Gibson's 'Passion' - Riveting, Visceral and Biblically Accurate

FEBRUARY 17, 2004
By GREGORY J. RUMMO

     MEL GIBSON'S "CONTROVERSIAL" movie “The Passion of the Christ” depicting the events surrounding the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus will open in movie theaters across the country on Ash Wednesday.

            The February 3 edition of USA Today featured a front page story in the Life section entitled “Gibson to preach to the choir.” It reported the actor turned director decided to show pre-screenings of “The Passion” directly to Christian audiences in churches across America in the weeks leading up to its release

I was privileged to be among several thousand pastors who saw an advance preview earlier this month at a conference that was held at First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida.

            The images of cruelty inflicted at the hands of the Roman army are disturbing—the beatings, the scourging, the abuse and humiliation are brutal, visceral and bloody. But their depiction is biblically accurate. The movie is almost two hours of mob violence. The chaos and the screaming are unrelenting; the music, loud and dramatic.

            When the movie ended the silence was broken only by the scattered sounds of men and women transfixed in their seats, weeping, unable to move because of the weight of what had just been witnessed. It was as if we had all been there. And in one sense, we indeed were.

Slowly, several people got out of their seats and walked forward to the front of the auditorium to kneel and pray. Finally, spontaneous singing broke out: “He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus Lives today!” and the familiar words of “Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound! That saved a wretch like me!”

            The prophet Isaiah wrote of the events surrounding the crucifixion several centuries before their occurrence, foretelling in vivid detail how a “Righteous Servant” would be wounded, bruised, chastised and striped (an allusion to the bloody stripes caused by the cruel Roman scourge). Isaiah’s description of Jesus’ body as it hung on the cross sheds light on the severity of what was inflicted upon this man: “…His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness…”

            Upon seeing “The Passion,” Billy Graham remarked that Mel Gibson was able to accomplish in two hours what he himself had failed to do in over 40 years of evangelism.

            The USA Today article reported one of the reasons Gibson made pre-screenings available to Christian groups was because he was “leery of the press and stung by criticism that his film will kindle anti-Semitism.”

            This is understandable when the mainstream media in America is largely un-churched and intent on bashing Christianity at every opportunity. Their consistent failure to understand biblical history in its proper context is expected.

            So in a movie that accurately portrays the last 12 hours of Jesus Christ’s life on earth according to the written record of Scripture it comes as no surprise that the movie’s historicity has been largely ignored by those wishing to demonize Mel Gibson.

            But the biblical account of the events are what they are—there is simply no room for interpretation.

            Jesus was a Jew. He was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, a Jew; denied by the Apostle Peter, a Jew, deserted by his own Jewish disciples, tried in secret at night by the Jewish Sanhedrin, and falsely accused by Jewish witnesses.

Alfred Edersheim, author of “The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah,” explains: “This charge [against Jesus] of being a seducer of the people broke down, through the disagreement of the two witnesses [‘false witnesses’ according to Matthew’s Gospel] whom Mosaic Law required, and who, according to Rabbinic ordinance, had to be separately questioned. …Although Christ was not tried and sentenced in a formal meeting of the Sanhedrin, there can, alas! be no question that His condemnation and death were the work, if not of the Sanhedrin, yet of the Sanhedrists—of the whole body of them (“all the council”), in the sense of expressing what was the judgment and the purpose of all the Supreme Council and Leaders of Israel, with only a very few exceptions.”

These are the inescapable facts as recorded in the Scriptures by eyewitnesses; among them, Mathew, Mark, Luke, John and Peter who in his own epistle wrote, “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses…”

We dare not shoot the messenger for retelling history in vivid detail. Anti-Semitism or a hatred of any other race or religion for that matter is not something that spontaneously arises from the facts no matter how vividly they are portrayed.

Racism is a conscious decision of the heart, which another Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, described as “deceitful and desperately wicked.” And it is yet further evidence of fallen humanity’s inability to love and forgive. It is why Jesus came to die on a cross; to bear the sins of the world. 

Mel Gibson had the best answer for his critics about who was to be blamed for the crucifixion of Jesus. When asked why he didn’t appear in the movie, the actor replied, “I did—I played the only role I could—mine were the hands that drove the nails into Jesus’ hands and feet.” 

And so were yours and mine. n

Gregory J. Rummo is a syndicated columnist. Read all of his columns on his homepage, www.GregRummo.com. E-Mail Rummo at  GregoryJRummo@aol.com