Reviews — TKJ (personal review)

I read everything I could get my hands on about Mel Gibson’s upcoming film, The Passion of the Christ, but I was both anxious and skeptical as I anticipated seeing it for myself. How would this Hollywood icon-turned-storyteller visualize the sacred story that has always been the focal point of redemptive history for all of Christendom? I was eager to find out.

The film I was invited to see was a director’s rough-cut, not the finished product. The music wasn’t finished, no special effects were added, and it was smaller and less polished than the big-screen version we’re accustomed to viewing in a theater. Nevertheless, the film was stunning and compelling. I walked out of the film deeply disturbed and moved. I knew this story. Its lines were familiar to me. I could quote some of it from memory. But this dramatic visualization of the story left me almost lost for words to describe what I had experienced.

From the opening inscription from Isaiah 53:5—“He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed”—I was drawn into the pathos of my Savior’s suffering in ways I had never before experienced. This film did something for me that none of my years of reading, study, and theological education had done—it brought the story to life before my very eyes.

I know that it sounds so clichéd to say, “This is the most amazing piece of film art that I’ve ever seen” but the fact remains, it’s true. From the agonizing opening scenes in the Garden of Gethsemane, through the mockery of justice in the hall of Caiaphas, to the court of Pontius Pilate and the debate about truth, through the horrors of the scourging, and culminating in the crucifixion and the resurrection, the images are both riveting and haunting, disturbing and compelling. The film is biblically accurate, historically precise, theologically sound, and visually stunning. It has the look and feel of a fine piece of medieval art—dark, muted, and gritty. The expected glitzy flare of a Hollywood epic is noticeably absent. This film feels raw and real.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. I tried to divert my eyes away from the torturous barbarism of the Roman soldiers, but I felt involuntarily drawn back to them. These were images that I loathed to see, but images I dared not close my eyes to. To do so felt as if I would somehow be found as one of the unfaithful—one of His followers who forsook and betrayed Him.

I can’t say that I enjoyed viewing this film. It’s not that kind of film. Rather, it is an event to be experienced. I didn’t walk out of the theater into the chilly October night saying, “Wow, that was great!” I walked out saying in much more muted tones, “wow,” and I was different. I’m a firm believer that “the Truth” changes lives. I know that happens through the Spirit of God taking the Word of God and bringing conviction and grace to bear on the human heart that is desperately incapable of saving itself. But after having seen The Passion of the Christ, I remain deeply impacted by seeing what Christ did for me that night in ways that I had never experienced in my 40 years of walking with the Lord.

In the days that followed my viewing of the film, the images I had seen did not fade, but have burned more deeply into my heart and mind. I found myself returning to read familiar passages of Scripture with renewed enthusiasm because of what I had witnessed. I found myself sharing with others what I had seen, and as I told them, my passion for what I saw brought more emotions than I could have anticipated. I identified with these words written by the apostle John: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched— this we proclaim concerning the Word of life” (1 John 1:1).

The Passion of the Christ leaves one with the sensation of having been an up-close-and-personal eyewitness to the historical events that are the focal point of all human history: the decisive battle that won the war between good and evil.

Gibson masterfully visualizes the unseen battle between God and Satan. Evil is portrayed as far more active than most people care to admit. At first I was shocked that Gibson would actually insert a Satan figure in the film when the Scriptures refer to him as a spirit being. However, this visualized image of Satan that slithers throughout the film, unbeknownst by the rest of the crowd, was very clearly seen and recognized by Jesus. The whole redemption story revolves around God crushing the head of the evil one with the heel of His beloved Son. Gibson’s visual illusion to Genesis 3:15 sets the tone for the brutal warfare that would settle humanity’s sin problem once and for all.

Make no mistake, The Passion of the Christ is a war movie. That’s why it more than likely will receive an “R” rating for its brutal portrayal of violence. But it is not the gratuitous violence that we’ve come to expect from Hollywood. The violence, while agonizing to watch, is more than likely much less brutal than what Jesus actually endured. The violence marks the methodical mastery of the art of torture that had been perfected under the Roman fist. It also marks the horrific magnitude of our sin that needed be punished by the wrath of a holy God.

Mel Gibson’s portrait of Christ is a masterful blend of both the human and the divine qualities of the Son of God. You see His humanity in His relationship with His mother, Mary. The tenderness and playfulness Jesus demonstrates towards His mother is a much-needed reminder that this was God in human flesh. And having seen these images, my heart has been reminded afresh of the tenderness and playfulness of His Father as well (John 14:46; John 14:9).

The whole reason for the passion of Christ was portrayed in the numerous flashbacks during the seemingly endless scourging, the way of the cross, and the crucifixion. The flashbacks masterfully provide the viewer with relief from the relentless brutality, while providing the theological purpose that clarifies for all to see that Jesus was not a victim of a Jewish conspiracy and a Roman despot. No, Jesus is portrayed as one who chose to purposefully “endure the cross, scorning its shame” (Hebrews 12:2) for higher purposes. Seeing Jesus crawl onto the cross is cemented in my mind.

The two most riveting scenes in the film bookend the film for me. The scene of Jesus crushing the head of the serpent in the opening Garden of Gethsemane scenes brought home the purpose for which the Messiah had come to earth—to crush evil once and for all. The purposeful resolve in His eyes left no mistake that He came to fight the pivotal battle to free mankind from the shackles of sin.

The darkness that engulfed the theater after the crucifixion scene was so noticeably poignant that it felt like it lasted forever. The deafening silence produced a heaviness laden with grief and despair. Was what I felt akin to what the dispersed disciples felt? Shock over the horrific violence that I had just witnessed, and awe over the magnitude of such compelling love that would intentionally endure such torturous pain and suffering, mockery and betrayal, because of His passionate desire to love me and save me from my sins (John 3:16; Romans 5:8). “No, he can’t just end it here. There’s more that must be told. This can’t be it.” And then an understated but powerful resurrection scene that leaves no doubt that this is not the end, but a whole new beginning (Revelation 21:5). Out of the bowels of darkness and death emerges hope.

I was left revitalized in my faith and with renewed hope that there are good men and women with creativity and conviction that can craft what I consider the most compelling work of film art that I have ever been privileged to witness. It moved me to weep and to worship, because what I saw was love incarnate, in the flesh, in a way I had never before encountered.

I don’t respond well to an organizational newsletter that tells me what to see, hear, buy, sell, or invest in. In fact, I’m turned off by appeals to “do this” or “don’t do that” even by organizations and causes I respect and support. So please understand me when I say, “If there’s one film you see this year, make it The Passion of the Christ.” This isn’t an RBC Ministries organizational endorsement. If you’ve been around us long enough as a ministry, you know that’s not our style. This is my deeply personal response to a film that is radically different from anything I’ve ever experienced.

This film, in my opinion, has the potential to reawaken Christians who have grown spiritually indifferent and lethargic about their Lord and the high-stakes war we are engaged in. I also believe that nonbelievers will be invited to consider the claims of Jesus and to read the biblical account for themselves of the One who died for all so that all might live free.

And isn’t that why we’re all here—to know Christ and to make Him known?

— TKJ