The Passion of the Christ

My partner Shiloh has just celebrated her first Easter as a Christian and in order for her to fully understand the scope and the severity of what Jesus actually did for us I brought out 'The Passion of the Christ' for us to watch.

It has been widely debated on whether a film about Jesus should be so full of violence and should people watch it. It has had a massive impact on people's lives. I remember reading that a man in America had murdered his wife two weeks previous. He went to see the passion of the Christ and was that moved he went to the police station afterwards and handed himself in, despite totally getting away with it. Shiloh sobbed when she watched it and I am not ashamed to admit that I cry at it every time. We consider ourselves to be connoisseurs of horror and gore and yet this powerful film brings us to tears. The Vicar at our church did a showing of it to the Iranian Bible students who were becoming Christian and there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Of course I would not encourage children or people of a nervous disposition to watch it because it is very brutal and there is a lot of gore. But if you can stomach it, I believe that every Christian should watch the film at least once in their life.

The truth of the matter is that Jesus Crucifixion WAS a violent act and I think that people have become that used to reading it in the Bible we become desensitised to what it actually means and how awful it would have been. Even those who do the stations of the cross often have a desensitized view of what happened. We are that used to seeing Jesus hanging on a cross (or tree in other translations of your Bible) that it becomes the norm.

Crucifixion is an extremely brutal and painful process at the best of times and was a feared punishment only reserved for the worst of criminals as a deterrent to the rest of the Roman empire. The abuse at the hands of the guards was also quite brutal and usually used on particularly troublesome prisoners only so the idea of an innocent man being put through this should be enough to make someone's skin crawl.

Add to that the taunting, the spitting, the purple robes and the reed to jokingly worship him as a form of humiliation, it was totally uncalled for. Even the crown of thorns is often overlooked. They didn't just place it on his head, they forced those thorns into his head which would have been painful and very bloody.

The worst scene I think for most people to watch is the flogging of Jesus. In the Jewish law you were only allowed to receive 40 lashes with a whip or flogger maximum for an offence. This is why the Roman Centurion counts to 39 + 1 for the back then asks him to be turned onto his back so he can be flogged on his front too. The Scene can turn the stomach of even the most avid horror film fans because of the realism portrayed and the realisation that this actually happened... not to a criminal, but to a totally innocent man who was willingly giving his life up so that we don't have to make atonement sacrifices anymore, he is known as the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world. It was a perfect human who got us into this mess in the first place so only a perfect human could be the answer.

The things that always stays with me is that if we see Jesus as the perfect human, his nerve endings would have been perfect and as a result not a single one of those lashes or other painful experiences would have been dull- if anything it would have been amplified.

I remember my Son learning about the Easter story at school and the Vicar told me that he cried a lot while the tale was told and then managed to squeak "Why would they do something that nasty to such a nice man!". Even at the age of 9 years old my son realised that Jesus was innocent.

There are child friendly versions of the Easter story on the likes of YouTube by "the beginners bible" among others. For adults though, I highly recommend watching it. It is brutal, it is bloody, it is based on real events (check out the writings of Jewish historian Josephus who was writing at the time) so of course it is going to be hard to watch but it makes you appreciate the level of sacrifice that was made on our behalf so we could have a loving relationship with our father. We are all sinners and Jesus gave his life so that we wouldn't die because of our sins. Instead of having to sacrifice a lamb like they did in ancient Israel to atone for their sins, Jesus is saying "I have already atoned for everyone's sins.".

Whether it's Jesus Christ Superstar, a children's retelling or the passion of the Christ, it is always helpful to remind ourselves each year of exactly the lengths that Jesus went through for us. Another point to remember is that Jesus gave his life for EVERYONE, not just the cookie cutter Christians who need to look a certain way, act a certain way, identify a certain way or love a certain way.

I am reminded of this in Titus 3:5 where it says:

He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (NIV)

I hope that everyone has had a good Easter and that you are filled with the Holy Spirit. If you ever need prayer, please feel free to either message me on here or on my Facebook page 'The creative Christian goth mammy' and I will be more than happy to pray for you.