Volume 46 Number 7 March 2004
A lot of controversy has been stirred by Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion
of the Christ. Some of the Jews are concerned that it will produce a
backlash of anti-Semitism, while some Gentiles think the movie is an
awesome presentation of the love of God. The Jews have a point. Passion
plays have a record of inciting pogroms, people persecuting Jews and
calling them "Christ killers."
There is power in the world of senses. Emotions can be stirred with
cleverly arranged sights, sounds, and movements. This is the nature of
art. The ancient idolaters knew quite well that visual extravaganzas
leave lasting emotional impressions. Why are there countless paintings of
Jesus and other Bible characters? Why have religious figurines and
statues been carved and cast? Because it gives man a sensual link to
religion. The passion play is just another form of the same. It is an
elaborate icon, a three dimensional walking, talking portrayal of
something, but it is not the gospel.
The ancient commandment of God states:
Ezekiel the prophet was called to dramatize many lessons to the house of
Israel. Ezekiel did these things by revelation. However, on the very
truth of Ezekiel's being a prophet, we cannot take to ourselves this
method. He was given direct revelation from God to do his drama. There is
no such inspiration for the passion play. God has given the revelation of
Jesus Christ through the scriptures. They are words to teach, to preach,
to ponder, words to take to heart and follow. The gospel was not meant to
be portrayed through the contrivances of theater and the arts.
Sometimes we have young people dramatize a spiritual lesson for the sake
of impression. We also have crafts for little children to focus their
attention, along with action songs and finger movements. Shouldn't we put
away childish things when we become adults? Think about it . . . there
is no way to accurately portray the expressions of Jesus' face, the
attitude of His posture, the inflection of His voice. In fact, the life
of Jesus was and is unsuitable for dramatic performance. "He hath no form
nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we
should desire him." (Isaiah 53:2) He was and is outside the scope of carnal interest. Yet men will try to portray Him again and again through mediums
which have to emphasize the flesh in order to make the point. "Oh, look
at His suffering. See the compassion on His face. How pitiful His
groans."
It is a bit ironic that men will earnestly embrace the dramatization of
the gospel when it is, in truth, portrayed by hypocrites. As many of you
know, 'hypocrite' is the transliteration of the Greek word hupokrites,
which means actor, a non-demeaning term for a stage performer. However,
it is very questionable for a 'hypocrite' to present Christ. No?
Mr. Gibson seems to have an earnest conviction about his project.
The apostles did not shun to declare the serious nature of their Hebrew
brethren's sin. "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God
of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and
denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him
go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be
granted unto you; And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised
from the dead; whereof we are witnesses." (Acts 3:13-15) The apostles'
presentation of the facts did not have the all-absorbing impact of a
movie. It was the communication of fellow travelers to one another, a
presentation of words for consideration, underscored with graciousness.
"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted
out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the
Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all
things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since
the world began." (Acts 3:19-21) The apostles spoke the truth out of the
earnest love for God and love for their countrymen.
Passion plays have an impact to be sure, but it is not the impact of
Christ. Have you felt like blaming the Jews when you heard them protest
Mr. Gibson's movie? Perhaps we felt a little upset with them for being
so stiff necked. Those feelings did not come by the influence of the
gospel. Those feelings were prompted by opinions over a movie.
Have you ever wondered why Moses didn't come down from Mt. Sinai with a
statue? Or why Jesus didn't send the Holy Spirit to the apostles with a
script or the inspiration to paint and carve? We should think about this
in light of religious theatrics. God gave us the life of His Son, then He
gave us words to testify of this life. He also gave us the lives of those
who embraced those words. How dry. Words are dry to the unthinking, and
the lives of believers are too ordinary for the bored. Have you ever
wondered why the Gospel doesn't have a hook? Why wasn't the New Testament
written with devices which all good novelists use to captivate the
reader? Perhaps Paul could have used a little study in the art of word
smithing. The answer is simple.
Paul and the other inspired writers could have done things differently,
but they knew better.
Why give homage to a play which only detracts from the Christ who is
portrayed in the scriptures and in the lives of those who serve Him?
"In the Middle Ages and early modern
times, after the performance of a Passion play, which was staged in many
towns and villages, spectators, inflamed by the depiction of a frenzied
Jewish mob taunting Jesus, often poured into the Jewish ghetto to kill,
maim, and vandalize." ~ Anti-Semitism: Myth and Hate from Antiquity to the
Present (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002)
The advocates of religious theater
think God is glorified, not pausing to consider the power of the play.
"Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD
thy God am a jealous God. ." (Exodus 20:4-5)
A passion play is made in the
likeness of things in heaven and earth for the sake of service to God. To
say the play is just a means of glorifying God is the same thing Aaron
said at the foot of Mt. Sinai when Israel worshiped the golden calf. ". .
To morrow is a feast to the LORD." (Exodus 32:5) Idolatry has always had
the belief that it is not a matter of worshiping the image, but what the
image represents. The Lord views it otherwise. Glorifying God through a
passion play is not service to God, it is just another type of image
worship.
"The Holy Ghost was working through me on this film, and I was just directing
traffic. I hope the film has the power to evangelize." (WorldNetDaily.com
June 29, 2003)
Do you believe it? If we can take the step of accepting
that Mr. Gibson did not do this thing by the direction of the Holy
Spirit, it is but a small step to know we cannot accept Mr. Gibson's
portrayal of Christ as a valid one. Nor can we go and do likewise.
"It is the Spirit who gives life; the
flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they
are life." (John 6:63)
"For the love of Christ compels us, because we
judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all,
that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who
died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one
according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the
flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer." (II Corinthians 5:14-16)
We have a
lot of thinking to do on those words. If we live for Christ, we will not
try to know Christ after the flesh. The work of a play does just the
opposite. It has to focus on the externals. Externals are what attracts.
God doesn't want us to regard our neighbor after the flesh. A passion
play brings you to do that very thing, neighbors on stage. It's the
style, the face, the gaze, the inflection. These things are better seen
in the lives of our brethren without contrivances. The faithful life in
Christ is the God given medium that walks and talks on earth. In such a
life the love of God is fulfilled.
"And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an
understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that
is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal
life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen." (I John
5:20-21)