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I saw The Passion of the Christ for the first time tonight, having decided to give it a miss when it first came out.
It was rather better than I'd expected it to be, though having low expectations probably helped! It's a pity so many of the reviews at the time focussed solely on the violence - I felt the flashbacks did an excellent job of drawing the parallels between Jesus' teachings and His sacrifice.
And I never thought I'd ever see Pontius Pilate as hot!
My main problem was not so much with the violence (I felt that given some of my writing I should try to face up to it, and I suppose I was prepared for it though there were parts I winced away from) but with Jesus' lack of reaction to it. If Jesus was 'as we are in every way but sin'... Well, pain is not a sin, and I can't believe anyone could undergo that scourging and not be screaming.
Though I suppose that if Mel was making the point that Jesus chose that path every step of the way, showing Him being taken past His physical limit of consent would have opened the opportunity for the devil that was lurking in the background. So does that mean I have to believe that Jesus didn't have the power to 'come down from the cross'? On reflection, I think I've always seen it that way... setting the Wheel of Fortune in motion and having to take the consequences. If Jesus is truly like us, if the Christian message has anything to say to people who are suffering, then surely He must know what it is to be trapped?
It was rather better than I'd expected it to be, though having low expectations probably helped! It's a pity so many of the reviews at the time focussed solely on the violence - I felt the flashbacks did an excellent job of drawing the parallels between Jesus' teachings and His sacrifice.
And I never thought I'd ever see Pontius Pilate as hot!
My main problem was not so much with the violence (I felt that given some of my writing I should try to face up to it, and I suppose I was prepared for it though there were parts I winced away from) but with Jesus' lack of reaction to it. If Jesus was 'as we are in every way but sin'... Well, pain is not a sin, and I can't believe anyone could undergo that scourging and not be screaming.
Though I suppose that if Mel was making the point that Jesus chose that path every step of the way, showing Him being taken past His physical limit of consent would have opened the opportunity for the devil that was lurking in the background. So does that mean I have to believe that Jesus didn't have the power to 'come down from the cross'? On reflection, I think I've always seen it that way... setting the Wheel of Fortune in motion and having to take the consequences. If Jesus is truly like us, if the Christian message has anything to say to people who are suffering, then surely He must know what it is to be trapped?
