my AWE, adoration, respect, reverence, thanks to my Lord for what He endured. It deepened my Love, my compassion, my empathy for Him; my identification with Him.
That's quite a lot of Biblical, spiritual benefit, fruitfulness for something greeted with such hostility by the author of this post.
For my money and from my 57 years of religioius/spiritual experience, it just shows that the author of this post is quite over full of himself and quite over full of his 'special' counting of all the letters of the law according to his construction on reality. He probably needs to get a life.
Better yet, he likely needs to get a real, authentic, heart-felt, humble, broken relationship with the Heart of Jesus The Messiah, Our Risen Lord.
Then he would have no rocks to throw at the movie, only cheers for what Holy Spirit is doing with this movie.