I had the absolute privilege of finally seeing The Passion of the Christ. We were blessed to get a wonderful babysitter so the Broken Wife and myself could go see it. Before I forget, get there one hour early, especially if there are more than two in your party. No movie should be seen from the front row.
Some thoughts:
This movie really makes me ponder more of the humanity of Christ. I'm real good at the divinity of Christ but when He was here He was fully human who set aside His diety (Philippians 2:7-8) (notice set aside not rid Himself, big difference) to fulfull His mission on earth. He experienced it all as a human. This movie really brought that to me.
Mary.... I forget that she was also a mother. How aweful it must have been to watch her child suffer as He did.
Communion will never be the same for me again.
The movie was not as violent as I thought it would be. I didn't feel anything was gratuitous. Some was hard to watch but a close reading of the Gospels will let you know that what Christ suffered was horrific.
Cruelty.... how can humans be so cruel? You still see evidence of absolute cruelty now. Remember those Iraqi torture tapes?
I consider this movie to NOT be an evangalistic tool. It is definitely for the hearts of the people who are already Christian. It helps me to focus on what God has done for me.
It's amazing who God will use. During this period of time he's decided to use a cigarette smoking, sometimes foul-mouthed, Hollywood actor. God bless and protect Mel Gibson. Same for James Caviezel. What an amazing performance.
An amazing movie that I will never forget, want to see again, but will wait a bit before seeing it again. I need to decompress.
Posted by Tim at February 29, 2004 08:23 PMI have read that some ppl came to know the Lord thru the movie, but I dont' know anyone personally. I had to look away during the 45 min. scourging, but I cry even more than I did when I sing praises b/c I never realized how MUCH Christ went thru for us- for me. Jim Caviezal's initials are J.C. and he was 33 when Mel Gibson called him for the role. ;)
Posted by: TimWillSing at February 29, 2004 09:39 PMYes.. I had much the same feelings from the movie as you did. It was so very moving for me. Beautifully painful. I can't imagine taking someone to this movie who didn't know anything about Christ... but I do have a lot of friends that have slacked in their faith and need a good kick in the pants.. I think this movie would do that for them... but you never never know. I think if someone is seeking.. whether they see this movie, or read the four gospels.. or make a cry out to God.. they're gonna be moved to salvation.
Posted by: Kate at March 1, 2004 09:42 AMLove your comments, Tim, but the handle "the Broken Wife" is driving me nuts! I know it's in keeping with the theme of the blog, but I have this picture in my mind's eye of Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas, whose limbs weren't sewn together very well, and came off every now and then.
Posted by: Douglas at March 1, 2004 11:40 AM
