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Guest Editorial: A Misleading Passion
Could Mel Gibson's “The Passion of the Christ” itself serve as a substitute for the real Christ on the real Cross?
Pr. Brian Jones ++ Published on GreatContrvoersy.org ++ March 11, 2004.
Many have seen and still many more plan to see the widely publicized cinema production The Passion of the Christ, produced by Mel Gibson. First, let it be acknowledged that the rapidly spreading interest in this movie may arise primarily from people's longing for a deeper spiritual experience. Nothing in all of religious history commands the attention and grips the heart as does the story of Christ's crucifixion and the events leading up to it; this is only right. The sacrifice of Christ on Calvary is the very foundation upon which our hope of salvation is built.
Paul declared, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.” (Galatians 6:14). But this very verse sets forth a caution and a condition that make the viewing of any dramatic re-enactment of Calvary seriously questionable. A true grasp of the cross will crucify us to any desire to see a play-acted version of this time-transcending historical event so deeply interfused with sacredness and supernatural significance as to be utterly unreproducible in a staged setting.
The spiritual dimensions of Calvary cannot be captured or conveyed by any mortal exercise, no matter how reverently or artistically attempted. On the other hand, the reproduction or simulation of scenes of violence is readily achieved, for brutality is man's natural element. Unfortunately, the dramatized presentation of such scenes tends to arouse violent feelings in the heart of the beholder—not necessarily violence toward the victim portrayed, but toward the perpetrators of the cruelty. Thus, instead of inculcating a spirit of forgiveness toward the evil—as the gospel properly presented and received will do—a graphically re-enacted presentation of Calvary (or any scene of execution) can all too readily arouse bitter and vindictive feelings.
Also, we must not forget that many people of an emotionally fragile or unstable constitution can be driven to psychotic or nervous distress by exposure to vivid demonstrations of violence. They may never fully recover from the anguish or derangement suffered thereby. Others, afflicted with pent-up hostilities and frustrations, will obsessively thirst for more violence, for a repetition or increase of such scenes. By indulging in this obsession they will exacerbate their problems, and some may find themselves crossing over into a place their own heart is not equipped to be at.
It is noteworthy that most of the people who actually witnessed Christ's sufferings or who participated in torturing Him were not converted by what they saw or inflicted, but they despised Him and esteemed Him not… “They did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” (see Isaiah 53:3, 4). Few recognized the great gospel truth that, “He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows .... He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4, 5).
If one does not understand from Scripture the inner workings of Calvary—the atoning sacrifice of Christ and the redemptive sufferings He bore on our behalf—then any physical portraiture of the event will only obscure the truth of the gospel rather than magnify or illuminate it. So, instead of glorifying God, this dramatic production gratifies Satan who aroused wicked men to treat Christ with such unspeakable cruelty.
The church which historically has done more to strive against the truth and wear out the saints of the Most High, has also emphasized greatly in its liturgy and art work the crucifix and the “sorrowful mysteries” of Christ's death on the cross. Is this thought in itself not alarming? What we have in this popular production is an animated version of the crucifix, and a simultaneous obscuration of the truth through the vivid impersonation of Christ and His physical suffering without the Holy Spirit's anointing to interpret and apply the real event.
In all the profuse demonstration of agony and blood, the essence of the gospel is painted over in gore. From this tumultuous tableau does the sublime message of Calvary emerge with heightened force: “He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”? (2 Corinthians 5:21). And, “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow His steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, he threatened not but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously: Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed.” (1 Peter 2:21-24).
These are the central truths that God wishes for us to learn from Calvary, and retain reverently in mind. What Christ endured for us on the cross should inspire in us a holy resolve to obey Him. No fleshly re-enactment of His sufferings will properly serve to produce this result. Paul declared, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?… Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:1, 3). No fleshly exercise (including an elaborate, carefully constructed replay of Calvary) will produce the new birth or advance the sanctification of the regenerate.
Yet this new multi-million dollar production will not be without its religious effects. It may well serve as a prelude to a false, emotion-based revival on a massive scale. Think of how many people will see it ten or twenty times for having become addicted to its profoundly affecting scenes of violence. This personation of Christ's passion will serve as a potent substitute for heaven's ordained pathway to repentance, reformation and revival. Many people will be convinced that because they shed some irrepressible tears when they saw the film they must now be in a right standing with the Lord and have a profound inward grasp of what Calvary was all about. Not so. For they will go on to carnal living and a life of non-self-denial. After all, they cried during the film and had heart palpitations. What more could God want?
“No matter how sinful I may continue to be, the depth of my visceral reaction to the portrayal of Christ's sufferings proves that I'm a Christian at heart, etc., etc.” Thus multitudes will take false comfort in the thought that they have had a true conversion experience, thanks to Mel Gibson who is devoted to Mariolatry. The women of Jerusalem wept in human sympathy as they saw Christ stagger with His cross toward Calvary. Their human sympathy was not to be scorned, but it lacked the depth of spiritual conversion, as Christ tactfully indicated in His words of admonition to them (Luke 23:27-31).
In addition to this, millions of people will now (and for the rest of their lives) have the image of a worldly actor (impersonating Christ) superimposed on their minds every time they read a line in the gospels. On this account alone, I would no more want to see that film than I would like to place an asp or an adder under my pillow. Of all fictional portrayals anything that depicts Bible scenes is far more insidious than a mere worldly tale, because the religious production inculcates spurious impressions of piety in the viewer, and acts as an intoxicating substitute for true and undefiled religion.
No doubt some people will be led of the Holy Spirit to accept Christ as their Redeemer; having viewed this film, somehow the Holy Spirit may work and bring good out of evil. Whatever distortions it contains or ultimate failure to capture the heaven-ordained aspects of Christ's death on the cross, yet it remains true that ultimately, “we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth” (2 Corinthians 13:8). Even the wrath of man shall praise God, and the remainder of wrath He shall restrain (Psalm 76:10). Yet should we not pursue the more excellent way that God has set before us?
Do you wish to understand the Cross of Jesus with more depth and to embrace it with soul-regenerating effect? Then read the gospel accounts of this event. Read also Romans chapter 3 through 8; 1 Corinthians 15; 2 Corinthians 1; Phil. 2:1-13; Hebrews chapters 1-13; and all of Revelation. And read the divinely inspired record Christ's atoning sacrifice in The Desire of Ages, pp. 723-764.
Remember that for half the duration of Christ's presence on the cross the Father enveloped the scene with a dark cloud to conceal His Son's ineffable anguish there (see Matthew 27:45, cf. Mark 15:25, 33-37)? Should we then be gazing at the cross as box-office spectators, or, rather, kneeling there in deep contrition—“and from our smitten hearts with tears two wonders now confess”the wonders of redeeming love and our unworthiness” (see E. Clephane's “Beneath the Cross of Jesus,” adapted). Consider this inspired account of the final stages of Christ's experience on the cross:
And now the Lord of glory was dying, a ransom for the race. In yielding up His precious life, Christ was not upheld by triumphant joy. All was oppressive gloom. It was not the dread of death that weighed upon Him. It was not the pain and ignominy of the cross that caused His inexpressible agony. Christ was the prince of sufferers; but His suffering was from a sense of the malignity of sin, a knowledge that through familiarity with evil, man had become blinded to its enormity. Christ saw how deep is the hold of sin upon the human heart, how few would be willing to break from its power. He knew that without help from God, humanity must perish, and He saw multitudes perishing within reach of abundant help.
Upon Christ as our substitute and surety was laid the iniquity of us all. He was counted a transgressor, that He might redeem us from the condemnation of the law. The guilt of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon His heart. The wrath of God against sin, the terrible manifestation of His displeasure because of iniquity, filled the soul of His Son with consternation. All His life Christ had been publishing to a fallen world the good news of the Father's mercy and pardoning love. Salvation for the chief of sinners was His theme. But now with the terrible weight of guilt He bears, He cannot see the Father's reconciling face. The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Saviour in this hour of supreme anguish pierced His heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man. So great was this agony that His physical pain was hardly felt.
Satan with his fierce temptations wrung the heart of Jesus. The Saviour could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror, or tell Him of the Father's acceptance of the sacrifice. He feared that sin was so offensive to God that Their separation was to be eternal. Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father's wrath upon Him as man's substitute, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God.
With amazement angels witnessed the Saviour's despairing agony. The hosts of heaven veiled their faces from the fearful sight. Inanimate nature expressed sympathy with its insulted and dying Author. The sun refused to look upon the awful scene. Its full, bright rays were illuminating the earth at midday, when suddenly it seemed to be blotted out. Complete darkness, like a funeral pall, enveloped the cross. ‘There was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.’ There was no eclipse or other natural cause for this darkness, which was as deep as midnight without moon or stars. It was a miraculous testimony given by God that the faith of after generations might be confirmed.
In that thick darkness God's presence was hidden. He makes darkness His pavilion, and conceals His glory from human eyes. God and His holy angels were beside the cross. The Father was with His Son. Yet His presence was not revealed. Had His glory flashed forth from the cloud, every human beholder would have been destroyed. And in that dreadful hour Christ was not to be comforted with the Father's presence. He trod the wine press alone, and of the people there was none with Him.
In the thick darkness, God veiled the last human agony of His Son. All who had seen Christ in His suffering had been convicted of His divinity. That face, once beheld by humanity, was never forgotten. As the face of Cain expressed his guilt as a murderer, so the face of Christ revealed innocence, serenity, benevolence,—the image of God. But His accusers would not give heed to the signet of heaven. Through long hours of agony Christ had been gazed upon by the jeering multitude. Now He was mercifully hidden by the mantle of God. (Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, pp. 752-754).
May He now be revealed to us as a risen Saviour by the power of whose sacrifice our sins are slain and His righteousness is bestowed in our hearts as the supreme gift of His self-sacrificing love. “Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, he died unto sin once: but, in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Romans 6:8-13).
