“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)
“The Holy Ghost was working through me on this film, I was just directing traffic.” Mel Gibson”
My wife and I watched Diane Sawyer’s interview with Mel Gibson recently regarding his soon-to-be hit movie, The Passion of the Christ. I couldn’t help but to chuckle at the way Sawyer stared at Gibson. It was as if she couldn’t believe what he was saying.
I’ve seen that look of disbelief before. In fact, any one who has taken a strong stand for the Lord has seen it, too. The secular world just cannot understand what they cannot see. Adrian Rogers, three-time president of the Southern Baptist Convention, says it’s because we’re “twice born, living in once-born world.”
Hollywood hasn’t embraced Gibson’s movie. In fact, Gibson had to use $25 million of his own money to finance the project. Friends told him he would never see a profit. His film is now projected to gross more than $25 million in its first week. It sounds to me like God is blessing Gibson for taking a stand and producing this account of the last twelve days of the life of Christ.
There’s no doubt that the movie will be difficult to watch. It shows how Jesus was beaten to within an inch of His life and then crucified, which continues to be one of the harshest forms of capital punishment. Paul Lauer, director of marketing for the film put it this way: “This film takes you from the opening sequence where Jesus undergoes His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane. From that moment until the very end of the film, it grabs you and does not let you go.”
I could go on and on, but I thought you might appreciate some lesser known facts about the movie:
Gibson, a Catholic, brought a priest on the set every morning, offering Latin Mass, communion, and confession from those from the cast and crew who wanted to participate.
Gibson’s assistant director, Jan Michellini, was struck by lightning twice. James Caviezel, who plays Jesus, was also struck by lightning. Both men were unhurt even though Gibson’s partner and co- producer Steve McEveety said that he saw lightning “come out of Caviezel’s ears.”
Caviezel’s initials are JC and he was 33 years old when the movie was filmed, the same age of Jesus when He was crucified.
In Colorado Springs last year, Gibson told an audience after an early screening that “everyone who worked on this movie was changed. There were agnostics and Muslims on set converting to Christianity.”
Gibson told one reporter about a 6-year-old girl who visited the set and was healed of epilepsy. She “had epilepsy since she was born and had up to 50 epileptic fits a day. She doesn’t have them anymore, for over a month now.”
Critics have attacked the movie as anti-Semitic, a claim Gibson vigorously denies. “Read the Gospels, Diane,” he told Diane Sawyer. “Critics who have a problem with me don’t really have a problem with me in this film,” he said. “They have a problem with the four Gospels. That’s where their problem is.”
Gibson is exactly right. The whole point of “Passion” is that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Sin is what killed Him. In fact, it is Gibson’s own hand in the movie that is clutching an eight-inch iron spike as it is being driven through Jesus’ palm, Gibson’s personal reminder that we all must bear responsibility for His death.
I hope you’ll go see the film, but I recommend that you think twice about taking your children, especially if they are under the age of 14. It’s probably too graphic for the point that it seeks to make to be understood by them. Instead, consider taking someone with you that might not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Perhaps they will leave changed forever.
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