THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST

As a follower of Christ, I felt it was necessary to see this movie. I felt that, but I don’t believe everyone will. It is a very, very personal thing, our faith in Christ and discipleship journey, and a movie such as this is not meant to “guilt” anyone into experiencing God’s love. It’s just what it is—the portrayal of Jesus’s last days in the most vivid imagery possible, the pictorial depiction of who Jesus was while living in the flesh and what He did for an undeserving human race.

It is a reality that modern cinema audiences have become jaded to violent images, so some pushing of the envelope is necessary. The Passion is also an art film, with great visual spectacle meant to draw emotional responses. It’s not so much “Hollywood” as it is a creative, emotional response to Mel Gibson’s personal faith. What some see as shock value, I see as an attempt to puncture the skin, to get beneath the surfaces of our beliefs and challenge us to really experience our faith. To find intimacy with God through reliving His Son’s most important moment. The artistic license did not deter me because it presented in a new light this story I know so completely. It challenged me to examine well-worn ideals and assign them more value.

For me, it was necessary to see this film because I cannot truly understand what Jesus suffered without putting myself in His shoes. Without walking those streets, without feeling the whips and thorns, without the anguish that I experienced while watching Jim Caviezel take on the smallest part of Jesus: his human personality. Seeing Jesus in the flesh is something we have not been privileged to see, just yet, and Caviezel managed to embody the most treasured aspects of His personality and His love. Seeing the anguish, the blood, the horror was necessary for me; just reading about it, just hearing a pastor preach on it, just drawing from our own minds will not bring the vastness of that sacrifice. The Passion showed that vastness, and it reinforced the magnitude of His love for me and the response of my faith and obedience to Him.

February 26, 2004 at Cinemark Town Center, Sherman, Texas