Passion about The Passion

My back is to the wall.  I'm going to have to go see Mel Gibson's movie, which by all accounts is a version of Mad Max without the cars and boobs.  It has been beaten up by every reviewer I've heard so far, but the crowds are clamoring for it.  So I'm going to have to go see it and probably run a discussion group on it though everything in my fiber says "DON'T DO IT!."

I'm in the same boat with "The DaVinci Code."  Everyone in my congregation is raving about it and they want to know what I think of it.  I tried to read it.  But I couldn't get beyond the first fifty or so pages.  It is poorly written and just isn't the page turner that everyone says it is.

I just don't get it.  People want to hold that their Christianity is predicated on the brutal murder of Jesus.  They want to hold on to all sorts of conspiracy theories and mysterious equations to prove their faith.  Yet all through scripture, particularly the scriptures for Ash Wednesday, we are told NOT to take on an air of sadness and pain, NOT to let other people know that we are fasting.  Instead, we are told to feed the hungry, free the oppressed, seek justice and work for peace.  That is the sacrifice that God desires and the expression of faith that causes people to take notice.  Instead, we revel in the blood and agony of Jesus, seek constitutional amendments against loving people because they aren't like us, arrogantly wrap our faith in the flag, and let everyone know that unless they believe in Jesus, they're not worth much.  All of Gibson's movies are about payback.  This one is no different.  And maybe, instead of an expression of his faith, Gibson is just mirroring the sentiment of society: "Let's git those bastards that did this to us, our country, 'n our Lord!"

There's a big controversy growing here on the Mountain Top.  The Ministerial Association, which consists of conservative "Christian" clergy, has purchased a piece of land on The Overlook, a high point overlooking downtown, for $25,000.  They intend to put a thirty foot cross up there, right next to the huge American flag, to let all know that our town is a God-fearing Christian town.  You can imagine the letters to the editor, both pro and con.  I think about what the $25,000 could have gone to accomplish instead of putting up a symbol of agony and oppression and I don't feel good.  The Ministerial Association has a hard time coming up with the money to buy a meal for a transient coming through town, or to buy groceries for a family down on their luck.  Yet they'll come up with an obscene amount of money to put up a symbol and stand arrogantly on their God-given right to do it.

Jesus' death on the cross is not what the Christian faith is about.  It was the RESULT of a faith that said that the injustices of religion and government had to end, that the only thing necessary to please God was to love God and our neighbor, to seek justice, and to work for peace.  This pissed off the powers that be so much that they lashed out and killed Jesus.  But our faith is built, not on that gruesome death, but on the event three days later which sent a clear message to them and to us: You may get really pissed off because Jesus taught that there was another way - a way of peace and love and service to others, but that's the way it's supposed to be and to prove it, God isn't going to let jealousy and fear and the threat of death get in the way.

Yes, the cross looms as a symbol of what can happen when those who are enjoying the self-serving ways of the world are reminded that life is not about personal gain but about giving everything we have away to others.  Perhaps that's the message that's being sent by setting a cross overlooking our little town.  A warning that this is what you'll get if you fight the government abuses of freedom, oppose a war, believe that there are plenty of ways to express the love of God other than the "approved" way.  With the cross as a threat, with The Passion as a graphic representation of the cruelty of that cross, and the anger of the so-called Christian mob that supports it, is it any wonder that people heed the warning?  Without a word about resurrection and new life, the cross is merely one more tool for the suppression of truth and justice.  Which is what it was meant to be in the first place.

And it still works after 2000 years.

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