okieinexile
Well-Known Member
If you don't have a sword…
By Bobby Neal Winters
In the Gospel According to Luke, just before Jesus takes Peter, James, and John to the Mount of Olives to pray, there is an exchange between Jesus and his three main Disciples where Jesus says, "If you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one." This, it is explained, so that the prophecy may be fulfilled, "And he was numbered with the transgressors." What strikes me is that Jesus did not even know whether his Disciples had a sword among their belongings because it was so far from what his ministry was about.
Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ was embroiled in controversy well before it hit the silver screen. While charges of anti-Semitism have shown signs of abating, the shouts of excessive violence have not. There is no question that it is a very violent movie. As a man who cried during Rugrats in Paris, I must confess that I was somewhat concerned by the emotional impact that it would have on me. I was somewhat surprised when I discovered that its effects were much smaller than I had anticipated.
Don't believe that means the movie wasn't all that violent. The truth is that the violence was so intense, I had to distance myself emotionally from the movie and make it primarily an experience of the head rather than one of the heart. I had to go into the emotional state that I usually reserve for enduring invasive medical procedures of the lower gastrointestinal tract. However, that level of detachment allowed me to view the movie from an intellectual point of view, and there is value to be found there.
The Romans were a violent people. They had conquered their corner of the planet by taking the art of killing to a whole new level. Their idea of a good afternoon's entertainment was to run out to the local arena and watch people kill each other for real, not play-acting, and in person, not on tape. While it would be comforting to believe that this love of violence was unique to the Romans, unfortunately it is more widespread than that.
I was shocked a few years ago while visiting a video store when I saw a cassette advertising itself as containing "real-life deaths". When I happen to mention it to one of my students, he said that he'd not only seen the tape on the store shelf, but had viewed it. He gleefully went on to relate in detail some very grisly deaths. This type of thing is, of course, one step removed from watching gladiators duel to the death, and for my tastes, it is much too close.
One of the scenes from The Passion that clings to me is that of Jesus being scourged by the Roman guards. This is a lengthy scene that some might characterize as interminable. The blood and the tearing of flesh are painful to behold, but the guards inflicting the beating seem to be enjoying it on a level that is almost sexual. Their grins widen even as their faces are becoming covered with Jesus' blood.
The biologists have observed that in nature the prey have eyes on the sides of their head so they might see a predator approaching while the predators themselves have eyes on the front in order to pursue the prey. As I sit where with my eyes facing forward, I have to admit kinship with the eagle, the wolf, and the Roman. An affinity for violence is something that God, or nature if you prefer, has endowed us with for survival in the wild. For survival, it is good, but watching death for entertainment is not, but so many movies are exactly that, though perhaps with several degrees of removal.
This brings to mind a question. In showing these guards extract such pleasure from the pain of another, is the Mel Gibson who gave us Braveheart, Mad Max, and Lethal Weapon, to name three movies that I've enjoyed, making some confession at this point of his own sins, or is he trying to convict his violence-loving fans of theirs? I have to wonder.
In spite of its achievement as a work of art, somewhere in the mix and muddle of my mind there is a haunting thought that some in the audience might actually be enjoying the violence upon Jesus for its own sake as sort of the ultimate sick thrill.
Given this, I ask myself whether there is any excuse to make a film this violent? When Pope John Paul II screened the movie, he was rumored to have said simply, "It is as it was." The movies graphic realism reminds those of us who are Christians we were bought at a price and what that price was. We Protestants use an empty cross as a symbol that our Lord is risen. While this symbol has power, we need to remember there is no glory on Sunday morning without the Death on Friday afternoon.
By Bobby Neal Winters
In the Gospel According to Luke, just before Jesus takes Peter, James, and John to the Mount of Olives to pray, there is an exchange between Jesus and his three main Disciples where Jesus says, "If you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one." This, it is explained, so that the prophecy may be fulfilled, "And he was numbered with the transgressors." What strikes me is that Jesus did not even know whether his Disciples had a sword among their belongings because it was so far from what his ministry was about.
Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ was embroiled in controversy well before it hit the silver screen. While charges of anti-Semitism have shown signs of abating, the shouts of excessive violence have not. There is no question that it is a very violent movie. As a man who cried during Rugrats in Paris, I must confess that I was somewhat concerned by the emotional impact that it would have on me. I was somewhat surprised when I discovered that its effects were much smaller than I had anticipated.
Don't believe that means the movie wasn't all that violent. The truth is that the violence was so intense, I had to distance myself emotionally from the movie and make it primarily an experience of the head rather than one of the heart. I had to go into the emotional state that I usually reserve for enduring invasive medical procedures of the lower gastrointestinal tract. However, that level of detachment allowed me to view the movie from an intellectual point of view, and there is value to be found there.
The Romans were a violent people. They had conquered their corner of the planet by taking the art of killing to a whole new level. Their idea of a good afternoon's entertainment was to run out to the local arena and watch people kill each other for real, not play-acting, and in person, not on tape. While it would be comforting to believe that this love of violence was unique to the Romans, unfortunately it is more widespread than that.
I was shocked a few years ago while visiting a video store when I saw a cassette advertising itself as containing "real-life deaths". When I happen to mention it to one of my students, he said that he'd not only seen the tape on the store shelf, but had viewed it. He gleefully went on to relate in detail some very grisly deaths. This type of thing is, of course, one step removed from watching gladiators duel to the death, and for my tastes, it is much too close.
One of the scenes from The Passion that clings to me is that of Jesus being scourged by the Roman guards. This is a lengthy scene that some might characterize as interminable. The blood and the tearing of flesh are painful to behold, but the guards inflicting the beating seem to be enjoying it on a level that is almost sexual. Their grins widen even as their faces are becoming covered with Jesus' blood.
The biologists have observed that in nature the prey have eyes on the sides of their head so they might see a predator approaching while the predators themselves have eyes on the front in order to pursue the prey. As I sit where with my eyes facing forward, I have to admit kinship with the eagle, the wolf, and the Roman. An affinity for violence is something that God, or nature if you prefer, has endowed us with for survival in the wild. For survival, it is good, but watching death for entertainment is not, but so many movies are exactly that, though perhaps with several degrees of removal.
This brings to mind a question. In showing these guards extract such pleasure from the pain of another, is the Mel Gibson who gave us Braveheart, Mad Max, and Lethal Weapon, to name three movies that I've enjoyed, making some confession at this point of his own sins, or is he trying to convict his violence-loving fans of theirs? I have to wonder.
In spite of its achievement as a work of art, somewhere in the mix and muddle of my mind there is a haunting thought that some in the audience might actually be enjoying the violence upon Jesus for its own sake as sort of the ultimate sick thrill.
Given this, I ask myself whether there is any excuse to make a film this violent? When Pope John Paul II screened the movie, he was rumored to have said simply, "It is as it was." The movies graphic realism reminds those of us who are Christians we were bought at a price and what that price was. We Protestants use an empty cross as a symbol that our Lord is risen. While this symbol has power, we need to remember there is no glory on Sunday morning without the Death on Friday afternoon.
