I just recently saw the film The Passion of the Christ. I was not too crazy about running out to see it, but both my kids saw it and my wife wanted to see it. First, let me say I feel more than a little versed in the word of God. I have read the Bible a couple of times, memorizing scripture and so on. As a matter of fact, I didn't really understand religion until I took it upon myself to read the Bible during a serious lull in my life after I left the service. I was raised a Catholic in a NY Italian environment where the Bible stayed on top of the TV. We weren't allowed to touch it, and everything that dealt with God was a mystery.

     Mel Gibson's film will probably do more damage than good, but not due to any anti-Semitic message. I personally felt the film was realistic. My problem with the film is that it was a visual smorgasbord for the masses, not edifying the viewer but only making him or her more desensitized to the violence of crucifixion. I knew the story before I saw the film, how Christ was scourged with the cat of nine tails, how the Romans punched him in the face and asked him to prophesy who hit him. All the film does is show people what they already knew, Christ was given up by the priests and died on the cross, and then rose again. The notion of forgiveness of sins is not driven home and the viewer is poorer for it. Christ died for the sins of man: past, present, and future. Sins we have not even committed have been forgiven, it's a matter of faith and acceptance by each individual to receive this gift.

     Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
     Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

     There is nothing that man can do outside of Christ's sacrifice. It's a gift of god, something you cannot earn, and you only have to accept the gift to use it.

     It also troubled me that in the movie Gibson decided to split the temple down the middle. This made it appear that God was taking it out on the Jews. The Bible Says:

     Mt 27:51 -
     And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

     The veil or curtain was made of thick material, one piece. It separated God from man; anyone entering the inner sanctum without properly sacrificing for the forgiveness of his sins would drop dead. Hooks were made for this purpose to drag out anyone who died after entering the holy of holies. When Christ died the veil was ripped in two, brining man and God together. By just destroying the temple (which by the way was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70) the message is lost to the viewer. There is nothing separating you from God, Christ was sacrificed for your sin.

     I was surprised that they showed Christ step on the serpent's head in the garden of Gethsemane. This was a nice bit of filmmaking, but again the viewer is cheated from the significance of the act. Prophecy was fulfilled in this act, showing enmity between God and Satan, and the war for man’s soul.

     Ge 3:15 -
     And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

     God speaking to the serpent after the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.

     I also agree with another commentator that it would be better to show the film without subtitles. After 10 minutes of reading them I gave them up. I could follow the movie and understand what was going on. Again the movie was a visual event more than anything else. This generation is cursed, we as a people are happier to watch someone else do something than do it ourselves. This movie won't help people believe, it will help people to forget, giving them a false feeling of security that Christ did it all right, I'm fine.

     Last but not least, the next chapter comes from Isaiah 53. Written some 6 or 7 hundred years before Christ's birth it predicts his life and death. This chapter always fascinates me and helps me in my faith.

     Isaiah 53: 1 - 12

     1 Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
     2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
     3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
     4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
     5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
     6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
     7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

     (While Jesus was being interrogated by the Priests and Pilate he held his tongue.)

     8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
     9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

     (He was crucified with the two thieves, and buried in a new grave donated by Simon, a rich man)

     10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
     11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
     12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

     Think of it, Christ who knew no sin had the sin of the world placed on him. He didn't sweat blood in the garden of Gethsemane because he was scared to be beaten or crucified; it was because he would know the sin of the world. It was placed on him while on the cross. Before he died he said:

     John 19:30 -
     When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished’: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

     The work he was sent to do was done is missing from the film. The scene was there, but the meaning was missing.


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