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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodists together |
March 2004 |
See the movie, hear the story, share The Passion
By now much of the brouhaha around Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ has calmed. Theater lines to showings are shorter, box office records for before-show tickets have been set, and religion writers are on to other stories of Lent.
For those who have not seen the movie, I encourage you to go, but do not take your children. This is a very violent film. And for those who have seen the movie, take the time to discuss it among your Sunday school classes, home Bible studies and other discussion groups within the life of the church, and with your friends, business colleagues and neighbors beyond the congregation.
I criticize neither Gibson nor his film. I applaud him for his courage to put his money where his religious convictions are especially when Hollywood wouldn't touch The Passion. However, beyond all the publicity, beyond all the marketing, beyond all the TV hype and spin, the Gospel story looms much greater and will be told centuries from now in media yet to be invented. The story will be the same -- Jesus taught good news to the poor and oppressed, healed the sick, died for the sins of the world, was raised from the dead on the third day and will come again.
The Gospel story itself transforms lives as it has for centuries. But if we only view the story of The Passion as a cinematic event told by a 21st century filmmaker who filled in the holes between narratives to keep his story moving, we have missed the essence of the Gospel. No medium can contain that story.
We needed four canonical Gospels and a host of unofficial gospels to tell the story when the original storytellers died. We needed the illustrations, drawings, paintings, frescoes and sculptures of thousands of artists to tell the story. We needed stage writers and actors for centuries to tell the story. We needed composers, vocalists and musicians to tell the story. And now we have cinematographers and special effects technicians to tell the story. Yet all of them lead us to a personal affirmation of faith that we also affirm as a community of faith.
Jesus died for me, for us, for the world.
It was the story of The Passion that spoke to Mel Gibson and drove him to capture his version of that story on film -- the most powerful cultural medium of our age.
But we need to remind ourselves that the story didn't end with Jesus' violent crucifixion. That was only the overture to God's resurrection of Christ. For without the resurrection, without Easter, without the empty tomb, the crucifixion just would have been the death of another Jew by a cruel and hated Roman Empire. Without the resurrection, we might not have heard the story. In the end, it's the resurrection story that gives new life and joy.
Jesus was God's invitation to new life, resurrected life, a God-centered life.
The story of The Passion continues. Now that we have heard the story, seen the movie, we are called to tell the story in our words, just as Mel Gibson told the story in words and images.
We now live again the story during this holy season of Lent. This issue of Together tells those stories of faith beginning with page one.
Lent is the opportune time to share our version of the story and share it from not only pews and pulpits, but from work benches, restaurants, office break rooms, backyard fences, on buses, in cars, wherever and to whomever God's Spirit leads us to share.
This Lent let us be the people who confess to our world open hearts, open minds and open doors as we celebrate again the life, passion and resurrection of our Lord. This Easter, plan now to bring someone to church. Bring someone to Christ. And pastors, this Easter give an invitation to Christian faith.
See the movie, hear the story, share The Passion.
Daniel R. Gangler
Last updated on 04/19/2004