The Passion depicts Christ's last 12 hours on earth. Mel Gibson was standing at a window, contemplating jumping out of it. He thought it would be easier than going on. It was then that he was reminded of the Gospels and he stepped from the window and hit his knees crying out - "Help". It was then that he knew he must make this movie.
I know there is controversy with this movie saying the violence is too much or that the blood and gore took away from the message. I disagree. I think this movie is anointed from start to finish. I have watched it many times and cry each time I watch it. Not just a tear or two but almost a weeping. Too much violence? The 'cat of nine tails' they used to scourge Jesus with was a strap of leather with 9 bands fingering from it and on the end of each of those 9 bands was shards of glass and rock. When it would make contact with the body, it gripped the flesh and ripped it away. Scripture says that he was beaten so severely that he was no longer even recognized as a human (Isaiah 52:14-15). So was the movie brutal? Yes! Then again, so was Christ's flogging and crucifixion.
But this blog is to not debate on what critics have or have not said - what do they know anyway (haha)?
As I watch the movie, my heart goes towards Mary, Jesus' mother. I think we tend to forget that Jesus had an earthly mother. She gave 33 years of HER life into raising him. She gave birth to him, nursed him, watching him grow, fed him, played with him and taught him. They had a special bond that only a mother and son can have.
She watched him dragged from the garden, persecuted and then beaten brutally. As a mother of a son, I could not imagine her thoughts at that moment. The movie was so beautifully done as the camera focused on not only Jesus but also the emotions his mother was going through.
After he was beaten and taken away, Mary lowered herself to the ground and began to mop up the blood with her cloth. As a mother, I can understand this. She was "busying" herself as to not deal with what she just saw and what the inevitable outcome was going to be. She didn't know what else to do.....so she began to clean up her son's blood.
I think we forget that Jesus was a human man. He felt the same emotions we did, felt pain and sorrow. He didn't just magically take the beating and had no pain (although he 'could' have if that had been the will of his Father). He felt every beating. He felt every nail. He. Felt. Everything. He did it all for us. Wow. Mind blown.
As he continues down the road, bearing his cross, he falls. This particular moment makes my heart break. Mary watches as her son falls and has a flashback to when he was a toddler and falls on the ground. He cries out and she rushes to his aide. That is what mothers do. They know the sound of their child's cry. They know, just by the sound of the cry, whether that child is truly in pain. When the mother knows, she rushes to make sure the child is okay. That flashback helps us, the viewers, make the connection that she is truly his mother in every sense of the word. And as Christ falls, she rushes to his aide, knowing the cry he lets out is one of true pain. As a mother, she wants to fix it. Only this time.....she cannot.
As the tired and beaten Christ makes his way down the road, he flashes back to merely a week prior. He is riding the colt donkey into the city and the townspeople are waving palm fronds, excited for his arrival. Those same people who welcomed him gladly, were now condemning him. How quickly one's opinions of another can easily be swayed. His heart must have been broken.
When he falls another time, the soldier says that he cannot go on any more and they grab a man from the crowd, Simon. After much resistance, he helps Christ carry the cross for fear of punishment. After a few moments, Christ falls yet again and the townspeople swarm in and start to kick and beat on the already fallen man. Simon screams and yells at them to stop and says - "If you don't stop I won't carry that cross another step. I don't care what you do to me." And they all laugh. Do we have that kind of spiritual courage? When people are 'beating' up on our Christ do we yell "STOP, I don't care what you do to me......I will not let you beat up on him any more"?
Jesus hangs on the cross for 6 hours. Typically a death on the cross was quick due to blood loss or asphyxiation. However, as he hung there he called out to his father, feeling forsaken but knowing he hasn't been forgotten (don't we feel that way sometimes?). He looks down and makes sure that not only his mother is taken care of but his beloved John too. Then he speaks up and asks God to "forgive them, they know not what they do". He wasn't only speaking of the men there that day. He was also speaking about us, you and me. He was already speaking forgiveness over us before we were even a thought in our parents' heads. On the cross, beaten and bleeding, just had NAILS put through his hands and feet....and his mind was on his mother, his beloved.....and us.
Then as he dies and they lower him down, Mary looks into the camera. She is looking at us as if we are to blame. Whenever something doesn't make sense, we try to make it make sense by casting blame somewhere. As a mother, she was not only mournful but angry. Yes, he had to die....but in a mother's heart, she probably hoped there was another way.
But.......we also see the 'devil' howl in pain. Once Jesus took his last breath, the enemy knew the clock has started and his time was short. He knew he was defeated. After 3 days, Christ resurrects (there are over 500 different accounts of people seeing the resurrected Christ) and is sure to show himself to his mother and those closest to him before ascending into heaven with promises of a return.
As I said, this movie makes me cry. However, I feel that watching it helps me realize exactly what he went through. I have watched other movies depicting Jesus (Jesus of Nazareth was a household favorite growing up) but never have I felt such strong emotions watching one as I do this one. Never have I seen one depict the brutality of the last few hours of Christ's life. We need to see that. We need to understand the price he paid for us. He did that all for US. He didn't do it for himself, his mother or even God himself. He did it so we can live eternally with HIM.
That's some crazy love right there.
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