Jason Silver

Saturday, January 17th, 2004

Passion Revisited

After watching the movie, we streamed out of the auditorium, and into the foyer. The pre-screening of Mel Gibson's "The Passion" was held in a large church. It was for church pastors and leadership, so there were all kinds of people milling around, recognizing each other, networking.

It was weird. I heard little snippets of conversation:

"Ya, let's go grab a bite at McDonalds."
"Where'd you get that hat?"
"He's over at 1st Baptist now."
"She did what in her youth group?"
"They have never wanted to try that again!"

...and so on.

People were stopping each other, noticing each other, crowding around the way we humans so often do when we're at church; connecting and veneering.

I was a little thrown. We had just seen a brutal -- BRUTAL -- depiction of Christ's last days on earth. The crucificion scene was not the worst of it. The whippings, the blood, the gore... it was disgusting. Looking around the foyer, it was as if these people had forgotten all about it seconds after the film was complete.

We Christians remember the cross and use words like victorious, saviour, lamb of God... these are clean words. These are inspiring and beautiful words. These were clean, inspiring, even beautiful people. But what of the gore? What of the disgusting? Did we forget already?

We pre-planned to meet with other staff from our church at a food court nearby. As I walked up to them, the obvious question was asked. "What did you think?!" I enthused.

Scowls. "Ask a specific question." "That's too general." They were obviously troubled about the movie. One person almost fainted from the blood. Another person thought they could never recommend it to their non-Christian friends.

I was really shaken-- as I write this now, I realise it's taken me four days to even process it. I just thought everyone would feel as positive about the movie as I did.

Positive? About wanton violence and glorious gore?

We've done this story up like a birthday cake with chocolate icing. The whole point of Jesus' life was to die for our sins and to suffer on our behalf-- in our stead! But the suffer part is forgotten and we remember only plastic crosses and Easter lilies. Of course it's gruesome! It was one of the most cruel ways to murder another human being, and we all swung the hammer-- so to speak. I think we MUST look without blinking, and we must know. We need to be aware of what was done-- even if we don't believe.

Who knows, maybe that's about to all change for you? If Jesus did that, then why wouldn't I believe?

~Jason