Archived Articles by Father Rob Smith

THE PASSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

It was interesting to watch the negative media frenzy that surrounded the opening and the early days of the release of Mel Gibson's movie The Passion. First we were bombarded by the opinion that it was anti-Semitic, then that it was too violent, and finally by the criticism that despite all the negative press it was too successful and made too much money. The real problem wasn't the movie, but what the movie was about. St. Paul says, "we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles" (I Cor. 1:23 ESV). The word "stumbling block" in Greek is "skandalon", from which we get the word "scandal." The movie was a scandal to pundits, as rightly it should be. Some wit said, "If they didn't like the movie, they won't like the book either."

The movie was deliberately limited in its scope. Right from the outset Mel Gibson told us what the theme of the movie was. "But 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" (Isaiah 53:5 NIV). The message was straight substitutionary atonement. Jesus died for our sins. This is how it happened. We, not the Jews of Jesus day, are responsible. Through the violence He suffered, all the violence of humankind is offered its atonement. Him for us! Him for me! No wonder many of the pundits didn't like the message. It calls us all to accountability and who wants to be held accountable, or worse to acknowledge that someone else died for our sins? That is a difficult message in an age that calls evil good, and good evil.

There is another message in the movie hinted at by Gibson. That message is the triumph of good over evil. In one of the last scenes of the movie Satan reacts in anguish to the completed work of the cross. In his letter to the Colossians St. Paul starts with the satisfaction for sins and moves deliberately to the victory, "And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him" (Col. 2:13-15). It is not a matter of choosing between the theories of substitutionary atonement and Christ the Victor, but a matter of seeing that both viewpoints unfold the meaning of the crucifixion of Christ.

The message of the cross is inseparable from the message of the resurrection. The proclamation of one without the other is incomplete. It is not just that Jesus died for our sins, but that he also rose victorious over death. The power of that victory is available to us through the Spirit of holiness who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead. The same Jesus who died for us is the living Jesus whose presence and fellowship is the very heart of our experience in the Church. Jesus died and rose again that we ourselves might have power in His name to vanquish evil, first in our lives, and then to some extent in the world of humankind of which we are an inseparable part. That is not a message that all of our world really wants to hear. Oh? What did I think of the movie? I loved it, but then again I'm a sinner and I'm so glad that Jesus died for me!

~ Father Rob +

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