Passion
He had entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday riding on an ass. A great number of the Jews hope that the Messiah would lead them in battle against the Romans. The Sanhedrim or the Jewish leaders were primary in this desire. They recalled the Old Testament scriptures that detailed past victories over the enemies of Israel. God’s assistance was a part of every Jewish victory. They expected Jesus Christ to arrive in Jerusalem and lead the Jewish people in a revolt. This is often the case for humanity and God. We ignore his plan and purpose and focus on what we consider important to us.
Jesus did not plan to lead the Jews in battle against the Romans. This was not his purpose on the Earth back then. Instead of attacking the Romans, Jesus chased the money lenders out of the temple. Often Jesus is depicted as a scrawny bearded man. But why would a perfect man have a scrawny body? Jesus would have more correctly looked like a body builder, rather than an Italian peasant selected as a model by the Italian master artists. This is evident by Jesus description of picking up heavy tables with piles of heavy coinage and tossing them out of the temple. Not something that could not be achieved by a skinny wimpy little man.
The Sanhedrim became angered by Jesus “lack of focus.” How dare he not call on his people to rise up against the Romans? Their desires not met, the Jewish leaders directed their desires to hatred of Jesus Christ.
Much of what happened next is depicted in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (TPOTC). Since Jesus would not serve the Sanhedrim’s plan, they became hateful of him unto death. As often happens in life God took advantage of man’s folly, in this case their hatred of Jesus, and put it to work on his plan. Jesus had come to earth to die spiritually for every human in history, From frail babies that sucked in just a few breathes of air prior to perishing to the greatest monsters of history such as Adolph Hitler or Pal Pot. He came to die in place of all humanity. To do this he had to remain perfect for his entire life.
His perfection provided a stumbling block for the Jewish leaders. He could not be prosecuted under Jewish law as he committed no crime against Israel. This caused them to take him to the Romans for trial and punishment. Pontius Pilate did all he could to not punish a man he clearly saw as innocent. But in the end he washed his hands of the matter. Better to kill one innocent man rather than risk an insurrection of the Jews.
TPOTC presents the brutality that Jesus suffered on his day in court. Anyone that has watched this film has cringed at the beating he received and how he took it with quiet endurance. The pain that he suffered would have killed a lesser man, but being perfectly fit and mentally strong he survived. Walking his cross up to the top of the hill showed how bad off he was physically. Finally, he needed assistance to carry his cross all the way. Once he reached Golgotha he experienced more pain as he was nailed hand and foot to the cross. Once this was achieved, the cross was raised and gravity would slowly but surely cause his bones to break and slowly he would physically die. But once again all of this physical pain did not cause the Lord Jesus Christ to cry out in pain or agony.
The movie truly falls short on depicting the spiritual death of Jesus. It is the turning point of humanity and it truly falls short. The movie shows Jerusalem covered under a dark shadow, while Jesus calls out feebly to God the Father, asking him why he has been forsaken. The truth of this time on the cross is that Jesus felt more pain than any of the physical mistreatment he had received. God the Father in his compassion hid Jesus in an impenetrable darkness. And at this time Christ screamed in a loud clear voice, “My God. My God. Why have you forsaken me? And he still could think straight and knew that he must endure all of the pain for the sake of humanity. One things people often do not consider is, that as God he could have just stepped down from the cross at any moment. For our sakes he did not.
Of course if they had turned the screen black for little more than three hours with Jesus screaming in the background does not equal entertainment. So we can understand the director’s choice of using a shadowed Jerusalem instead. But I wish he could have depicted the pain of the spiritual death of Christ more accurately. Man has a tendency to focus on the physical and this may have not been the best choice for presenting Christ’s death.
Mankind is blessed by Christ’s choice to die under such horrible conditions. Let me close this post out with a Bible passage.
John 3:16-18 from the Gideon’s International version of 1984
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Happy Easter to everyone. May God’s grace be availed of you.
