The Passion of the Christ
I went to see Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” on Ash Wednesday. I went because I am mindful of cultural spasms, and we are certainly having one over this movie. But that’s all this movie will be – a bump in the road. It will all be over soon.
This movie does not have the power to move us. It has the power to make us talk around the water cooler, but that’s all. The story behind the movie - the one that includes the life and teachings of Christ - has changed the world, but that's another story in itself.
What I’m really interested in are the kinds of questions that non-Christians will be asking. Doug Hennessee at Pipeline is a good friend of mine. I popped over to see what he had to say about all this. He represents what I think will be a puzzled reaction by many who are not Christians.
"Which leaves part of me thinking that maybe I should see what all the hubbub is about. But a larger part of me just doesn't care too much. I just don't care about the movie, or who really killed Christ." D. Hennessee
So as long as we’re having this momentary, cultural knee-jerk, I’d like to toss out a few questions that I think are of interest to us all. I’m going to ask these questions from the point of view of a person standing outside the church. I may not be able to do that, but I'll try.
Where does a story like this come from? It is the most popular story in the history of humanity. Why? How does the story of an obscure death in a remote region of ancient Rome become so important to so many people?
What does this story and our need to tell it say about us? We are obviously a brutal species. Mel Gibson’s movie is a reasonable depiction of scourging and crucifixion, a manner of death that was common in the ancient world. A group of humans invented this death, and it’s not the worst thing we’ve ever done. Holocaust is common among us, not a grotesque exception to the rule. Does this story speak to a species-wide desire for redemption?
Finally, what does it say about humanity that so many of us seek atonement through a representative act? The death of Jesus Christ has come to represent all the evil that men do. In the middle of great evil, there remains a part of us that seeks to be “at one” with goodness. “At-one-ment.”
What is it about Homo Sapiens that causes us to commit profound acts of evil while we long for goodness with all our hearts?
rlp
9:46:09 PM 
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