The Truth About the Passion of the Christ

I’ve just returned from watching Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. I don’t want to lose the freshness of it, so as I write this, I’m about half an hour removed from the theater.

I’ve not set down to write a film review. I’m not going to make arguments on what Gibson did right and what he did wrong. Rather, I seek to tell the truth.

1) Anti-Semitism: “The Passion of the Christ” is not anti-Semitic. If anything, the Roman characters are portrayed as more brutal, vicious, and evil than the Jews. Indeed, Italians were portrayed far better in organized crime movies such as “The Godfather.”

Rviewers complain of how sympathetically Pontius Pilate is played and how bloodthirsty the Jews are. Yet, Pilate is portrayed exactly as the gospels portrayed him, as a politician who couldn’t find the courage to do what’s right.

When he asked his wife in the film, “What is truth? Tell me.” He was not a lost puppy dog, he was a man who hoped for a truth greater than what he knew. His truth was that though a man was innocent, he had to work things out politically. He had to avoid a rebellion. He had to protect his position and his life. That was his truth and he wondered if there was something greater.

Pilate is like most of us. We choose to live with lies and accommodate evil, but we find ourselves wondering if there’s something better. We seek to do right, but when the price is too high we bale and abdicate our responsibilities

Some have written that they could imagine some twisted person being motivated towards anti-Semitism after watching this film. I can’t. Jesus cried, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” He prayed for Jew and Gentile alike through all time, for everyone who knew not what they did 2000 years ago.

There are more sympathetic Jewish characters than Romans and I’ll leave it at that.

2) Love: Where’s the love? Many critics have issued this cry. They allege that Gibson lied when he said the film was about love. They’ve declared it an attempt to stir up hatred.

Where do you find love in this film? How about when Jesus heals the ear of Malchus, the servant of the High Priest who came to arrest Him? Or when He saved the woman caught in the act of adultery? Or when he asked for the Father to forgive those who are torturing Him? He endured all beating and torture when he could have escaped with a simple word.

The critics somehow missed tender moments when his mother and Mary Magdalene tried to comfort him. How could the goodness of Jesus and his love for those around him be so transformed in the minds of some critics to nothing more than an anti-Semitic “snuff film” as one critic termed it? The answer is found in their complaint about the violence.

3) Violence: Is “The Passion of the Christ” violent? Yes. Is it the most violent film ever? No. I’ve seen The Matrix, Braveheart, The Patriot, and Robocop II. In many ways, those films were far more violent.

The Catholic League brought out an excellent point when they showed the hypocrisy of reviewers who praised ultra-violent films such as The Gladiator while decrying it in The Passion of the Christ. Why the difference?

When I was a young man, we protested outside of abortion clinics. Using his own personal funds, my dad purchased pictures of aborted fetuses for the protests. We were attacked in the press and maligned for daring to show such graphic pictures to the public. Few people spoke against those who had made the pictures possible.

People didn’t get terribly offended when we held signs saying, “Abortion Kills Children.” They got mad when they saw children killed by abortion. They didn’t want to see the truth.

These reviewers probably weren’t terribly offended by the idea, “Jesus died for your sins.” What they didn’t want to see is Jesus actually dying for their sins. As long as it remained something they’d see in a tract they’d throw away, or hear from a wild-eyed TV minister while channel surfing or every five Easters when they go to Church, it was fine.

What the Passion does is it takes the truth and puts it right in your face. It says, “This is the cost that Jesus paid for your sins.” Critics who claim to be concerned about Jews being blamed for deicide aren’t really concerned about the Jews being blamed, they’re concerned about themselves being blamed.

They don’t want to face the cost that had to be paid for their sins. They want to live their “good” lives and never face the issue. That the movie quotes John 14:6, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no man comes to father but by me” infuriates them. That’s why they hate the movie and that’s why they hate Mel Gibson.

As I sat watching this film, I was struck by it. The suffering of Christ was portrayed in all of its horror. It began with him praying in the garden and his humble “thy will be done.” In the midst of pain and sorrow, his thoughts were about others.

When they scourged him, I wept. I didn’t know Aramaic or Latin, so I didn’t know how to count the number of times or what number it would stop at. When the Cat of Nine Tails, ripped off some of his flesh, I shuddered.

The Sadistic Romans couldn’t seem to stop beating Jesus. In my heart, I was crying out, Isn’t it enough? Please, don’t keep doing it. Please, stop! But they didn’t stop. They beat him as He walked through the streets.

I saw Him nailed to the cross, bloody and broken, barely recognizable as a man, his flesh ripped to shreds. On the cross, he prayed, not just for some Roman barbarians, but for me. For, it was my sins that put Him there on that cross. It was my punishment He took on that day.

When my father was saved, he didn’t understand Christianity or what Jesus’ sacrifice really meant. When he fell down at his knees and cried out for God’s help in a Church of God in Fayetteville, North Carolina, he saw a vision of Calvary and heard the Holy Spirit speak to him, “Now, you know what Jesus Christ did for you.”

Too often, He can become an abstraction in our lives. We sing, worship, and pray about what we don’t understand. It leads us to a part-time Faith, only shown on Sunday morning and always absent when we make the great decisions of life.

If you’ve not already, I would urge you to do something difficult. I ask you to see the Passion of the Christ so that in your heart you can know what Jesus Christ did for you.

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