Lessons from the Passion

The Passion has been in theaters for 16 days now. In that time it has upset at least three predictions made ahead of its first screening. The movie has not inflamed anti-Jewish feelings or been an embarrassing box office bomb. Finally, the movie has not led to mass conversions to Christianity.

            What Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ has done is to place Jesus’ death and resurrection back into the public spotlight in a very forceful way. Think of it what you will, there is a near 100 percent chance that you have probably discussed the movie with someone in the past two weeks.

As a pastor of a church, I have heard a lot of hopes of Christians who desire for this movie to lead people to a relationship with the movie’s main character, Jesus Christ. I have no doubt that the film has done just that in many cases. But there have been thousands of others who have seen The Passion and left unchanged.

A Rabbi friend of mine who saw the film said, “The woman on my left and the man on my right sobbed through most of the movie.  I almost fell asleep.  Clearly, we were watching two completely different movies.” He went on to note in a sermon on the subject, “If Jesus’ suffering sits at the center of your theology, then the movie magnificently captures the essence of your faith…But if your life and religious belief does not include Jesus, the movie is gratuitous and, frankly, boring.”

Those words may be difficult for committed Christians to read, but I think we need to hear that viewpoint. Not everyone who sees the movie sees the same thing. Our own background and worldview play into the movie experience as much as the acting and cinematography.

I heard one young woman interviewed on CNN as she left the theater in tears. “I don’t see how anyone could watch that movie and not leave knowing that Jesus is the Son of God.” While I am pleased that she had such a powerful experience of the film, I think the viewer’s comment does not logically follow.

The pain Jesus endures in the film does not in any way offer proof of divinity. Millions of people have endured torture and death over the centuries. Church history is full of examples of worse instances of torture, including that done by Christians. The fact that Jesus suffered though he was innocent, likewise tells us nothing concerning his divinity. Innocent people suffer all the time.

However, if you know that Jesus is divine, then the suffering Jesus faces in The Passion of the Christ teaches us about God’s love. If Jesus was divine, then he had a choice. Ending the suffering was an option. The Bible puts these very words at the crucifixion as onlookers cry out, “Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.”

If there was ever a time for God to give up on humanity, this was it. Coming and living as God among us had caused Jesus to speak out against the way of the world. Being God among us led to his death, as would happen in any generation, among any people. Yet Jesus would not give up on the love of God for all creation even when the price of that love was torture and death.

Jesus was nowhere near the first nor the last innocent person to suffer. But as I believe that he was and is God the son, then that suffering tells me how far God is willing to go to reconcile the whole world. God’s love is so all encompassing that no price was too great. This is one important lesson I get from the story on which the film is based.

I also feel that we Christians should learn the other lessons from the film as well. Seeing Jesus’ suffering depicted in graphic detail will not change everyone’s life. In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul warned that the cross would be a stumbling block to some and foolishness to others. But he went on to say that for those who are being saved the cross is, “the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

For some it is an obstacle, for others it is folly. That is because there is still a leap of faith needed to get from seeing an innocent man suffer and seeing that suffering man as divine.

My Rabbi friend wrote, “If a Christian can sit through The Passion of the Christ and look without seeing the condemnation of Jews and Judaism, and if a Jew can sit through The Passion of the Christ and look without seeing the spiritual anguish of Christians, then when the movie is over, we may be sitting face to face but looking past each other.”

So even if it is nearly a given that you have discussed this movie with someone in the past two weeks, you may have been discussing different movies. For a Christian, the movie shows the death and resurrection of the Son of God. For those of other faiths and those of no faith, it might show nothing more than one long, gratuitously violent death scene.

The lesson I learn from this is that we Christians have a lot of listening to do. Until we can hear, really hear, other viewpoints, then no real dialogue can begin. You have probably talked about The Passion in the past two weeks, but have you listened to how someone unaffected by the film felt? It might not be easy to hear, but it could be the best gift the film offers us, a chance to hear how others see our Lord.

            (The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland, Georgia.)

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